"Berlin Art Week actually already happens 52 times a year," points out Moritz van Dülmen, the cheerful CEO of Kulturprojekte Berlin, the organization behind the event.

This is something of an understatement. Berlin's rambunctious art  world continues to attract artists and art lovers from around the world, people who are enticed by the city's quixotic allure and more prosaically, the legendary cheap rents and ample exhibition space. And as events such as the annual Gallery Weekend continue to demonstrate, there is no shortage of people wanting to absorb the city's culture.

But with the start of the second annual Berlin Art Week on Tuesday, the scene is shifting into overdrive for what van Dülmen calls an "extra-special week, absolutely devoted to art." A state-driven initiative, co-funded by the Berlin Senate's Administration for Economics, Technology and Research, the city's Chancellery for Cultural Affairs and Deutsche Bank, the event cleverly harnesses the usual September buzz generated by the simultaneous openings of Art Berlin Contemporary (ABC) and Preview Berlin art fairs. With its own ambitious program featuring new gallery exhibitions, parties, talks, projects and presentations -- it also unites many of the disparate elements that form Berlin's art world. Given the fragmented, often chaotic character of the city's cultural front, this is no mean feat.

Berlin Art Week's strategy is an unprecedented, all-embracing approach across the city's creative spectrum. The flagship event brings four major institutions -- the Berlin State Museums, Berlinische Galerie, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art -- together for the first time, to present the exhibition "Painting Forever!" The show, spread over the four venues, presents over 100 painters, ranging from big names such as Martin Eder, Anselm Reyle and Franz Ackermann to lesser-known talents including Nader Ahriman and Matthew Antezzo, all arranged in a grand curatorial narrative that is bound by the city's illustrious art history.

Filling a Void

There is also a program of collaborative events with 11 "projects" around town, curated by a jury including journalist Claudia Wahjudi, former director of Cologne's Museum Ludwig, Kaspar König, and artist Monica Bonvicini, who between them have overseen the week's chosen "Project Rooms." This is where the Art Week has played an ace, ensuring that much-loved smaller venues all get a share of the support and ultimately, the spotlight. There will also be awards -- the "Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst," given to young artists working in Germany, and an award from the Senate Chancellery for Cultural Affairs for "artistic projects and initiatives in the realm of fine art." And in the background, major exhibitions are opening at partner institutions across the city.

"Berlin Art Week is for Berliners and also guests," says van Dülmen. "We're trying to follow in the footsteps of the former Art Forum, holding this date in the international art calendar and getting collectors to Berlin. But it's very important to promote Berlin's special art scene to all people."

The seeds of Berlin Art Week were sown with the demise of the city's "official" art fair, the Art Forum, in 2011. Riven with internal wrangling and an ongoing lack of any serious collector base in the city, the fair collapsed, leaving a void reluctantly filled by ABC and Preview art fairs, both of which expanded rapidly, in their individual ways, to step into the breach.

A few missteps on the part of the city followed in the confused aftermath of Art Forum's implosion. Probably the most notable was "Based in Berlin," which was also administered by van Dülmen's Kulturprojekte. An inchoate and controversial semi-biennale in 2011, it was intended with naive optimism by city officials to provide a platform for expression ahead of the opening of a Berlin Kunsthalle art exhibition center, which never happened. The failure of the €1.6 million ($2.14 million) Based in Berlin project -- partly attributed at the time to the fact that so few of its figureheads actually were -- prompted the debate that would eventually springboard into Berlin Art Week. The factionalized Berlin art scene was embroiled in a fierce discussion about what to do next and specifically, how contemporary artists in the city could see a bit more of the estimated €1 billion ($1.3 billion) in annual state and federal culture  spending, most of which is channeled into high-profile theatre, opera and museums.

Fighting for Art

The debate over art funding  is never far from any discussion over Berlin's art future, as city officials realized last year when the "K2" summit of representatives from across the art spectrum was assembled to give their perspectives to the Berlin Chancellery of Cultural Affairs. Berlin  artist, curator and critic Thomas Eller, who has worked in institutional administration, reiterates that point today.

"Berlin Art Week, in principle, is a good idea. Pooling resources and talent never hurts! People in cities like London have been doing this for a long time," he says. "Any money that Berlin spends on supporting the distribution of art on a local, national and international level is money spent wisely." But this still isn't enough, he adds, saying that more strategic thinking is needed by cultural politicians. "Like many others I feel that what Berlin has right now could just go away if the situation stays as destitute as it is right now for most participants in the art world."

For Berlin Art Week, the all-important funding and support means that partnering institutions can begin to move forward and develop programs unhindered by the specter of limited budgets and grants. And this focus on sustainability is key, says van Dülmen, who also suggests that the failed Based in Berlin might also serve as a "PR campaign" to entice collectors and investors to resurrect a new incarnation of a city art fair in the future. Attracting investment is one of Berlin Art Week's key aims, in fact. "We've invited them. Now we are just hoping they come!" he says of investors.

"Berlin Art Week is a sustainable version of the Based in Berlin campaign," van Dülmen adds. "It is a good direction and there should and could be more [funding] next year. But if we are to have success with Art Week, all the people involved, from the small project room up to the National Gallery have the same task -- to fight for the art."