Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden
Guiding Principles /
Committed and consistent, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, as a center for contemporary art in Wiesbaden, shows exciting contemporary art and offers young, yet unestablished artists and cultural workers an experimentation field and the first stepping stone to professional careers.
One focus of our exhibition activities is the promotion of young, experimental art from Germany and abroad. Both in cooperation with the Kunstverein team, as well as with occasional guest curators, we offer young artists a platform for initial curatorial practice.
Aware of the cultural history of Wiesbaden, we promote with the annual and worldwide scholarship “Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus” artists whose work builds on the ideas of the international art movement Fluxus founded in 1962 in Wiesbaden.
Our exhibitions are divided into an extensive offer of mediation with guided tours, discussions, and artist talks. In addition, we organize art trips to important exhibitions at home and abroad for our members. Partly in cooperation with other institutions, we also realize interdisciplinary events such as theater, film and children's programs.
Short History of the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden /
Founded by town citizens in the Duchy of Nassau as a "Society of Friends of the Fine Arts" in 1847, we have been one of the art and cultural institutions of the Hessian capital for more than 170 years. The first permanent exhibition was established in the library’s art gallery which was then housed in the Erbprinzenpalais: "with older and newer works of art by German and foreign artists ", as stated in the protocol.
Within a short time, the Nassauischer Kunstverein became the largest, in terms of members, and most popular private society in the city. In 1850, the society was entrusted with the task of managing the State Art Collection - only in 1899, this task was transferred to the city - but lacked its own rooms.
Only after the Museum Wiesbaden was handed over by the city to the state, the first step of the already formulated aspiration to find their own exhibition space for the Nassauischer Kunstverein was fulfilled: In 1979, we moved into our headquarters in Wilhelmstraße 15, Wiesbaden’s "Boulevard”, in a spacious three-floor old villa with around 350 m² of exhibition space.
With the conclusion of the leasehold in the spring of 2007, the building was handed over to us for 66 years, which is the highest recognition recorded in our history, after the Cultural Award of the City of Wiesbaden in 1994.
In addition to the scholarship "Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus", the most highly endowed Wiesbaden scholarship launched in 2008 by the state capital Wiesbaden and the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, the Kunstverein has been awarding the WorkArt Kunstverein Fellowship in cooperation with the art academies of the Universities of Minnesota to American art students. There is close cooperation with the art colleges in the region as well. The Kunstverein is also a longtime partner of the B3 Biennale of the Moving Image, the RAY Photography Projects Frankfurt / Rhein-Main and the exground filmfest.
We are constantly expanding our educational program, especially close to our hearts are our current and free children and family programs "kids inSIDE" and "Wilhelms Wanne", with which we want to make culture accessible to a diverse group of people of all ages.
With the project "Here! And now?" started in 2017 we support refugee artists of all genres to continue their professional work in the Rhein-Main region and beyond and provide them with a new network.
The Nassauischer Kunstverein is a member of the Arbeitskreis Stadtkultur, the Kulturinitiative RheinMain and the ADKV, the Association of German Art Associations and was nominated for the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Associations in 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2017 as the best Kunstverein in Germany.
