Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien

Dear colleagues, dear students,

welcome to the summer semester 2025! We especially welcome all new employees and all new students.

We are offering an onboarding session for new employees on 11^th March, where you will get an overview of all central committees, departments and institutes and get to know the relevant contact persons. At the same time, the Student Welcome Center offers students various opportunities to get to know the Academy's structure and services.

In the summer semester, a number of central events are held to help us maintain a dialogue about the Middle East conflict and its impact on everyday life at the Academy. The opportunity to learn from those affected and to discuss the complexity of the situation together will take place this week on 6^th and 7^th March as part of keynote speeches, a Trialog and a workshop. All students and staff are invited and can register now. We will offer additional formats specifically for students and teachers in the near future.

We hope that the new government will take the situation that concerns the university (including the orientation towards responsible monitoring of major social transformation processes, evidence-based policies and the commitment to fundamental constitutional rights) seriously. Even though there is more reason for hope than there seemed to be temporarily. Nevertheless, the political situation in Austria and beyond remains challenging. This makes questions of science and art education all the more important in contexts where the conditions for this are not self-evident. Take the opportunity to represent the Academy's concerns - artistic positions and the prerequisites for their understanding, climate and diversity policy - in society as well.

In order to create a counter-piece to the general political situation (which is co-determined by the traditional rituals of right-wing conservative elites), the students of the Academy, the Angewandte and the mdw are organizing the first Academy Ball at our Atelierhaus. This will take place on 14^th March, the net proceeds will be donated.

We are pleased to inform you about new professorships: This semester, Alena Williams will start at IKW as Professor of Theory and Mediation of Contemporary Art. Cat Dawson also begins their work as Impulse Professor of Transgender Studies. At the IKA, we can introduce Susanne Brorson as the new Professor of Architectural Design. We will keep you informed about the new appointments currently in preparation at the IBK (Art and Intervention | Concept and Art and Time I Photography). A list of the new members of staff, all of whom we warmly welcome, can be found here.

This semester sees the launch of a new format, the Publishing Lab, which gives students and staff the opportunity to find out about the possibilities and prospects of publishing. The event ‘Meet the authors’ will kick off on March4^th, where colleagues with publishing experience will give a speech and are available for questions.

On March 6^th, the exhibition Wild Apollo’s Arrows. Klopstock Cult & Ossian Fever opens in both the Paintings Gallery and the Exhibit Gallery. The show is curated by Alexander Roob and includes works by students as contemporary statements.

Students and staff of the Academy and their accompaniment have free admission to the art collections.

The innovative artistic research project Weißer Fleck by IKA, INTK, and The Dusts Institute can be seen on the façade of a Gemeindebau in Heiligenstadt until June 1^st.

We would also like to draw your attention to the exhibition by Emma Hummerhielm Carlén in the Uniqa Tower, the Uniqa Art Prize exhibition can be seen until May 28^th free of charge.

We would like to congratulate our graduates Željka Aleksić, Minda Andren, Albin Bergström, Pauline Debrichy, Julia Goodman, Juliana Lindenhofer, and Michael Reindl on receiving the State Scholarship for Fine Arts, Leon Höllhumer on receiving the State Scholarship for Media, Lisa Penz on receiving the State Scholarship for Architecture and Esra Özmen on receiving the City of Vienna Promotion Award!

These great successes make us very keen to start the new semester - our heartfelt thanks goes to all the students and staff who make the Academy such an inspired place to study!

We wish you a great start to the semester!

Johan Hartle - Ingeborg Erhart - Werner Skvara