Save the Date: art KARLSRUHE 2022

Project manager Olga Blaß explains: “We have already received a very large number of applications this year and we are delighted that so many galleries would like to exhibit at art KARLSRUHE, either as returning participants or for the first time. As always, new applicants are very welcome to apply.” Curator Ewald Karl Schrade adds: “The popularity of our art fair remains as strong as ever. After such a long time during which direct encounters with art were either not possible at all or possible only to a very limited extent, everyone is looking forward to personal sharing and to being able to experience art up close again.” Under the leadership of curator Ewald Karl Schrade and fair director Britta Wirtz, the seven-member advisory board met in mid-October to choose the exhibiting galleries.

Galleries can benefit from support programme

The cultural and creative industries have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Gallery owners have had to cope with enormous losses in turnover over the past year and a half. The federal government’s rescue package supports galleries with the “Neustart Kultur” funding programme. Within the framework of this programme, participation in fairs is also eligible for funding, so galleries can benefit from low-cost participation in art KARLSRUHE. Exhibitors can look forward to discounts in the cost of stand rental which were made possible by the Neustart Kultur funding programme. This eases the burden on galleries participating in the fair gives them an opportunity to boost their business again – without having to take a possible financial risk.

Transformation process art KARLSRUHE

art KARLSRUHE is not only blazing new trails in the area of cultural promotion. The management of the art fair is also undergoing a transformation process. Ewald Karl Schrade, the fair’s longstanding curator and founder, will pass the baton of managing the fair into new and proven hands after the twentieth edition of art KARLSRUHE in 2023. Until then, Ewald Karl Schrade and Britta Wirtz, the managing director of Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre, will jointly shape the transformation process that has now been initiated and will redefine the management of the art fair in the future.

Ewald Karl Schrade has directed art KARLSRUHE as its curator and project manager since 2004. Under his leadership, the event has achieved widespread recognition and acceptance in the art market. Already in 2017, Olga Blaß took on the role of project manager for the fair in close coordination with its curator. The future concept, which has now been collaboratively defined, gradually transfers Ewald Karl Schrade’s responsibilities into the hands of a team of external artistic directors and a director from Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre, who works as a peer with the extramural directors.

The search for an external artistic director will begin after art KARLSRUHE 2022. This person’s experience and overview of the external market will augment the know-how of the team from Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre after the 2023 event.

Hans Platschek Prize to be awarded in Karlsruhe again in 2022

The renowned Hans Platschek Prize for Art and Writing has been awarded annually at art KARLSRUHE since 2008. The fair could not take place as usual in February 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the award ceremony was held at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, where the painter Monika Baer was honoured as this year’s winner of the Hans Platschek Prize. An annually changing independent juror determines who will receive the award for the current year. Christina Végh, director of the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, was the sole juror and thus also the laudator in 2021. Previous winners of the Platschek Prize include Jonathan Meese, Monica Bonvicini, Michael Kunze and Helga Schmidhuber (2020). The Hans Platschek Foundation Prize will again be awarded at art KARLSRUHE in 2022.