Season start celebrates 30th anniversary
The group photo for the 30th anniversary edition of the Frankfurt Art Experience brought together (from left to right) project manager Oliver Kremershof, artist Friederike Walter, Head of Cultural Affairs Dr. Ina Hartwig, gallery owner Christina Veit, art historian Dr. Britta von Campenhausen, gallery owner Dr. Peter Sillem and gallery owner Kirsten Leuenroth. Photo © Paul Kremershof - Urban Media Project
From September 6 to 8, the start of the Frankfurt Galleries season celebrates its 30th anniversary. 38 galleries and 15 offspaces will open their doors over the entire weekend to present their diverse artistic program. Painting and photography are particularly well represented, as are sculpture, video art and performance.
The fact that the annual gallery weekend is celebrating a milestone birthday with a steadily growing number of participants - currently over 50 galleries and off-spaces - is a good reason to celebrate. The gallery weekend has long been a highlight in Frankfurt's cultural calendar and shapes the cityscape when around 10,000 art enthusiasts visit the city from morning to evening. The City of Frankfurt is supporting the anniversary year of the start of the season as part of the Frankfurt Art Experience with 50,000 euros.
Head of Cultural Affairs Dr. Ina Hartwig congratulates on this anniversary: "This milestone birthday impressively illustrates how mature the interaction between academies, studios, galleries and offspaces in Frankfurt has become. Over the years, an image of our gallery landscape has been consolidated that is more than the sum of its parts - and that is also perceived outside our region. We are therefore not only celebrating 30 years of the start of the season, but are also looking forward with anticipation and confidence to the exciting developments that the future holds for art production and mediation in our city."
Gallery owner Anita Beckers, who has had her gallery in Frankfurt for over 20 years, is delighted with the city's commitment: "I am very grateful for the city's support for the start of the season and the associated appreciation for the galleries. In a city as rich in culture as Frankfurt, it is only through sustained and continuous cooperation that the galleries' offerings can contribute to an increase in visitor interest. The experiences of recent years have demonstrably proven this."
This year, the offer has been expanded again and includes 18 Art Walks in two rounds, which have enjoyed great popularity for years. They are conducted in German and English, and art lovers can join the guided tours through the city center, Ostend, Sachsenhausen, Bahnhofsviertel, Westend or Nordend. It is the countless stories and biographies, art discoveries in public spaces and encounters with gallery owners and artists that make the Art Walks a memorable experience for participants.
In 2019, art collector Tyrown Vincent initiated the first Frankfurt Art Experience with the Urban Media Project location agency, which included the 25th season launch of Frankfurt's galleries. Since then, the aim has been to give new impetus to Frankfurt's internal and external image as a city of art with innovative formats and continuous optimization. Growing visitor numbers and media coverage show that the gallery location benefits from this in the long term. In 2022, the "Interessensgemeinschaft Galerien Frankfurt" dissolved. Since then, 28 galleries have been communicatively represented by Urban Media Project, which is responsible for the frankfurtexperience.art and galerien-frankfurt.de projects.
