Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank

In the location's words:

With the KUNSTFORUM Foundation of Berliner Volksbank gemeinnützige GmbH, Berliner Volksbank eG primarily promotes art and cultural activities in the Berlin-Brandenburg region that are intended to inspire and excite art enthusiasts, customers and employees.
Founded in the fall of 2007, Berliner Volksbank eG has since united its art and cultural sponsorship under this umbrella. In terms of content, this is based on three pillars:

• Berliner Volksbank Art Forum Foundation
• Workshop for creative people
• Berliner Volksbank art collection

Berliner Volksbank Art Forum Foundation

The exhibition venue Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank at Lietzenseepark is modern and contemporary. The focus is on the presentation of art from the bank's own collection from various art-historical perspectives.

For example, the Berlin artists Harald Metzkes and Hans Laabs were honored with solo exhibitions and the exhibition Zeitenwende ("Turning Point") brought together works of art on the theme of "East-West" to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. New beginnings. Demolitions. Upheavals. Kunst in Ost- Berlin 1985 - 1995, MENSCHENBILD - der expressionistische Blick and SchlagLicht were successful projects created in collaboration with regional and national partners.

The exhibition hall Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank initially existed since 1985 at Budapester Strasse 35 as an art forum of GrundkreditBank on the first floor of the former headquarters of the cooperative financial institution. After the merger with Berliner Volksbank, it operated under the name Kunstforum der Berliner Volksbank. In 2018, it moved to Kaiserdamm 105 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In 2021, the exhibition venue was renamed Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank.

Since mid-2021, additional rooms have been added on the 1st floor, which have been connected to the previous rooms on the first floor. The significant increase in exhibition space offers even better conditions for cooperation between the Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank Foundation and regional, national and international partners.

Workshop for creative people

With the "Workshop for Creative Minds" launched in summer 2005, the KUNSTFORUM Foundation of Berliner Volksbank gGmbH is one of the pioneers in the segment of educational programs for children and young people in Berlin. The interactive, age-differentiated tours and workshops for school classes in particular have been and continue to be very well received. Since its foundation, almost 60,000 children and young people from Berlin and Brandenburg have taken part in the workshops, most of which are free of charge.

Accompanying the exhibitions at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank, children and young people learn artistic techniques such as drawing, watercolor, drypoint, collage, printing and modeling under the expert guidance of museum educators.

In addition, the creative workshop also offers external educational programs, such as during the "IGA Berlin 2017" and "FEZitty". It also regularly takes part in vacation activities such as "kids kreativ" and "KinderKulturMonat".

Art collection of the Berliner Volksbank

The original leitmotif "Pictures of People - Pictures for People", later supplemented by "Berlin Cityscapes", still forms the conceptual basis for Berliner Volksbank's art collection, which was founded in 1985.

When GrundkreditBank eG - Köpenicker Bank and Berliner Volksbank merged in 1999, the institutions' art collections were also brought together. This resulted in a unique collection ensemble. The concept formulated in 1985 led to a concentration in the first few years on primarily realistic artistic positions in German post-war art. The focus was on artists from Berlin and East Germany - an orientation that was considered a visionary collection policy in West Berlin in the mid-1980s.

In the meantime, the ratio of East and West German art in the collection has been balanced. This now offers the opportunity to compare the artistic work of the art scenes of Berlin and neighboring regions in East and West before the political change and afterwards by older and younger generations in an extraordinary collection context.

The collection currently contains more than 1,500 works by around 200 artists with a strong profile of representational German art after 1950. From an art-historical and cultural-political perspective, this is an important collection, as it reflects developments in art history.
collection, as it reflects developments in art in Germany over the past seven decades. The collection includes paintings and sculptures as well as works on paper.

In addition, the KUNSTFORUM Foundation of Berliner Volksbank gGmbH looks after around 200 other works of art that are not part of the core art collection.