Volkswagen Marks One-Year Milestone of Art4All Initiative, Providing Free Access to Neue Nationalgalerie

Volkswagen Marks One-Year Milestone of Art4All Initiative, Providing Free Access to Neue Nationalgalerie

(IN BRIEF) Volkswagen celebrates one year of its Volkswagen Group Art4All initiative, which offers free access to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin every Thursday between 4 and 8 p.m. The initiative aims to make art and culture accessible to a wide audience, with around 70,000 visitors participating in the weekly programs in 2023. Volkswagen has been partnering with cultural institutions like the Neue Nationalgalerie since 2018 to promote cultural diversity and participation.

(PRESS RELEASE) BERLIN, 11-Jan-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Exploring and experiencing art during free visits of exhibitions, free tours or free concerts. Since January 2023, guests of the Neue Nationalgalerie have been able to enjoy all this during the Volkswagen Group Art4All afternoons every Thursday. On last year’s 52 Volkswagen Group Art4All afternoons around 70,000 people visited the museum whose collections and changing exhibitions rank it among the world’s most influential institutions for modern art.

Volkswagen’s international cultural engagement work is driven by the commitment to make the world of culture and the arts accessible for a wide-ranging audience. The approach is reflected in the Volkswagen Group Art4All format which the Group launched together with Berlin-based Neue Nationalgalerie about one year ago. Every Thursday between 4 and 8 p.m., the weekly program, which also offers talks and tours with art experts, is available to all visitors of the museum. In summer 2023, guests of the Volkswagen Group Art4All afternoons were also given the chance to join the free “Sound in the Garden” concerts. During July and August, the Neue Nationalgalerie turned their Sculpture Garden into a live stage for inspiring new artists from different parts of the world.

In 2018, Volkswagen initiated the first Volkswagen Group Art4All program in close collaboration with the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. Since then, Volkswagen and its cultural partners have helped the format to continuously grow. In recognition of its efforts for the program, Volkswagen received the Corporate Art Award in 2018 followed by the presentation of the AKF Award through the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries e. V. in 2020. Further to regular Volkswagen Group Art4All programs at Hamburger Bahnhof and Neue Nationalgalerie, the initiative has also become part of the scheduled program of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Volkswagen Group Art4All projects were also realized in the framework of cultural partnerships with documenta fifteen, the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice and the Cindy Sherman Exhibition, which is currently on display in Hamburg.

Looking back on one year of weekly Volkswagen Group Art4All afternoons, Klaus Biesenbach, Director of Neue Nationalgalerie, comments: “There is no such place like Neue Nationalgalerie to engage with modern art. And we are clearly committed to let as many people as possible enjoy this experience. Volkswagen shares this goal with us and is therefore a great partner to make our museum not only a home for art but for everyone.”

Benita von Maltzahn, Director Cultural Engagement at Volkswagen Group adds: “Empowering the society starts with empowering culture. We need opportunities to explore creativity and engage with it. And that is why we assume responsibility and team up with our partners to create formats that provide many people with chances to participate in cultural life.”

The Volkswagen Group supports the institutions belonging to the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as a dedicated partner for more than a decade. Among the very first partnership projects was Volkswagen’s support for the exhibition “K.O. Götz” shown from December 2013 until March 2014 at the Neue Nationalgalerie. The following years saw a number of collbaborations on the occasions of exceptional exhibitions, education initiatives and groundbreaking audience engagement formats, such as the 2015 live concert series featuring “Kraftwerk” at the Neue Nationalgalerie as well as public festivals at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in 2017 and 2023. The partnership is a key element of Volkswagen’s wide-ranging engagement for culture and the arts. It underlines the Group’s corporate social responsibility and aims to help a variety of cultural ideas and practices to unfold along with cultural participation for as many people as possible. With this work, Volkswagen brings visibility to artistic works and perspectives and establishes creative platforms for debating social developments and possible solutions.

Media Contact:

Rita Werneyer
Volkswagen Group Communications  Spokesperson Cultural Communications
+49 (0) 5361 9-79110
rita.werneyer@volkswagen.de

SOURCE: Volkswagen Group