Urban Nation museum opening

The world’s 1st street art museum opens in Berlin

[Info]

Well, officially it’s a Museum for Urban Contemporary Art, but noone looks for that on Google, so we thought this tiny inaccuracy might be excused.

After nearly four years of preparations and dozens of amazing, inspiring murals, this Saturday (September 16th 2017) Urban Nation Museum for Contemporary Urban Art finally opens its doors for the public with a show of more than 100 pieces by famous and not-so-famous artists from Berlin and all over the world. We were lucky enough to be invited for today’s press conference and thus can give you an exclusive preview on the exhibition.

Urban Nation Museum as an initiative is the brainchild of Yasha Young, as a curator and gallerist she played a vital role in making urban art socially acceptable among art-folks. She made clear, that Urban Nation is much more than just a museum for stuff that some say should stay where it belongs – on the street. A big part of the whole concept is of a social nature. The museum’s location in a mixed Schöneberg neighbourhood offers huge possibilities to involve the locals. Already Urban Nation is offering programs for students and educators. One of the main backers is Gewobag and their foundation “Berliner Leben”. They’re not only providing the location, a beautiful turn-of-the-century classic building, that has been remodelled by Graft architects, but paying a share of the running costs. Another big supporter is the Lotto foundation. Hopefully this will enable Urban Nation to expand their educational programs and realise the artists residencies they want to set up in the near future.

Of course there are a lot of street artist who think their art should under no circumstances be in a museum. For crews like the Berlin Kidz the illegality of grafitti is an essential part of what they’re doing, but in the end everybody has to pay rent, right? So why not, give established and upcoming artist exposure and recognition? What I find really interesting and disarming in this context ist Urban Nation’s One Wall Project, with which they extend the museum over the whole city. In the last years Bülowstraße has already been transformed by them and I think exciting things will happen when you let these cultures clash and collaborate. I really hope Yasha Young and her team will be able to bridge this gap without selling out, although I never properly understood that criticism.

Info Urban Nation Museum

https://urban-nation.com/
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Bülowstraße 7, 10783 Berlin

Opening hours Tue-Sun 10:00 – 18:00