Dresdner Kunstverein e.V. awarded the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Prize for Art Associations 2025

With this year's award, the jury honours the engagement of the Kunstverein Dresden, founded in 2017, which brings a variety of ambitious artistic positions into a dialogue with current societal themes and promotes values like empathy, cultural diversity, joy in experimentation and ecological responsibility.

The exhibitions of the art association reflect themes like identity, coexistence, the relationship between nature and human beings and political responsibility. The Kunstverein Dresden brings artistic positions often being shown in Germany for the first time into a local context, thus linking international perspectives with regional questions and contexts. This depth of content is complemented by art education going beyond classic guided tours: discussion formats, readings, workshops and participatory projects enable a variety of points of access to art and stimulate involvement and the formation of differentiated opinions. Through cooperation with initiatives on location, platforms for exchange and participation come into being that address a broad audience that is also not always very familiar with art.

The jury emphasises that the association sees itself as a platform for interdisciplinary encounters. Through the close cooperation with artists, activists, curators and academics, sustainable networks are formed that have an impact both locally and nationally. The association clearly positions itself as a force for openness, dialogue and democratic participation and creates spaces for critical thinking and joint action with its engagement. Through the quality of its programme, its societal relevance and its joy in experimentation, the association contributes substantially to the vitality of the German art association landscape and at the same time provides a cultural-political signpost for the future.

Members of the jury in 2025 were: Linhan Balabat-Helbock (Co-Director of Savvy Contemporary, Berlin), Amely Deiss (Head of the Kunstpalais and the Städtische Sammlung, Erlangen), Daniel Herrmann, (Artistic Director of Werkleitz Gesellschaft e.V., Halle), Kathrin Meyer (Director of Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg) and Katharina Ritter (Artistic Director of Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken).

The prize has been awarded since 2006 by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine (ADKV) in cooperation with ART COLOGNE and is endowed with 8,000 Euro. It is the only nationally awarded prize for art associations and honours the exemplary work and engagement of the 308 art associations distributed throughout Germany. This engagement was included in 2021 in the national UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

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