January 18, 2016
Source: ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting)
German Original: Rekord für Jüdisches Museum: 118.000 Besucher
Photo: Jewish Museum Vienna/ Gansrigler
The Jewish Museum Vienna celebrated a record last year: 118,000 visitors at both locations marked a high point and exceeded 2014 visits by three percent, the museum informed on Monday.
The exhibition “Ringstrasse. A Jewish Boulevard” at Palais Eskeles was particularly successful and attracted more than 56,000 visitors. At the Museum on Judenplatz, more than 15,000 visitors did not miss out on the exhibition “Lessing shoes Lessing,” for which Hannah Lessing had selected photographs by her father, Erich. The museum was also delighted by the “unbowed interest in the museum’s educational offers and events, which were attended by more than 11,000 people.”
Ultimately, the proceeds from admission could be increased by six percent during the past year. “I hope that we can keep this high level in 2016, since we have to deal with a reduction in subsidies from the City of Vienna, which should not be at the expense of our ambitious exhibition program ,“ said the director of the museum, Danielle Spera.
“Stars of David” and Vienna Synagogues
The new year will, among other things, bring an encounter with “outstanding Jewish musicians” (“Stars of David”, starting on April 13), encompassing all genres, from film scores to Jazz, and avant-garde to pop. The focus is specifically on composers, musicians and producers from the 20th and 21st centuries. “The better half” is the title of the fall exhibition at Palais Eskeles (opening on October 19) that is dedicated to female Jewish artists in the male-dominated world of the fine and applied arts.
Those Viennese synagogues that were destroyed during the 1938 November pogroms are virtually brought back to life at the Museum Judenplatz beginning with May 18. And together with the Jewish Museum New York, the exhibition “Jewish by Love. Marilyn, Liz & Co.” (from November 30) was created, highlighting the entry of Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe into Judaism, seen from Andy Warhol’s perspective
Editor's Note:
Dr. Spera will be in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2016 to open the exhibit The Jewish Museum Vienna on International Court, which she co-curated.