Study Center for Persecuted Arts
How does art react to violence, exclusion and social trauma? Who decides which artists find their way into art history – and which fall into oblivion? How did science, museums and artistic avant-gardes deal with National Socialism and the Holocaust after 1945?
From January 2027, the Center for Persecuted Arts will expand its work to include a study center in Solingen-Gräfrath. This is where scientific research, university teaching and artistic practice come together. Students and researchers work with original works, historical sources and collections. In seminars, exhibitions and open event formats, they examine the history of persecuted art and question traditional art historical interpretations.
A particular research focus is on the post-war avant-garde. From the winter semester of 2027/28, the focus will be on the Fluxus movement that emerged in the Rhineland and the American NO!art. Both developed different, sometimes radical forms of artistic contradiction against social conventions, political conditions and the repression of the National Socialist past. Her works open up new perspectives on the relationship between art, history and social responsibility.
Art cannot undo history. But it can make its traces visible, question certainties and enable new forms of debate. The study center therefore also sees itself as a place where the future of the culture of remembrance and the meaning of artistic freedom for a democratic society are researched and discussed.
Museum and University
The Study Center bridges academic work at universities and art academies with the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and research resources. Students, master-class students, and doctoral candidates are granted access to original artworks, archival materials, and historical sources. Scholarly inquiries serve as the foundation for research projects, exhibitions, and artistic endeavors.
The collaboration is interdisciplinary in nature. Fields such as art history, history, provenance research, literary studies, political and media studies, and museum education engage in an exchange with the visual arts. In this process, established art-historical narratives are critically examined, and artistic positions that have previously received little attention are brought to light.
The Study Center builds upon an international network that has developed over many years. Its academic and research partners include Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf; the University of Osnabrück, with its Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS); the University of Cologne; and the University of Bonn. Furthermore, it maintains collaborations with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the documenta archiv, the Museo Vostell Malpartida, as well as the Bunkier Sztuki and the International Cultural Centre (ICC) in Kraków.
The objective is a long-term partnership in which scholarly insights do not merely culminate in publications, but also manifest in exhibitions, artistic projects, and public discourse.
Program 2027
The first year of the program demonstrates the close connection between academic research, teaching, and public exhibitions at the Study Center. It opens on January 24, 2027, with the exhibition "Kichka. Life is a Cartoon," featuring original drawings by the Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka. The exhibition, running until May 9, 2027, is accompanied by a workshop, a colloquium, and the student prize "Rethinking Memory."
In the summer semester of 2027, research and exhibition projects will focus on the artists Georg Netzband and Jack Osterroth. The seminar on Netzband at the University of Osnabrück (April 5 to July 10, 2027) will culminate in an exhibition in the fall. Starting in the winter semester of 2027/28, a seminar at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf will examine the Fluxus movement and its socio-critical and art-critical positions.
The program combines historical research with current questions concerning art and memory. It invites students to develop their own perspectives and to present scholarly findings for public discussion.
“Continuing to Reflect on Remembrance” Student Prize
How should we commemorate the Holocaust and other National Socialist crimes in the future? Which stories have not been told enough? And what new forms of remembrance do we need? The Centre for Persecuted Arts invites students from the universities affiliated with its study centre to develop their own answers. Whether in the form of an academic paper, a work of art, a film, a photograph, a podcast, a comic, or a digital project—what matters is an original perspective, a compelling concept, and a responsible approach to history. An independent jury will award three prizes: a main prize of 2,000 euros and two additional prizes of 500 euros each.
Call for submissions: November 9, 2026
Workshop: January 25, 2027
Online colloquium: February 2027
Submission deadline: April 19, 2027
Announcement of the awards: May 9, 2027
Recognition of academic credits
The courses offered by the study center are integrated into the academic programs of the cooperating universities and higher education institutions. In accordance with the respective study and examination regulations, students can earn ECTS credits and have them recognized toward their degrees. The regulations of the relevant higher education institution are authoritative.
Research Traineeship at Art Museums in North Rhine-Westphalia
The Centre for Persecuted Arts participates in the "Research Traineeship for Art Museums in North Rhine-Westphalia" (Forschungsvolontariat Kunstmuseen NRW). The program combines professional academic training for early-career specialists with research into art and artists who were persecuted, marginalized, or forced into exile by the Nazi regime. The research traineeship is integrated into the Centre’s study division and offers the opportunity to directly link academic research with museum practice.
Research meets artistic practice
What happens when historical research meets contemporary art? What occurs when artists engage with historical sources, archival materials, and scholarly findings to develop their own lines of inquiry? The Study Center brings together students of the visual arts with researchers from various disciplines, as well as with archives and museums. Historical documents, artworks, and academic insights serve as the starting point for new artistic explorations. Performances, installations, films, and experimental exhibition formats open up perspectives on history that transcend purely scholarly descriptions. They can reveal gaps in the historical record, challenge established interpretations, and examine how historical experiences continue to resonate in the present day.
In this process, art does not merely illustrate historical research; rather, it generates its own questions, modes of expression, and ways of gaining knowledge. While scholarly analysis and artistic practice follow different methodologies, they can challenge one another and foster new insights. The Study Center provides a space for such encounters—facilitating collaborative research projects, artistic experiments, and public discussions on history, memory, and social responsibility. Furthermore, digital and AI-driven applications offer additional avenues for accessing historical sources, examining artworks, and making research findings more widely available.
A new place for research and encounter
The Study Center will open on January 24, 2027, in the former branch of the Stadt-Sparkasse Solingen bank, located at Gerberstraße 30 in Solingen-Gräfrath. The former bank building is thus taking on a new public purpose: where banking transactions once took place, there will now be spaces for research, art, and social engagement.
The former banking hall is being transformed into an exhibition and event space. Former consultation rooms will provide space for seminars, academic working groups, and a library. The former vault rooms will house artworks from the collection of the Civic Foundation for Persecuted Arts (Bürgerstiftung für verfolgte Künste).
Study Center for Persecuted Arts
Gerberstraße 30
42653 Solingen-Gräfrath
info@verfolgte-kuenste.de
The Study Center is accessible by appointment, Tuesday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Please ring the bell at the entrance. There are currently no regularly scheduled public museum opening hours. Information regarding events and additional opening dates will be provided on our website, via social media, and through the press.
A project of the Center for Persecuted Arts, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
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