Project management, MAK: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head, MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection/Archive; Project assistant: Aline Müller
Sustainable protection and promotion of Art Nouveau heritage in the Danube Region
The focus of this EU project (1 January 2017 – 30 June 2019) has been the Art Nouveau architecture of the Danube region. In the course of the last two-and-a-half years, through numerous activities and events we have succeeded in bringing the region’s hitherto little-known Art Nouveau heritage to the attention of a broad public. The project explored four major topics: urban planning, conservation issues, restoration measures, and the digital agenda. As one of nine participating institutions from all over Europe, the MAK thus had the opportunity of conducting a broad expert survey of its valuable and extensive holdings from this artistic period.
The results have been presented to the public via two digital tools: the architecture databank Art Nouveau Danubeand the web app mobile Art Nouveau Danube. Thus in Vienna the works of architects Otto Prutscher, Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Strnad, Karl Bräuer, Josef Frank, and the Werkstatt Niedermoser, among others—architects whose legacy has been completely reprocessed and digitalized within the framework of ART NOUVEAU DANUBE—can be explored. The book OTTO PRUTSCHER: Universal Designer of Viennese Modernism, published as part of this project, offers insights into the many-faceted oeuvre of this artist.
A main goal of this initiative has been to encourage knowledge transfer between the partner countries and to lay the foundations for a communal network of experts—a network intended to remain in place after the project’s completion. This goal has been achieved, amongst other things through the establishment of a communally developed experts’ databank, as well as discipline-specific training programs. In Austria, these have been realized in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Monuments Office.
As Austrian partner, the MAK plays a central role in bundling and disseminating the project’s results, thus taking an active part in protecting and sustainably promoting the legacy of art nouveau in the Danube region.
Project management, MAK: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head, MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection/Archive Project assistant: Aline Müller
As one of the oldest museum libraries in the world focusing on the applied arts, since its foundation in 1863 the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection has constituted the heart of the museum.