Hanns Koren Culture Prize 2025

The Hanns Koren Cultural Prize of the Province of Styria is awarded in recognition of cultural achievements. The prize may be awarded to individuals or groups who, through their creative ideas, have made exemplary and exceptional contributions to cultural life in Styria, whether in the fields of education, academic research, the arts, or environmental design.

Reason:

Since its founding in 2008, Schaumbad has consistently been one thing: a place of many things.
A studio, exhibition space, and vibrant hub for ideas. An interdisciplinary workshop and multifaceted stage. It is a cultural quarter, a testing ground, and a meeting place. And, in many ways, a creative haven and springboard.

Initiated and established by Daniel Bergmayr, Isabel Espinoza, Eva Ursprung, Kathrin Velik, and Markus Wilfling in Graz’s former “Bäderparadies,” Schaumbad relocated in 2013 to an old factory site on Puchstraße. At the reopening, Walter Titz dubbed Schaumbad the “Halle der Möglichkeiten” (Hall of Possibilities). Under the current direction of Marleen Leitner, the site serves as a home for visual arts, performance, and discourse, as well as the state’s artist-in-residence program, collaborations with festivals and associations, and neighborhood initiatives between the public housing complexes and industrial enterprises of the Triester district.

With its workshops, studios, event spaces, and various projects, Schaumbad is a hub for collective cultural creation and accessible cultural education, as well as a platform and an opportunity. Young talents from Germany and abroad come together with established artists, and local residents meet international guests.

The Schaumbad reaches out to the city, the countryside, and the world. And the world reaches into the Schaumbad. Time and again, the focus is on questions of collaboration, cohesion, and coexistence. Sometimes, too, on creative survival.

In keeping with the spirit of Hanns Koren’s philosophy, Schaumbad promotes diversity, breadth, and depth, prioritizing what unites us over what divides us.

(Andreas Prückler)