Austrian Museum Award for the Sigmund Freud Museum
The renowned Sigmund Freud Museum has been awarded the Austrian Museum Prize 2023, Secretary of State for Art and Culture Andrea Mayer announced today. The award, which is endowed with 20,000 euros, is presented annually by the Museum Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service, and Sport for outstanding achievements in the field of museum work.
The museum is located in the former residence of Sigmund Freud, where he also had his practice. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / C.Stadler/Bwag / CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
The Sigmund Freud Museum, a place of remembrance and commemoration, received the award due to its extraordinary importance as a museum location of international appeal. State Secretary for Art and Culture Andrea Mayer emphasized that the museum is not only a place of mediation and inspiration, but also uses art as a means of making Sigmund Freud's extensive achievements and his impact visible. Mayer warmly congratulated Director Monika Pessler and her team on this significant award.
The jury for the Museum Award consisted of the Museum Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sports, consisting of Andrea Bina, Edith Hessenberger, Monika Holzer-Kernbichler, Nadja Al Masri-Gutternig, Niko Wahl. The official award ceremony will take place as part of the Austrian Museum Day on October 12 in Hohenems.
In its statement, the jury emphasized the contemporary exhibition design, which subtly establishes a reference to the present. Visitors feel like guests, not voyeurs, and yet are very close to the stories being told. Stimulating texts are combined with objects, photographs, letters, first editions, memorabilia, and furniture that refer to the famous resident and his family. Visitors are fully informed without being lectured. The ordination of Sigmund Freud is shown, but not as a reconstructed room, but with a prominent blank space that keeps the darkest chapter of history present. The ordination of Anna Freud and her private rooms also find appropriate space. The Sigmund Freud Museum communicates with the public on multiple levels, including the use of art, the development of which was significantly influenced by Freud's insights. Various levels of mediation are used to tell the story of Sigmund Freud, his family, the house, and psychoanalysis to a scientific audience, but also to make it accessible to a wider public.
Sigmund Freud Worked at the Museum
The Sigmund Freud Museum, founded in 1971, is located at Berggasse 19 in Vienna and is a major cultural and historical highlight of the city. It is the place where Sigmund Freud spent 47 years of his life and developed groundbreaking theories of psychoanalysis. The museum offers visitors the opportunity to gain insight into the personal and professional life of the famous psychoanalyst.
The exhibition at the Sigmund Freud Museum includes the Freud family's private rooms, lovingly restored and presented. Visitors can enter the rooms where Freud received his patients and wrote his groundbreaking writings. It is a fascinating experience to immerse yourself in the world of Sigmund Freud and feel the atmosphere of his time.
In addition, the museum conveys not only the biography of Sigmund Freud but also the history of psychoanalysis and its impact on modern psychology. Through a careful selection of exhibits, texts, photographs, and audiovisual media, Freud's work is vividly presented and made accessible to a wide audience.
Receiving the Austrian Museum Award recognizes the Sigmund Freud Museum's outstanding work and encourages it to continue to be a place of knowledge, research, and cultural encounter. It contributes to keeping the legacy of Sigmund Freud alive and to emphasizing the importance of his work for the future.