Museums of the City of Vienna Open Again

More+More+ ♦ Published: June 1, 2020; 19:09 ♦ (Vindobona)

After eleven weeks of closure, the museums of the City of Vienna have reopened their doors. These include the Kunsthalle Wien, Wien Museum MUSA and Hermesvilla as well as the Architekturzentrum Wien, Kunst Haus Wien, Jewish Museum, Haus der Musik and Mozarthaus Vienna. Only from July onwards will the Beethoven Museum, the Roman Museum, the Virgil Chapel and the Neidhart Festival Hall be open again.

Main building of the chain of Wien Museums on Karlsplatz. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Clemens PFEIFFER, A-1190 Wien [Attribution]

The first museum visit took Mayor Michael Ludwig and City Councillor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler to the Wien Museum MUSA, where they were guided through the current exhibition by Director Matti Bunzl.

"After long weeks of cultural deprivation, it is now possible to visit the exhibitions in the Vienna museums again - while observing all prescribed safety precautions", Mayor Ludwig is pleased to announce.

"The museums cannot be thanked enough for their willingness to reopen their houses. The museums are thus at the beginning of a series of openings in which art and culture are slowly picking up speed again. Soon we will finally be able to visit cinemas and open-air events in 'real life' again," emphasises City Councillor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler.

"The time when art and culture were exclusively accessible in digital form has once again made their importance for our society clear".

"We are delighted to be able to welcome all culture-loving Viennese people in person again. First at the Wien Museum MUSA with an exciting exhibition on Richard Neutra, the internationally most successful Austrian architect of the 20th century. And in the Hermesvilla in the Lainzer Tiergarten, a magical place for all excursion-loving Viennese".

Richard Neutra. Residential buildings for California

The exhibition RICHARD NEUTRA. WOHNHÄUSER FÜR KALIFORNIEN in the Wien MUSEUM was only opened in February to great applause from the public and press and had to be closed just four weeks later due to the measures taken against Covid-19.

50 years after Neutra's death, the curators Andreas Nierhaus and David Schreyer approach the work and the effect of the architect on two different levels: Current photographs show nine exemplary residential buildings by Neutra, which not only convey Californian living culture, but are still exemplary today due to their economy of space, design quality and functionality. In addition, Neutra's changing relationship to his home city Vienna is traced along a historical axis.

The reopening of all Wien Museum locations

From 1 July all other Wien Museum locations such as the Beethoven Museum, the Römermuseum, the Virgilkapelle or the Neidhart Festsaal will be open to visitors again, most recently, due to conversion and renovation work, the Pasqualatihaus and the Otto Wagner Pavilion on Karlsplatz from 1 August.