Despite the budget shortfall

Struggling to keep culture alive in Klagenfurt

There is hope that the Lassnig studio will be rented by the city and province. Six exhibitions will not take place in 2025, including the show by Leon Löwentraut.

(Bild: Alexander Gerdanovits)

Stadtgalerie & Alpen-Adria-Galerie are run by the culture department, the annual program 2025 is of high quality despite hard cultural times - a masterpiece!

The fact that Klagenfurt is without a budget decision due to the debt of a good 20 million euros puts the independent scene in particular, but also the municipal galleries (Stadtgalerie with Living Studio and adjoining Theatergalerie and Alpen-Adria-Galerie) in distress. Six exhibitions cannot take place in 2025, as the provisional budget that comes into force in January only allows expenditure that is contractually and legally secured. Prizes, including the Gustav Mahler Composition Prize or the Stadtwerke Poetry Prize, scholarships (Paris, Šmartno) as well as all voluntary services will therefore fall through the cracks, "there will be almost nothing left of culture," says Head of the Culture Department Alexander Gerdanovits with concern.

Culture remains intact
Damage limitation includes the motions put forward by culture officer Franz Petritz, which "thanks to the unanimous decisions of all colleagues" will at least allow the Gustav Mahler Composer's House (without concerts) and the Robert Musil Literature Museum (without readings) to remain open. For Maria Lassnig's studio, there is a decision in principle (also following a referendum request), which, according to Petritz, gives hope "that it can be rented from the state from January." Always aware "that the budget is difficult, we have nevertheless put together an annual programme for the municipal galleries that is of high quality," emphasizes Petritz, who, with a good 27,200 visitors, takes the wind out of the sails of those who insist on closure in the belief that "you can restructure the overall budget with it."

Alexander Gerdanovits, Beatrix Obernosterer, Franz Petritz

(Bild: Irina Lino )

11 (instead of 16) exhibitions for €130,000 (instead of €180,000) await in the public galleries in 2025, as their director Beatrix Obernosterer informs us. The Stadtgalerie starts on 23 January "with four women from three countries and two generations under the banner of 'Endless Structures'. This will be followed by donations to the city (from 26 June), which will stand in for shooting star Leon Löwentraut, one of six "budget victims" whose exhibitions have been canceled due to a lack of contracts. Instead, visitors can look forward to the quiet late work of Hubert Schmalix (23. 10.).

Other highlights include Manfred Bockelmann on the atomic bombing in 1945 in the Living Studio, the birthday series in the Alpen-Adria-Galerie from Eva Asaad to Grete Stolz and Burgis Paier-Variationen (Theatergalerie).