With displays of art and sculpture spanning a millennium, the LWL Museum für Kunst und Kultur (LWL Museum of Art and Culture) in the city of Münster, north-west Germany, has an incredibly diverse collection.
The state museum was founded more than 100 years ago and reopened in September following a five-year renovation that saw its 1908 building linked to an adjoining modern space.
The light-filled, minimalist extension features 51 new exhibition rooms covering 7,500 sq metres, and connects with the older building via an open-air patio. The new building strikes a sensitive balance between indoor and outdoor space.
It has been designed around the concept of the “opened museum”, with multiple entrances, and exhibition rooms that are free of barriers. A sequence of four interior and exterior courtyards creates a continuous passage from the north to south end of the building.
The ground floor features a library, auditorium, a restaurant and a bookstore, and the museum is running an extensive range of art education and cultural programmes for the public.
The museum’s wide-ranging collection of art and cultural objects include 12th-century stone sculpture, medieval art and manuscripts, old masters and modern and contemporary art from the 1900s to the present.
It has an impressive collection of early 20th-century modern art, including German expressionists such as August Macke, Franz Marc and Josef Albers.
During the Nazi era, so-called “degenerate” modern art was confiscated from institutions across Germany, but the museum managed to keep many paintings safe thanks to the efforts of curators and board members, who stored several endangered works in their homes. The museum’s curator continued to collect works by banned or ostracised artists during the second world war.
The collection has been completely redisplayed ahead of the reopening. The museum’s aim is to bring old and new together so that visitors can explore cultural history and see how different generations of art relate to each other. Around 1,000 exhibits from the permanent collection are currently on display.
The museum’s first temporary exhibition, Bare Life: Bacon, Freud, Hockney and Others – London Artists Working from Life 1950-80, will focus on UK modernists. The exhibition runs from 8 November until 22 February 2015.
How have visitors reacted to the new space?
Hermann Arnhold: I am quite optimistic because feedback from the public and the reaction of visitors – 41,000 for the weekend of the inauguration and the first week – has been very enthusiastic, especially about the close relationship between the architecture and the new presentation of our collection.
The public space, which has a passage joining the opening hall and the patio, with entrances at both ends, manifests the idea of the opened museum and gives the building a new image as an attractive place for art.
What was the biggest challenge of the project?
Without a doubt, it was the distribution of the main functions of the museum – collection displays, temporary exhibition spaces, areas for learning and the library, as well as the public space, with the restaurant, museum shop and auditorium – across the building over three levels. The collection space, which follows a sequence of 51 collection rooms, and the new presentation of those rooms for the public, has been an essential part of our work.
What are the main strengths of the collection?
The main strength is the diversity and broad outlay of the collection. It spans the middle ages through to contemporary art, holding around 350,000 objects. Münster has the most diverse art collection in relation to other museums, from Bremen and Kassel to Cologne. The German expressionist paintings, the contemporary art and sculpture projects, and the panel paintings and sculptures from the 12th to the 15th century, are some of its strongest elements.
What type of audiences are you hoping to attract to the museum?
We are focusing on the broad public, mainly on young people and families, as well as visitors of the so-called third age. Our intention in our exhibition programming and cultural events is to reach the people of the region, as well as the public from all over Germany and neighbouring countries.
What are the most innovative aspects of the museum’s redevelopment?
In my view, the most innovative aspects are the new presentation of the collection and the idea of having coloured collection rooms that bear a close relationship to the artworks, as well as the constantly changing volume of exhibits in those rooms. This creates new spaces to convey the diversity and sensuality of the presentation of art, which is so important in attracting passion in the eye of the visitor.
Hermann Arnhold is the director of the LWL Museum of Art and Culture
The state museum was founded more than 100 years ago and reopened in September following a five-year renovation that saw its 1908 building linked to an adjoining modern space.
The light-filled, minimalist extension features 51 new exhibition rooms covering 7,500 sq metres, and connects with the older building via an open-air patio. The new building strikes a sensitive balance between indoor and outdoor space.
It has been designed around the concept of the “opened museum”, with multiple entrances, and exhibition rooms that are free of barriers. A sequence of four interior and exterior courtyards creates a continuous passage from the north to south end of the building.
The ground floor features a library, auditorium, a restaurant and a bookstore, and the museum is running an extensive range of art education and cultural programmes for the public.
The museum’s wide-ranging collection of art and cultural objects include 12th-century stone sculpture, medieval art and manuscripts, old masters and modern and contemporary art from the 1900s to the present.
It has an impressive collection of early 20th-century modern art, including German expressionists such as August Macke, Franz Marc and Josef Albers.
During the Nazi era, so-called “degenerate” modern art was confiscated from institutions across Germany, but the museum managed to keep many paintings safe thanks to the efforts of curators and board members, who stored several endangered works in their homes. The museum’s curator continued to collect works by banned or ostracised artists during the second world war.
The collection has been completely redisplayed ahead of the reopening. The museum’s aim is to bring old and new together so that visitors can explore cultural history and see how different generations of art relate to each other. Around 1,000 exhibits from the permanent collection are currently on display.
The museum’s first temporary exhibition, Bare Life: Bacon, Freud, Hockney and Others – London Artists Working from Life 1950-80, will focus on UK modernists. The exhibition runs from 8 November until 22 February 2015.
How have visitors reacted to the new space?
Hermann Arnhold: I am quite optimistic because feedback from the public and the reaction of visitors – 41,000 for the weekend of the inauguration and the first week – has been very enthusiastic, especially about the close relationship between the architecture and the new presentation of our collection.
The public space, which has a passage joining the opening hall and the patio, with entrances at both ends, manifests the idea of the opened museum and gives the building a new image as an attractive place for art.
What was the biggest challenge of the project?
Without a doubt, it was the distribution of the main functions of the museum – collection displays, temporary exhibition spaces, areas for learning and the library, as well as the public space, with the restaurant, museum shop and auditorium – across the building over three levels. The collection space, which follows a sequence of 51 collection rooms, and the new presentation of those rooms for the public, has been an essential part of our work.
What are the main strengths of the collection?
The main strength is the diversity and broad outlay of the collection. It spans the middle ages through to contemporary art, holding around 350,000 objects. Münster has the most diverse art collection in relation to other museums, from Bremen and Kassel to Cologne. The German expressionist paintings, the contemporary art and sculpture projects, and the panel paintings and sculptures from the 12th to the 15th century, are some of its strongest elements.
What type of audiences are you hoping to attract to the museum?
We are focusing on the broad public, mainly on young people and families, as well as visitors of the so-called third age. Our intention in our exhibition programming and cultural events is to reach the people of the region, as well as the public from all over Germany and neighbouring countries.
What are the most innovative aspects of the museum’s redevelopment?
In my view, the most innovative aspects are the new presentation of the collection and the idea of having coloured collection rooms that bear a close relationship to the artworks, as well as the constantly changing volume of exhibits in those rooms. This creates new spaces to convey the diversity and sensuality of the presentation of art, which is so important in attracting passion in the eye of the visitor.
Hermann Arnhold is the director of the LWL Museum of Art and Culture
Project data
- Cost €48m
- Main funders Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL); Ministry for Family, Youth, Culture and Sport of North Rhine
- Architect Staab Architekten
- Project management DU Diederichs Projektmanagement
- Lighting design Licht Kunst Licht
- Exhibition design Space4
- Graphics L2M3 Kommunikationsdesign
