Buildings, UNESCO World Cultural Heritage

Heritage conservation is a priority for the Bauhaus Building, the Masters’ Houses and the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate with the Houses with Balcony Access, as is the scientific work of the building research archive on materials and construction processes. Another task is to ensure that the buildings, which have been UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites since 1996, are made accessible to the public.

Stage, Bauhaus Festival and Art

The stage occupies just as central a role in the philosophy of the Bauhaus as the annual Bauhaus Festival. Both continue to offer experimental scope for artistic statements and are brought to life by the Foundation with a new separate programme every year. Since spring 2016 the Foundation has been enhancing its programme with the Bauhaus Residency, which as an ongoing residency format invites artists to live and work over a longer period in the Muche Master’s House. The format refers to the legacy of the complex of Masters’ Houses as an artists’ colony and therefore intentionally invites artists who have an open-minded understanding of art in the twenty-first century.

Collection, Bauhaus Museum Dessau

With ca. 40,000 objects, the collection of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is the second-largest Bauhaus collection worldwide. Unfortunately, it is currently accessible only to a limited extent, in the framework of a small presentation in the Bauhaus Building. Since 2019 it is possible to see the collection more fully in the Bauhaus Museum Dessau.

Learning and Teaching

Since its founding as a school the Bauhaus has been a place of radical new beginnings, with traditional knowledge being replaced by an integral and experimental approach which moves between art, technology and the natural sciences and incorporates sensory experiences. These programmatic approaches of the pedagogical legacy of the Bauhaus are conveyed and updated in the programmes of the Foundation’s academy.

Research

As a scientific research institute the Foundation is thoroughly integrated in the international network for Bauhaus research and plays a major role within it by means of it projects and publications. The current research in Dessau focuses on the migration of the Bauhaus and its reception in the GDR.

Publications

The Foundation’s scientists regularly publish work on relevant Bauhaus themes and the Bauhaus Editions publish catalogues to accompany major exhibitions. A series of pocket books provides in-depth reading on the diverse topics of the Bauhaus. Added to these are a series of children’s books and the Magazine Bauhaus, a special issue published towards the end of each year that sums up the annual programme of the Foundation.

Education programme

One of the Foundation’s main responsibilities is to communicate the ideas and themes of the Bauhaus. This occurs daily in guided tours for visitors, schools and students, and is furthered in educational programmes such as the IKEA Bauhaus Summer (2013–2015) for young designers and students and the Bauhaus Camp launched in 2016 for young apprentices.

The four-year Bauhaus Agents programme of the German Federal Cultural Foundation has been underway since autumn 2016. This supports the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation with the conceptual development of the curatorial concept for the future Bauhaus Museum Dessau. Starting point is the collaboration with 14 schools in Dessau.