I also think it’s good that the insights we’ve gained from visiting the studios are being put online. This makes the work of the open studios available to more people.

Wolfgang Sautermeister

Many questions have arisen that relate to the perspectives of the “open studios” themselves. Most importantly, we want to find out where they came from. This could help others get more studios off the ground.

Ulrike Thomann

The variety of studios has sparked our curiosity. We’re interested in the art being made there and how these artistic groups are developing.

Thomas Röske

I have been running a studio for people with cognitive, mental, and physical disabilities for many years. I was very interested in getting to know other creative places and their work that were unknown to me. I was impressed by the variety of open studios.

Wolfgang Sautermeister

As a curator and artist, I was excited to explore the studios in Baden-Württemberg. I saw the project as a place of learning. It offered a great opportunity to learn more about the different kinds of art workshops and the work they do.

Ulrike Thomann

Ulrike Thomann

Ulrike Thomann lives in Freiburg. She discovered the world of special art workshops in Florence. The trained artist worked at the art workshop “La Tinaia” in Florence for three years. “La Tinaia” emerged from the Italian psychiatric reform movement. She then completed her studies in social psychology. She is still involved in the international art world through the annual art festival she started, “Grenzgänger*innen” in Freiburg. She is also a member of the “Alliance for Fair Art and Culture Work in Baden-Württemberg.”

Wolfgang Sautermeister

was born in Rottenburg/N., and now lives in Mannheim. One of his school friends has a disability. He initially pursued a wide range of different activities, including construction and forestry work. Inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s letters, he began drawing and painting. Since 1968, he has had various group and solo exhibitions. In 1980, he and other artists and social workers started the “Art and Psychiatry” group in Mannheim. He is still fascinated by the art of the mentally ill and disabled. He has organized and curated many exhibitions, both in the field of contemporary art and in the context of the mentally ill and disabled. Since 1992, he has also worked as a performance artist in Germany and Europe. In 1998, he started the Malwerkstatt, a studio for adults with disabilities at the Lebenshilfe Bad Dürkheim, and the Galerie Alte Turnhalle, a place for artistic projects and exhibitions. In 2001, he co-founded zeitraumexit Mannheim, a house of artists focusing on contemporary performative arts. In 2018, he and Gabriele Oßwald started Ensemble Divers, a group of mixed-abled performers made up of amateurs and professional artists with and without disabilities. They have created many theatrical productions.

Thomas Röske

Thomas Röske was born in Reinbek, lives in Frankfurt am Main, and has been working at the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg since 2001. He has been the director there since 2002. Even during his school days, he was interested in the relationship between mental illness and art. He pursued this interest further from 1981 to 1986 while studying art history, musicology, and psychology at the University of Hamburg. In 1991, he completed his doctorate on the intellectual development of Hans Prinzhorn. From 1993 to 1999, he worked on related topics as a university assistant at the University of Frankfurt. In 2015, he became an expert in the field of art and psychology at the University of Frankfurt. Since 2012, he has also been president of the European Outsider Association. He regularly teaches art history at the universities of Frankfurt and Heidelberg.

Laura Zettl

Laura Zettl decided to study art therapy in Nürtingen because she worked as a school assistant for a boy with Down syndrome and thought about the role of artistic expression. During her internship semester, she worked at an inclusive school in Vienna and created a program combining art therapy and prevention. After completing her bachelor’s degree, Laura Zettl was drawn to Frankfurt am Main, driven by an interest in artistic work in expanded social spaces. Now, she is researching how art can help people in different kinds of groups. She is also taking classes for her master’s degree in Performative Arts in Social Fields. She has also participated in group and solo exhibitions.

We were also curious about the main ideas. What freedoms do the studios have when it comes to creative design? How is art understood? Do the studios value the idea of equality in the art world?

Ulrike Thomann

I was impressed by the number of open studios in Baden-Württemberg alone. I hadn’t expected so many of these studios to be hidden from the public.

Thomas Röske

The questionnaires repeatedly reported how little the studios feel seen. The contacts and on-site visits were like a prelude to the possibility of exchange, of making the studios and the art of people with disabilities/mental illnesses/experiences of psychiatry visible.

Laura Zettl

It was surprising to learn that legal challenges make it difficult for artists with disabilities to sell their work, which limits their access to the art market.

Laura Zettl

I would definitely like to see research like this in the other federal states as well.

Wolfgang Sautermeister

I was surprised by how many creative places and offers do not consider on-site creativity as a serious art form. This made the idea of creating an exchange opportunity all the more necessary for me.

Laura Zettl

For years, I have been interested in open studios for people with experience of psychiatry and/or cognitive impairment as alternative places for artistic creativity. Our project gave us the chance to learn about these groups and see how different they are.

Thomas Röske

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