Kunstmuseum Waldviertel

The Kunstmuseum Waldviertel stands in Schrems, a town in Lower Austria’s northern Waldviertel region. Its buildings and the surrounding Park des Staunens cover 12 000 m² of gently rolling land. The museum, gallery and ateliers were designed by the artist couple Makis E. Warlamis and Heide Warlamis to blend international museum architecture with the local natural and cultural landscape. The Akademie für Kinder und Jugendliche runs creative courses, an annual children’s art festival and workshops for schools and kindergartens. Since opening in June 2009 the museum has staged yearly changing exhibitions. The exhibitions often draw on the Waldviertel’s surroundings and people for their themes. Each year a programme of guided tours, workshops, talks, festivals and bread-baking events brings the subject to life. Past titles include Wunderland Waldviertel, Utopien und Visionen and Christus.heute.Faszination.Christus.Erleben. The IDEA-Haus next door shows Warlamis design objects alongside international furniture and art pieces. The collection includes the Vienna Collection porcelain series, Makis children’s furniture and carpet designs. The Park des Staunens surrounds the museum with garden architecture, Steinskulpturen such as the ‘sleeping poet’ and sky columns, a Marientempel, an amphitheatre and the Makis-Miro bread oven. In summer the grounds host events that combine art, nature and creativity through experiential tours, family festivals, bread-baking, projects and creative weeks. Visitors walk paths lined with sculptures and plants, discovering how the landscape itself becomes part of the exhibition experience.