Art returns

The magnetic effect of the art in the Löwenbräukunst-Areal established the Art Mile in District 5 in 1996 and provided important impetus for the entire district. In the over 100-year-old former brewery buildings on the Löwenbräu site, a center for contemporary art was created within a very short space of time in the wake of the worldwide boom in interest in art, which soon also achieved great international appeal.

The Kunsthalle Zürich, the newly established Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, the Daros Collection and a small number of high-quality private galleries chose the traditional site as their new location, laying the foundations for a success story.

However, frequent changes of ownership in the years that followed repeatedly jeopardized the future of cultural activities on the Löwenbräu site. In 2005, representatives of the Kunsthalle asked the City of Zurich for support to preserve the art on the Löwenbräu site. As a result, the city council launched a project to secure the long-term future of the Löwenbräu art and culture venue. In an effort to preserve the Löwenbräu site for art in the long term, the Zurich City Council approved a private design plan in 2005 with mixed use of spaces for cultural uses and commercial, office and residential buildings.

In January 2007, following extensive preparatory work, the city council also took the fundamental decision to preserve the art cluster and commissioned a municipal project team to do so. In the course of the project work, various sponsorship models were examined more closely. The condominium owners' association soon emerged as the best sponsorship option, as it allowed large and small institutions and galleries to be involved in a participatory manner.

Unfortunately, the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 dealt the deathblow to this sponsorship model, primarily because the private members of the planned sponsorship considered such a strong commitment of resources in the property to be too great a risk. Under pressure from the property owner, a new form of sponsorship had to be found in a very short space of time.

Löwenbräu-Kunst AG

The newly formed sponsorship was to take over the land and buildings from the current owner in a joint commitment by non-commercial art institutions and the public sector. To this end, the two institutional tenants Kunsthalle and Migros Museum, together with the City of Zurich, founded the public limited company "Löwenbräu-Kunst AG" in May 2011, which took over the art plot from PSP after completion of the partial renovation and basic extension in early summer 2012. The three shareholders each took a one-third stake in the share capital of CHF 27 million. The purpose of Löwenbräu-Kunst AG was laid down in the articles of association as "operation of a center for art and cultural purposes" and its long-term security was anchored in shareholder agreements.

Following the preparatory and demolition work at the end of 2010, the foundation stone was laid at the Löwenbräu site on May 18, 2011 and after a construction period of around two years, the art section can now be opened at the end of August 2012. With the opening of the renovated and expanded "Löwenbräukunst", Zurich is strengthening its cultural offering and its reputation as an attractive and innovative location for the arts and creative industries. In recent years, this sector has become an important and indispensable pillar of Zurich's economy.

Double the space for old tenants

The art institutions Kunsthalle Zürich and Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, the Hauser & Wirth, Bob van Orsouw and Eva Presenhuber galleries and the Kunstgriff bookshop are returning to renovated and in some cases significantly enlarged spaces. The Kunsthalle and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst have almost doubled their space.

In the 27 years of its existence, the Kunsthalle Zürich has developed into an internationally important center for contemporary art. With the expansion of the Kunsthalle, the exhibition space with public library and mediation rooms will be increased from around 800 to 1200 square meters. There will also be new archive, workshop and office space. The Kunsthalle Association and Foundation are investing a total of around 13 million Swiss francs in the share capital of Löwenbräu-Kunst AG and in the expansion of the infrastructure. The share capital investment of CHF 9 million and the expansion costs of CHF 4 million are covered 100 percent by private donations, grants from foundations and personal contributions.

The Migros Museum of Contemporary Art now has two exhibition floors with an area of 1,300 m2 and a total rental area of 2,500 m2: One floor is used for the presentation of the collection, while the other is available for changing solo or group exhibitions.

A new event room enables the expansion of the educational and supporting program. With these new features, the Migros Museum is positioning itself as an attractive and dynamic meeting place for contemporary art. The Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, which is patronized by Switzerland's largest retailer, is part of the Migros Culture Percentage.

Art patron Maja Hoffmann's Luma Foundation will be moving in. In addition to exhibition and event spaces, LUMA Westbau/POOL etc. will also operate a boarding house for artists and scholarship holders of the project. Other new tenants include the art book publisher JRP|Ringier and the Freymond-Guth Fine Arts gallery as well as other galleries as subtenants in the Daros Latinamerica space. While many tenants have already moved in, others are still in the process of customizing the space.

Andreas Panzer