EXHIBITIONS

The FRIENDS enable exhibition projects based on a deep passion for visual art, coupled with the courage to take risks and great enthusiasm for the realization of impressive projects. In doing so, they are fulfilling their statutory task of not only maintaining the National Gallery in Berlin, but also actively promoting it.

They expand the scope of action of the National Gallery and its institutions, especially in times of financial bottlenecks, and thus enrich the cultural offerings for a broad audience. Through membership fees and sponsors, they finance four to six projects per year that reflect art from the 19th century to today and make it accessible to a broad audience. They are particularly interested in innovative projects that enrich the museum world. The association also takes on operational and organizational tasks, works closely with curators and uses its entrepreneurial mindset to implement projects efficiently and in a way that conserves resources. Its goal is to make art and culture accessible to everyone and to promote patronage as an important cultural contribution.

Since 2000, FRIENDS have been awarding the internationally renowned “National Gallery Prize” every two years. In retrospect, the always daring list of young nominees reads like a “who’s who” of contemporary art: starting with Olafur Eliasson, Katharina Grosse, Dirk Skreber and Christian Jankowski through Monica Bonvicini, Tino Sehgal, Omar Fast, Cyprien Galliard and Anne Imhof to the current artists Pan Daijing, Dan Lie, Hanne Lippard and James Richards.