The World’s First Street Art Museum in Berlin

The Street Art Museum, photo:  Urban Nation.

‘Urban Art to me, means to hold a conversation in public’

Yasha Young is visibly thrilled. The director of Urban Nation, a network for street art and Urban Contemporary Art is celebrating the upcoming opening the world’s first Street Art Museum on September 16, 2017.
“Urban Art is a contemporary witness, who shows himself to everyone”, Young says with her voice shaking lightly. And with this year, this witness is about to be seen by even more people, right in the midst of Schöneberg.

Get more information about this unique project and see first drafts and a trailer for the museum after the jump.

Yasha Young and her team of supporters, photo: Urban Nation

Young is no stranger to the scene, she used to run the Strychnin Gallery in Friedrichshain for some time, and has been working in the street art scene for years. Now she is finalizing her dream of a museum that shows urban contemporary art in a house at the corner of Bülowstraße 7.

The residential house already now has some huge murals that cover the former beige facade. From September 16th 2017 on, the art is gonna be found inside as well.

Every part of the house is planned to be used as an area for art, the facade will have a panel-system that allows the murals to travel if they need to. Inside, a yard will hold space for installations and “the upper apartments are gonna serve as flats or ateliers for the artists”, Thomas Willemeit from the renown architectural office Graft says to me. Also, workshops and seminars are planned in the museum: “It’s more of a hub”, Willemeit says.

photo: A rendering of what the museum could look like / Urban Nation

The problem with street art and graffiti is, they are never safe since they risk to be over-painted at any point. Erik Vestman and Nils Petter Löfstedt know this. The artists-duo came all the way from Malmö, Sweden, to Berlin to work on an installation and celebrate the upcoming museum: “I think it’s so important because street art and street artists are so good on the street – but they need an environment where it’s safe to stay”, Erik says to me. “It all started with cave paintings thousands of years ago”, Nils says, “it’s weird that it’s not natural yet”.

The museum wants to be a safe haven for this art now. Constructions will start next week and will take a moment, since for example the intermediate ceilings need to be taken out because of dry rot. But, even better because now the architects will create walls 7 meters high – more space for murals.

A rendering of what the museum could look like, photo: Urban Nation

Tim Renner, undersecretary of state for culture in Berlin is also happy about the plans for the museum: “The whole project is lunatic, almost insane”, he says and laughs. “And that’s why it matches Berlin”.

I am happy for my own ‘Kiez’ that art plays such an important role and will even gain importance and I will definitely be a guest in the street art museum as soon as it’s done.

See the virtual plan of the museum to come in this trailer:

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