MUSA

MUSA Museum Start Gallery Artothek is the name for the contemporary art collection of the Department for Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna, along with an art institution located beside Vienna City Hall, inaugurated in 2007.

MUSA Museum Start-Gallery Artothek is the name for the contemporary art collection of the Department for Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna, along with an art institution located beside Vienna City Hall, inaugurated in 2007. It consists of three sections:

- an exhibition space for presenting works primarily from the collection,

- the Start Gallery, where young, emerging Viennese artists can hold their first solo exhibitions and sell their works without commission, and

- the Artothek, an “art library” that gives the people of Vienna the opportunity to borrow artworks from a selection of over 1,700 drawings, watercolours and prints for a low charge (EUR 2.50 per artwork and month) for display in their own homes.

MUSA was inaugurated in 2007 and is a place where the Department of Cultural Affairs, contemporary art and the public meet. Each year, the museum organises three mainly thematic or solo exhibitions, compiled from works in the collection and hosts one joint exhibition project by a foreign institution.
The exhibitions are complemented by readings, concerts, lectures and discussions. Admission to all events is free.

The MUSA exhibitions are compiled from one of the largest collections of contemporary Austrian art, which currently contains more than 35,000 objects created by approximately 4,500 artists in all disciplines of art. The Department for Cultural Affairs began purchasing artworks in 1951 with the express intention of fostering the arts. Thanks to the continuous purchases, the collection now offers a true cross-section of artistic trends and developments in Vienna over the past decades. All artists who are in some way connected to Vienna can apply to the Department for Cultural Affairs and offer their works for sale, the decision is made by a jury of members of the Vienna art and cultural scene.

ACCESSIBILITY

U2 (Rathaus)tram lines: D, 1 (Rathausplatz)

ADMISSION

Free entrance