This past June, second year student Allison Brown traveled to Schwerin, Mecklenberg-Vonpommern, Germany to participate in the 2015 WorkART Kunstverein Fellowship program. The WorkART program, run by the University of Minnesota’s Center for German and European Studies, “provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students with a strong interest in art and design to gather valuable work experience in the nonprofit sector at one of Germany’s over 300 community-based nonprofit art associations and galleries.” Allison, one of nine 2015 Fellows, was assigned to one of the northern-most kunstvereine (German: art club) in the program.

While stationed in Schwerin, Allison’s tasks at the Kunstverein were many and varied, ranging from event planning to student outreach to maintenance of some of the living artworks in the gallery show, Hoffnungen und Andere Albträume by Rana Matloub and Sara Rajaei. As part of her experience, Allison also gave a lecture to Schwerin’s German-British Society on landmarks in the visual arts community in the Twin Cities, a “cultural exchange” of sorts. As one of nine WorkART fellows in the 2015 cycle, Allison’s focus during her stay in Schwerin was primarily on arts education and outreach to the local community, as well as arts administration for small arts organizations and marketing.

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For more information on Kunstverein Schwerin (in German):  http://kunstverein-schwerin.de/

For more information on the WorkART Kunstverein Fellowship: http://cges.umn.edu/fellowships/workart.htm