The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is closing. Welcome to the opening!
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Starting in summer 2026, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf building on Grabbeplatz will undergo extensive renovation. The familiar venue will be closed for three years – but our programme will continue uninterrupted. On the contrary: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is going out into the city!
This transitional period is not an interruption, but an opportunity for new beginnings and openness. Together with artists, cooperation partners and visitors, we will visit Düsseldorf’s 50 districts over the coming years and present our programme there.
Since its opening in 1967, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf has been closely connected to the city, its residents and, above all, its artists. It has always been more than just an exhibition venue – it has been a stage, a meeting place, a place for experimentation and a platform for international and local contemporary art. We not only want to preserve this long-standing relationship, but also actively develop and strengthen it during the interim period.
We are also using this phase to fundamentally address the challenges facing cultural institutions in the 21st century. Institutions around the world are asking themselves how they can be a place that is relevant to everyone, and we are also taking on this task.
In architectural terms, this means barrier-free accessibility and energy sustainability through renovation.
In terms of content, it means a decentralised programme that reaches out into the heart of urban society.
And structurally, it means experimenting with new forms of working and collaboration – open, inclusive, future-oriented.
We are leaving our permanent home to become mobile. We are temporarily using a wide variety of spaces: parks, (cultural) institutions, public places or vacant spaces. From spontaneous events to projects lasting several weeks – each stop will look different, driven by encounters, participation and exchange.
Our programme remains as diverse as ever – only now it takes place in the heart of everyday city life. We bring exhibitions, concerts, readings, performances, discussion panels and educational offerings directly to the neighbourhoods. In doing so, we work closely with artists, local initiatives and residents. We want to listen, help shape, develop and implement ideas together. The result is a temporary, decentralised Kunsthalle that provides new access to contemporary art and promotes new forms of cultural participation.
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf becomes a mobile laboratory for contemporary art and social issues. Especially in times of social fragmentation, we focus on encounter and exchange. As a public institution, it is our task to engage in dialogue and create spaces for shared experiences.
Based on the concept of urban practice, we involve residents as key players in social transformation. In this participatory and interdisciplinary approach to designing urban spaces, art, architecture, urban planning and civil society work together. Urban practice understands urban development as an open, experimental and collaborative process that strengthens social, cultural and spatial participation and tests new forms of coexistence. The decentralised Kunsthalle sees itself as a model for a sustainable institution that opens up, listens and develops new perspectives together with urban society.
We become a space for experimentation on questions that concern us all:
How do we want to live together in the city in the future?
What makes a city worth living in?
What role does culture play in times of social upheaval?
And what might a Kunsthalle of the future look like?
We want to get to know and connect different communities in the city. Empower local artists. Bring other voices into focus. Invite international guests who bring new perspectives. Get to know the city from a different angle. Together, we want to create spaces where people can meet, discover new things and actively shape the city.
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is reinventing itself while remaining what it is: a place for the present – for experiments, for pressing questions, for art that moves and challenges.
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is on the move. The doors are open. Welcome to the opening!
