Leopold Museum awarded “Maecenas Prize” for cultural patronage

11.12.2018

Important recognition for cultural providers during “Maecenas Gala 2018”

Vienna (OTS) – The Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger was presented with the prize awarded by the independent committee “Initiativen Wirtschaft für Kunst” [Business for the Arts Initiatives] on the evening of 28th November during the glamorous “Maecenas Gala” hosted by Barbara Rett and held at Vienna’s Imperial Hotel. The “Special Cultural Patronage Prize for Cultural Providers”, awarded by ORF designer Karin Veitl, was given out by “Wirtschaft für Kunst. Austrian Business Committee for the Arts” for “successful involvement in cooperation with business” in the areas of “arts & culture”.

The bid for the Austrian art patronage prize “Maecenas 2018”, submitted by Hans-Peter Wipplinger and the museum’s Managing Director Gabriele Langer, was centered on the Leopold Museum Private Foundation’s comprehensive sponsoring concept. The museum was able to realize its numerous initiatives over the past years with the help of sponsors, long-standing or project-based cooperation partners and patrons.

The Leopold Museum enjoys international renown for the world’s largest collection of works by Egon Schiele, and for one of the most comprehensive “Vienna 1900” collections featuring works by Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and many others. Elaborate special exhibitions, for instance on Carl Spitzweg and Erwin Wurm, Ferdinand Hodler, Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Zoran Mušič, combined with the museum’s extraordinary interior and exterior architecture, make it the ideal venue for receptions, parties, presentations, conventions, conferences and symposia.
Hans-Peter Wipplinger: “The Maecenas Prize represents an important recognition of our increased activities in the area of art patronage. The year 2018 is the Leopold Museum’s most successful to date. Towards the end of the year, we will have exceeded the 500,000-visitors mark. This increase in visitors is owed to the Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt jubilee exhibitions celebrating the anniversary year of Viennese Modernism as well as to the sensational first-time presentation of Heidi Goëss-Horten’s collection in the exhibition ‘WOW! The Heidi Horten Collection’.”
These ambitious projects could only be realized with the support of the Leopold Museum’s numerous partners. The most important pillars of the museum’s sponsoring strategy include the annual funding from the Office of the Federal Chancellor, the initiative of the Circle of Patrons, the long-standing partnerships with Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein and Siwacht, cooperations with numerous other, project-based partners, the support of restoration projects from art sponsors as well as the proceeds from the annual large-scale Fundraising Dinner.

The support platform Circle of Patrons, launched by Hans-Peter Wipplinger in 2016 and presided over by the CEO of the Austrian Post Georg Pölzl, focuses the commitment of influential art enthusiasts from business, science, society and the arts and culture for the benefit of the Leopold Museum. The Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein supports all the activities of the Leopold Museum as a long-standing and reliable partner.

The Austrian collector and patron Heidi Goëss-Horten made her extraordinary collection of international art accessible to the public for the very first time in the exhibition “WOW! The Heidi-Horten Collection” initiated by Leopold Museum board member Agnes Husslein-Arco. Heidi Goëss-Horten further generously supported the exhibition project and accompanying art education program and afforded visitors free admission to the museum on Thursday evenings. The Fundraising Dinner held in connection with the exhibition was the largest and most successful fundraiser ever organized for the Leopold Museum. The net proceeds are used to implement free art programs for children and teenagers, which have already been enjoyed by 6,000 young visitors.
The pleasing results of the Art Sponsoring project will be presented at the Leopold Museum from 6th December in the exhibition “Hidden Treasures II. Artworks Seek Sponsors”.

For more information on "Maecenas" and "Maecenas 2018", please visit: www.iwk.at

Contact Initiativen Wirtschaft für Kunst:
T: 0043 1 512 78 00 / Email: office@iwk.at

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