About us

After the audi­to­ri­um of the Oerlinghausen grammar school – now the Niklas-Luhmann-Gymnasium – was the exhi­bi­ti­on space for the first three years, the first exhi­bi­ti­on was ope­ned in the for­mer syn­ago­gue of Oerlinghausen in 1979. The histo­ry of this Jewish house of pray­er and assem­bly is also German histo­ry. The mem­bers of the Kunstverein are awa­re of this his­to­ri­cal con­nec­tion.

Thanks to their initia­ti­ve, the house could be saved. Maintaining and pre­ser­ving the buil­ding, which was reno­va­ted in 1985, is one task, but kee­ping the memo­ry of Germany’s ing­lo­rious past ali­ve is ano­ther, in order to pre­vent any repe­ti­ti­on – espe­ci­al­ly at a time when natio­na­lism, shal­low slo­gans from the etern­al­ly out­da­ted and new neo-Nazis are once again in vogue. Time and again, artists have respon­ded to the space with their work, crea­ting pain­tings, sculp­tures and instal­la­ti­ons direct­ly for the Old Synagogue that take archi­tec­tu­re and con­tent as their the­me. These include Felix Droese, Günther Uecker, Gerd Winner and many others, artists of inter­na­tio­nal stan­ding, but also well-known artists who have made their home in the regi­on, such as Rainer Nummer or Fred Schierenbeck, are among tho­se who have been inspi­red by the exhi­bi­ti­on space of the Old Synagogue in a con­vin­cing way. They took on a task that will con­ti­nue to be one of the focal points of the Kunstverein’s exhi­bi­ti­on acti­vi­ties in the coming deca­des.