International Summer School Bernau

Handwerkskammer Berlin

Hannes-Meyer-Campus 1
16321 Bernau bei Berlin
Germany

Other
Education
established 2015

About

The International Summer School is organized by the Berlin Chamber of Crafts and held on its premises located in the former School of the Federation of German Trade Unions (ADGB) in Bernau bei Berlin. An outstanding monument to Bauhaus architecture, the building serves as the site for the one-week courses and related events while also providing a cohesive context. The Bauhaus’s approach to transcending the boundaries between craft, art, and scholarly research is our guiding principle.

CONCEPT

The Bauhaus, an expression of early twentieth-century modernism, was a practical name for the school that was created for and led by visual artists, craftsmen, and architects. From useful objects to functional architecture, the Bauhaus would make a better person out of an ordinary man. Based on the concept of achieving social change and public enlightenment through a well-designed living environment, the utopian ideals and beliefs of the Bauhaus are far different than those of today.

Besides its highly aesthetic view of life and work, the Bauhaus could also be seen as a social enterprise that expanded its community of like-minded participants through teaching. Communal activities such as eating, drinking, building, and thinking were part of the daily practice.

Today, cooperation, knowledge exchange, and intellectual experimentation are still important ideas for developing a community of creative people. In “our” time, there is not only a growing need for innovative ideas in order to create a more sustainable economy; there is also a demand for imagination. And this is where the artist can play an important role in inspiring society with insights into complex questions in order to secure a future for all.

The Bauhaus Denkmal gives us a chance to explore the concepts developed by the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College so that intellectual exchange doesn’t stop at the classroom door. We use communal meals for further discussion and in the evening each participant has the opportunity to become an active member of our community by presenting various lectures, screenings or performances.

Human potential is the driving idea behind The International Summer School. The main audience groups are professionals (artists, designers, architects, curators and students in those fields) and craftsmen with a special interest in artistic practice.

 

Facts

Germany