Cultural Engagement

With its support for culture and the arts, the Volkswagen Group takes responsibility for tomorrow. Because future is being shaped when creativity unfolds. As a global and socially responsible company, we translate this belief into action around the world. In the frame of long-term partnerships and sustainable collaborations, we partner with artists, cultural visionaries and internationally leading institutions to help that an even larger audience gets inspired and encouraged by creative works and ideas.

Volkswagen Group Art4All

Culture for everyone: Volkswagen Group Art4All

We have initiated “Volkswagen Group Art4All” to open the world of culture and the arts for a broad audience. The result is an exhilarating program developed by our partners in Berlin and Wolfsburg: Every Thursday between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin opens for free. Every Sunday, the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin can be visited at a discounted rate which includes changing activities for the entire family. From 4 p.m. onwards on every last Wednesday of a month, guests of the Kunstmuseum in Wolfsburg benefit from free access along with guided tours, workshops or film screenings.

EPHRA: Children explore art at home

A woman uses her smartphone to take a photo of children looking at artworks. — Ilit Azoulay, Tree for Too One, from The Keys, 2010, courtesy die Künstlerin, Bravermann Gallery Foto: (c) Ephra / Mathias Völzke

Berlin-based and a specialist for cultural work, EPHRA connects children with art. While the organization enables children to experience the world through art, it also empowers artists to engage with perspectives of the young generation. Their current work includes four events for pupils form primary schools in Berlin and contemporary artists. After talking about the life and work of the artists, young and old get creative together.

Last year, EPHRA realized the exhibition “Thoughts play Hide and Seek” which featured works from 22 artists including Olafur Eliasson, Karin Sander and Tomás Saraceno.

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“Flashes of Memory. Photography during the Holocaust”

"Flashes of Memory. Photography in the Holocaust", exhibition view Museum für Fotografie 2023. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / David von Becker.

For the first time, the widely recognized “Flashes of Memory” exhibition, which had been developed by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, was on display in Berlin between March 2023 and January 2024. The Museum für Fotografie in Berlin opened for a deeply moving tour of photos and films which had been produced during the Holocaust years. As educational partner of the exhibition project, the Volkswagen Group paved the way for the realization of a dedicated mediation program.

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Cultural diversity in the world of Volkswagen

North/South power plant in Wolfsburg Photo: Volker Kreidler

Around the globe, nearly 680,000 people work at Volkswagen Group facilities. At each of them, the Group is clearly committed to strengthen cultural diversity as part of its corporate social responsibility. Our aim is a sustainable engagement helping to enrich regional cultural life and providing wide-ranging access to culture and the arts for our employees, their families as well as for the wider public. We support smaller local initiatives, join forces with cultural institutions and art museums and enter into collaborations with international impact.

Fostering young talent: Volkswagen Group Fellows

Since 2021, the Volkswagen Group has been regularly providing young academics with a boost for their careers in the world of culture and the arts. In partnership with institutions like the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin, the phaeno Science Museum and the Städtische Galerie in Wolfsburg, Volkswagen enabled the fellows to gather working experience in leading museums, collect useful insights and contribute with their individual know-how to the work of the museums.

2023 Architecture Biennale: Spotlight on Sustainability

A woman on a boat receives equipment from a worker standing at a harbor next to a VW vehicle. — In March 2023, the team used a Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo for a sustainable transport of their material from Leipzig to Venice.

The curators of the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale centered their work on caring, repairing and maintenance. And during the 18^th Architecture Biennale, the Venice Giardini formed the backdrop for their pioneering concept “Open for Maintenance – Wegen Umbau geöffnet”. With the Volkswagen Group being the leading partner of the team of eight curators from Arch+, SUMMACUMFEMMER und BÜRO JULIANE GREB, the German pavilion offered a program full of workshops and projects during the six-months-long exhibition.

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The 10th anniversary of the MoMA partnership

Performance: ATM Presents DEN$E, performers name: Bubblesz Photograph: Aliza Sena

“We celebrate creativity” states the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. As one of the most influential venues for contemporary art, MoMA and MoMA PS1 are among the world’s most respected pioneers with their exhibitions and extensive educational program. Since 2012, the Volkswagen Group has contributed to many extraordinary experiences for visitors, including a Kraftwerk concert at MoMA, a show of Björk’s work or the presentation of the fascinating “Rain Room” installation by Random International. As lead partner of MoMA education, the Volkswagen Group also supports the development of new online formats for an international audience.

Big crowd puller at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Volkswagen Group was lead partner of one of the most successful exhibitions at the renowned Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. From April 8 to September 18, 2022, more than 750,000 visitors saw the exhibition “Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture”, which was curated by star architect Lord Norman Foster. The exhibition formed a bridge between the history of mobility and the design of urban spaces. It also looked into the future of mobility with the “Future Gallery”.