Dr Barbara Steiner
Director and CEOBarbara Steiner has been a member of the Board and Director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation since September 2021.
After holding managerial positions at art institutions for many years, including the Museum of Contemporary Art (GfZK) Leipzig and Kunsthaus Graz, as well as teaching at the University of Art and Design Linz, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Steiner took over as director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. In her theoretical and practical work, she addresses structural and institutional issues. These encompass the framework conditions of cultural production as well as the impact of artistic practice on institutions and society.
In addition to artist monographs, Steiner has published a series of theme-related books on the (public and private) museum, curatorial issues, institutional politics/economies, and relational space concepts in the fine arts, architecture, and urban planning. She studied art history and political science at the University of Vienna, and wrote her doctoral thesis on the “Ideology of the White Exhibition Space”.
Steiner has been a member of the jury for the Architecture Award of the City of Leipzig (since 2005) and regularly acts as a juror for “Art in Architecture” competitions. Between 2010 and 2015, she was a member of the University Council at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Since 2023, she has served on the University Council of the Graz University of Technology and on the Board of the Meisterhäuser Foundation; since 2025, she has been a member of the Board of Trustees at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences; and since 2026, she has served as an expert advisor on “Art in Architecture” for the Federal Ministry of Construction. Furthermore, Steiner serves as one of three shareholders in the Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar.
For further information, please see here.
Publications
- To the Core – in: “To the Core” (An die Substanz), Bauhaus Dessau 100, ed. Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, 2025
- On Expectations of Art and Artists: Barbara Steiner in Conversation with Jun Yang – EIKON #127, Int. Magazine for Photography and Media Art, 2024
- “Strukturelle Asymmetrien”, in: Andreja Hribernik, Barbara Steiner, Alexandra Trost (eds.), Isa Rosenberger: Schatten, Lücken, Leerstellen, exhibition catalogue, Verlag für moderne Kunst Wien, 2023
- Ricochets and Surprises, in: *As Walls Keep Shifting*, Monica Bonvicini (Ed. Kunsthaus Graz), Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne, 2023
- Structural Asymmetries, in: *Isa Rosenberger: Shadows, Gaps, Voids*, Verlag für moderne Kunst Vienna, 2023 (Eds. Andreja Hribernik, Barbara Steiner, Alexandra Trost)
- Conversations on the Bauhaus with Contemporary Artists (ongoing): with Julia Miorin, Clément Cogitore, Christina Werner, Jun Yang, Anna Meyer, Sunkoo Kang; Bauhaus Dessau, since 2023
Lectures
- Museums in Symbiosis with the City, Taichung Art Museum 2025 International Forum
A Site of Convergence—Shaping Inclusive Cultural Spaces, Taichung, Taiwan, 2025 - Modernism Put to the Test. Where Does the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Stand in Light of Current Climate and Sustainability Challenges? – Green Culture Hub, 2025
- Walter Gropius’s Pigsty – Seminar of the German Zoological Park Society (Deutsche Tierparkgesellschaft e.V.), Federal Environment Agency, 2024
- Curating and Communicating – Open Embassy for Democracy, Montag Foundations, Bonn, 2024
- With All Ten Fingers: Marianne Brandt – Bauhaus Museum, Dessau-Roßlau, 2024
- On the Utopia of the Museum – Kunsthaus Graz, 2023
- The Bauhaus (Again and Again and Again) – Technical University of Darmstadt, 2023
- “From the Bauhaus to the New European Bauhaus”. International Conference Digital Landscape Architecture DLA: Resilient Landscape Architecture, Bauhaus Dessau, 2023
Exhibitions
- Sunkoo Kang, “Sakristei”, Bauhaus Building Dessau, 2025
- Jun Yang, “More than Real”, Bauhaus Building Dessau, 2024
- Elke Auer, “Das Gespenst im Haus”, AK Kunstprojekte Vienna, 2024
- “Gracious Hosts” (Julia Miorin, Henrike Naumann, Jun Yang, Anita Leisz, Sunkoo Kang, Sol Calero, Steve Bishop), Muche-Schlemmer Master’s House, Dessau, 2024
- Kerstin Flake, “Unsteady Stages”, Kandinsky Master’s House, Dessau, 2024
- Christina Werner, “Rhythm Is a Dancer”, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, 2024
- Clément Cogitore, “Bodies in Sync”, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, 2024
- Anna Meyer, “Planet B House”, Bauhaus Building Dessau, 2024
- Isa Rosenberger, “Manda”, Bauhaus Building Dessau, 2023
- Isa Rosenberger, “Shadows, Gaps, Voids”, Kunsthaus Graz, 2023