Dr Barbara Steiner
Director and CEOSince September 2021, Barbara Steiner has been the CEO and Director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
Following directorships at art institutions such as the Stiftung Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (Gallery for Contemporary Art Foundation) in Leipzig and the Kunsthaus Graz and teaching at universities such as the Kunstuniversität (University of the Arts) in Linz, the Royal Art Academy in Copenhagen, the Hochschule für Grafik and Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts) in Leipzig, Steiner took over as director and CEO of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. In her theory and practice, she addresses structural and institutional questions. These include the basic conditions of cultural production as well as the effects of artistic work on institutions and society.
In addition to monographs on artists, Steiner has published a series of thematic books on contemporary art, on (public and private) museums, on curating, on institutional politics and economics and on relational concepts of space in the visual arts, architecture and the city. She studied art history and political science at the University of Vienna. Her dissertation is titled ‘Zur Ideologie des weissen Ausstellungsraumes’ (On the Ideology of the White Exhibition Space).
Steiner is a member of the jury that awards the Architekturpreis der Stadt Leipzig (Architecture Prize of the City of Leipzig) (since 2005), and regularly judges Kunst am Bau (Percent for Art) projects. From 2010 to 2015, she was university councillor for the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. Since 2023, she has been university councillor at the Technische Universität (Technical University) in Graz and on the board of the Stiftung Meisterhäuser (Masters’ Houses Foundation), and since 2025 a member of the board of the Hochschule Anhalt and since 2026 expert on Kunst am Bau for the German Federal Ministry of Building. In addition, Steiner is one of three partners in the Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar.
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Lectures
- ‘Museums in Symbiosis with the City’, Taichung Art Museum 2025 International Forum A Site of Convergence: Shaping Inclusive Cultural Spaces, Taichung, Taiwan, 2025.
- ‘Moderne auf dem Prüfstand: Wo steht die Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau angesichts aktueller Klima- und Nachhaltigkeitsherausforderungen’ (Modernism on Trial: Where Does the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Stand on the Challenges of Climate and Sustainability), Green Culture Anlaufstelle, 2025.
- ‘Der Schweinstall von Walter Gropius’ (Walter Gropius’ Pigsty), Seminar der Deutschen Tierparkgesellschaft e.V., Umweltbundesamt, 2024.
- ‘Kuratieren und Kommunizieren’ (Curating and Communicating), Open Embassy for Democracy, Montag Stiftungen, Bonn, 2024.
- ‘Marianne Brandt: Mit allen zehn Fingern’ (Marianne Brandt: With all Ten Fingers), Bauhaus Museum Dessau, Dessau-Rosslau, 2024.
- ‘Zur Utopie des Museums’ (On the Utopia of the Museum), Kunsthaus Graz, 2023.
- ‘Das Bauhaus (Immer und immer und immer wieder) (The Bauhaus [Ever and Ever and Ever Again]), Technische Universität, Darmstadt, 2023.
- From the Bauhaus to the New European Bauhaus, International Conference Digital Landscape Architecture DLA: Resilient Landscape Architecture, Bauhaus Dessau, 2023.
Publications
- ‘To the Core’, in To the Core: Bauhaus Dessau 100. Ed. Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, 2025.
- ‘Über Erwartungen an Kunst und Künstler: Barbara Steiner im Gespräch mit Jun Yang’ (On Expectations of Art and Artists: Barbara Steiner in Conversation with Jun Yang), EIKON: International Magazine for Photography and Media Art, no. 24 (2024).
- ‘Übergangs- und Grauzonen in Diskursen, Praxen, Disziplinen’ (Transitional and Grey Areas in Discourses, Practices, Disciplines). in blueprint for a museum: Kunsthaus Graz, ed. Andreja Hribernik. Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2023.
- ‘Ricochet and Surprise’, in Monica Bonvicini: As Walls Keep Shifting. Ed. Kunsthaus Graz. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2023.
- ‘Structural Asymmetries’, in Isa Rosenberger: Schatten, Lücken, Leerstellen / Shadows, Gaps, Voids. Ed. Andreja Hribernik, Barbara Steiner, Alexandra Trost. Vienna: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2023.
- 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.
Curated Exhibitions
- Sunkoo Kang: Sakristei (Sacristy), Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 2025.
- Jun Yang: More than Real, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Dessau, 2024.
- Elke Auer: Das Gespenst im Haus (The Spectre in the Building), AK Kunstprojekte (AK Art Projects), Vienna, 2024.
- Gracious Hosts (Julia Miorin, Henrike Naumann, Jun Yang, Anita Leisz, Sunkoo Kang, Sol Calero, Steve Bishop) Muche Schlemmer Masters’ House, Dessau, 2024.
- Kerstin Flake: Unsteady Stages, Kandinsky Master’s House, Dessau, 2024.
- Christina Werner: Rhythm Is a Dancer, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, 2024.
- Clemént 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: Schatten, Lücken, Lehrstellen / Shadows, Gaps, Voids, Kunsthaus Graz, 2023.