Barbara Clausen appointed Rector

The Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main is proud to announce the appointment of Barbara Clausen as Rector of Städelschule and Director of Portikus, beginning October 1, 2024. Clausen succeeds Yasmil Raymond who held the office from 2020 to 2024.

Clausen (b. 1970, Austria) brings with her over two decades of experience as a curator, educator, and art historian. Her academic leadership and research projects are deeply dedicated to relationship building, fostering intergenerational knowledge, dialogue, and experimentation. 

From 2020 to 2024 she was Vice Dean for Research and Creation at the Faculty of Arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Canada, where she has been a professor of contemporary art and performance in the art history department since 2011. Clausen, who completed her PhD at the University of Vienna, Austria, in 2010, has lectured and written extensively on the historiography and institutionalisation of performance-based art practices and the discourses surrounding the politics of the body, the exhibition, and the archive.

She has curated numerous live exhibitions and programs including After the Act (2005), Again and Against (2006) and Push and Pull I & 2 (2010–11) at mumok (Museum of Modern Art Stiftung Ludwig Wien) and Tate Modern, London, followed by Stage Set Stage: On Identity and Institutionalism (SBC Gallery, Montreal 2014) and in 2016 Joan Jonas: From Away and Affinities, both at the PHI Foundation, featuring the work of Rosa Barba, Simone Forti, Andrea Geyer, Joan Jonas, Jason Moran, Tanya Lukin Linklater, taisha paggett, and Lawrence Weiner.

Some of these projects were closely interwoven with her academic research and dedicated to archival and curatorial forms of community building, notably An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (Artexte Montreal 2014–19) and The Joan Jonas Knowledge Base (2017–21), which she co-directed with the Artist Archives Initiative in New York, collaborating with major museums in Europe, North America, and Asia. 

The Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule is an art school in Frankfurt am Main. Since its establishment 1817 it has been committed to providing equal, international, experimental, and independent artistic education. The school’s international community is remarkably diverse, making it unique in Germany. Teaching at Städelschule supports freedom for art and encourages critical thinking through a variety of formats and discourses. Students can pursue a Fine Arts program or, in cooperation with Goethe University, an MA in Curatorial Studies. Städelschule stands out as the only art school in Germany with an exhibition hall integrated into the institution: Portikus, founded in 1987 by former rector, Kasper König, has been dedicated to exhibiting, publishing, and discussing young, emerging, and established artists. 

Distinguished faculty includes artists, architects, and cultural theorists such as Monika Baer, Daniel Birnbaum, Gerard Byrne, Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius, Isabelle Graw, Judith Hopf, Hassan Khan, Philippe Pirotte, Tobias Rehberger, Willem de Rooij, and Haegue Yang.