All the best cultural events happening in Vienna right NOW & in the upcoming weeks

Vienna’s fantastic arts and culture scene will be on display as part of the city-wide Kultursommer festival. With a diverse (and huge) programme, there’s something to see for everyone – and we mean everyone! If you’re a culture vulture and you know what’s good for you then be sure to check out the programme.

The Albertina Museum is putting on a solo exhibition for Franz Grabmayr, showcasing his nature-inspired paintings and graphic works. Grabmayr’s art is known for its lively brushstrokes and sculptural feel, capturing elements like water, fire, and earth. Up close, his works look like a paint mess, but from a distance, you can see landscapes and figures. You should come and try it. It’s really cool.

The Albertina is showcasing Robert Longo’s realistic charcoal drawings, known for their powerful and dynamic depiction of dramatic moments. Longo’s work, which transforms well-known photographs into colossal, visually impactful black-and-white images, emphasises the interplay of light and shadow. It’s a really creepy how lifelike they are. You should come check it out!

The Albertina Museum is showcasing the fascinating works of Eva Beresin, a Hungarian artist known for blending beauty and horror in her art. Her exhibition features hybrid creatures and grotesque figures that blur the lines between human and animal traits.

Definitely check out Gregory Crewdson’s retrospective at the Albertina. He’s famous for turning everyday small-town American scenes into something straight out of a movie set. His photos really dive into the themes of loneliness and the darker sides of daily life.

ALBERTINA is celebrating Roy Lichtenstein’s 100th birthday with a major exhibition, featuring over 90 of his art pieces from 30 museums worldwide. Something you don’t want to miss if you consider yourself an art lover.

ALBERTINA is breaking the streak of showcasing mostly white male artists. For 300 years, it’s been a boys’ club with the likes of Leonardo, Dürer, Picasso, and their pals. Now, the museum is expanding its collection to include voices that have been silenced for far too long. From the imaginative Eva Beresin to the edgy Alexandre Diop. From the incredible colours of Basquiat to the complicated reality of Cindy Sherman.

The Belvedere is celebrating the 300th birthday of Franz Anton Maulbertsch, the Baroque artist who rocked the Vienna art scene with his dramatic and almost creepy style. Now, you can see the world’s largest collection of his colorful works in the beautiful Upper Belvedere.

For the first time in Austria, the Belvedere Museum is hosting a retrospective dedicated to Hannah Höch, a renowned German painter and graphic artist famous for her collage and photomontage work. With our 21st-century mosaic thinking, Höch’s works appear surprisingly contemporary and more relevant than ever.

The Leopold Museum is showcasing art that emerged in response to the aftermath of World War I and the ‘Golden Twenties.’ This exhibition features works by artists like Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, who depicted the era’s harsh realities and newfound optimism with a realistic and purist style.

This is for all of you scared about AI, fascinated by AI, or just plain confused. “Smart World” is here to navigate the rollercoaster of AI’s ‘wonders’, from telling you your pulse to potentially swiping your job. So take a journey through a maze-like exhibit that’ll make you question if your voice assistant is truly your BFF.

The MAK and ImPulsTanz Festival are teaming up to present ‘WILLIAM FORSYTHE: Choreographic Objects,’ an exhibition that features works merging dance and visual arts. It’s a must-see for those fascinated by the fusion of dynamic movement and creative expression.

The latest show at the Museum of Applied Arts takes a look at how protests shape architecture, from old-school barricades to today’s protest camps. It showcases the evolution of protest spaces and their impact on public spaces worldwide. Very interesting stuff!

It’s June and museums are celebrating acceptance and diversity. Check out the ‘Proud to be Pride’ exhibit at the MAK, showcasing a collection of LGBTQIA+ posters.

‘Pomp & Embossment’ at the Kunsthistorisches Museum is all about cool medals and art from royal courts. So, there are going to be a lot of shiny pieces that you’ll really want to steal for your cabinet of curiosities, but won’t be able to.

Ok, we believe we don’t need to convince you. It’s Don Giovanni by our homeboy Mozart. It’s an open air. It’s in Belvedere Park. Need we say more? Yeah, we didn’t think so. Go snatch those tickets before they’re sold out.

Our favourite English Theatre in Vienna has done it again! This time, they’re taking on a somewhat modernised adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ The twist is five actresses play all all the roles from the classic novel. We don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say it’s hilariously funny, unexpectedly touching, and will totally change the way you look at karaoke machines at parties.

Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ is a classic that hits the sweet spot for both kids and adults. It’s a bit of Austrian heritage that’s easy on the young minds, yet packed with enough politics, psychology, and quirky gender dynamics to keep the adults tuned in.

When a former royal garden opens up for the entertainment of us peasants, like the garden of the Palais Schwarzenberg is doing for the summer-long Theater im Park, it might be time to dust off that suit and dress you got in the back of your closet. Ok, you won’t need to dress up for this as it’s a nice casual affair. A good dose of culture, theater and cabaret is going to be served up to you right in the park under the stars if you buy a ticket for one of the shows going on all summer. Check out their programme!

Summer time is open air cinema time! We have put together the ultimate guide to Vienna’s open air cinemas for you! So don’t forget to get some popcorn and enjoy watching movies under the starry sky.

Are you ready to enjoy those first summer days? How about spending them watching a great movie outside? Sounds perfect, right? So pack an iced drink, grab a blanket (it can get a bit chilly in the evening), bring some sweets, and welcome your art-filled summer, you cultured human, you!

Ah, the joys of living in Vienna! There is something quite unique going on every summer in this city’s heart, right at the Rathausplatz. From July to September a great variety of concerts ranging from classic ballets, operas and Jazz to Pop and dance will be shown on a huge screen in front of the Rathaus. For free, we might add.

There’s a huge screen installed in front of the beautiful town hall, with enough seats to accommodate a small village from Vorarlberg. The films begin at sundown. However, from 11am onwards, there are a plethora of food stands featuring cuisine from around the globe. We feel like you can find nearly anything from every corner of this world there. It’s a culinary heaven!

So enjoy sitting in the shade, have a Spritzer and wait for the film to begin. Throughout the summer, most films will be played twice. Most nights, there are also live performances of some sort before the screenings. Check out the full programme.

The ö-tONE literature festival will take place within the Museumsquartier for over a month, starting in the middle of July. The festival will shine a light on several Austrian contemporary literature writers and show the great diversity of authors in our small, cute country. Readings will take place on eight selected dates throughout summer. For detailed info on the festival programme, check out the website.

Like every summer, there’s the event ‘Reading in the Park’ happening, where young kids from three to ten years are invited to immerse themselves in the exciting world of books. They can read, play, paint and also borrow books at these park events, as part of the daily play and leisure programme on offer. It will take place in various parks all over Vienna, so be sure to check out the info page for details.

When?
July 1 – August 8 and August 19 – 29, 2024
Monday – Thursday 2:00pm – 6:00pm
(cancellations possible in case of rain)

Vienna’s dance festival of all dance festivals, ImPulsTanz, is back and they’ve sure got a lot of workshops and performances lined up that are worth doing your happy dance about. So get your dancing pants on and get yourself tickets for one of the shows / register for one of the classes. Check out the full Impulstanz programme here.

This little event series called Musik am Fluss is pretty self-explanatory, but in case you still don’t understand the concept: it’s a series of concerts happening near rivers in Vienna. Oh, and it’s also totally free!