Successful art and culture year 2023 with over three million guests

2023-12-17 09:28:07

LH Mikl-Leitner: Visitor levels in the cultural sector are experiencing new heights

St. Pölten (OTS) – The art and culture year 2023 in the cultural region of Lower Austria, characterized by its diverse museum landscape with over 750 museums, collections, exhibition halls, memorials and excursion destinations, theater stages and countless festivals throughout the country, was extremely successful. Lower Austria’s cultural businesses can draw an impressive balance, emphasizes Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner: “The art and culture year 2023 was an outstanding success for Lower Austria. With over three million guests and an impressive cultural summer, we were able to record a significant increase compared to the previous year “The cultural highlights stretched from the northernmost Waldviertel to the Vienna Alps and in particular the opening of the Cathedral Square in St. Pölten marked a significant milestone this year.”

Particularly noteworthy is the art mile in Krems, with its eight core institutions: Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, Kunsthalle Krems, Karikaturmuseum Krems, Artothek Niederösterreich, Forum Frohner, Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche, museumkrems and Dominican Church. The art mile presented an impressive 24 new exhibitions in 2023, including outstanding highlights such as the Sokol anniversary in the Krems Caricature Museum. Also worth highlighting are the baroque treasures and Schiele in the Lower Austria State Gallery. The Kunsthalle Krems presented, among other things, the groundbreaking, first comprehensive monographic exhibition by Eduardo Chillida in Austria. The show, which took place from April 29th to September 24th, 2023, illuminated the fascinating constellations between sculptures and works on and with paper. In total, the Krems Art Mile welcomed 144,579 visitors with its wide range of offerings.

Another highlight was the Schallaburg, which once again asserted itself as Lower Austria’s most popular excursion destination. With its unique charm and an innovative and interactive exhibition on the theme of “Being a child”, the Schallaburg attracted over 130,000 visitors and underlined its position as an important cultural center in the region.

This year, the Lower Austria Cultural Summer 2023 boasts an impressive number of over 514,000 guests at over 3,000 theater, music and cinema events. This corresponds to an increase of ten percent compared to the previous year (2022: 450,000). The comprehensive program offered first-class events, festivals, events and exhibitions that brought the theaters, monasteries, castles, palaces and museums across the state to life.

Under the brand Theaterfest Niederösterreich 2023, high-quality productions of spoken theatre, opera and operetta as well as special children’s programs were offered at 20 venues throughout Lower Austria and reached over 200,000 visitors – making the Theaterfest Niederösterreich one of the most successful summer festivals in Austria.

Music events were also very popular, such as the Grafenegg Festival, which once again brought together a large number of the best and most famous orchestras and soloists from all over the world. Or the serenade concerts that have been organized by the state of Lower Austria for over 60 years – MUSIK AM ORIGINAL. In 2023, concerts took place at a total of ten locations in the state that are particularly connected to important musicians: in places where they were born, lived and worked, museums, memorial rooms and research institutions.

The grand opening of the cathedral square in St. Pölten provided particularly beautiful moments. The weekend of September 8th, 9th and 10th, 2023 marked a significant milestone for the state capital and the entire state of Lower Austria. The partnership between St. Pölten, the state of Lower Austria, the St. Pölten Festival Hall, the Tonkunstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, the St. Pölten City Marketing, the Diocese of St. Pölten and the Musica Sacra association has made the cathedral square a cultural center and thus a sent a clear signal for the promotion and development of the state capital. With 3,000 tickets, the two-day festival with countless performances, which was also broadcast live in the evening program on ORF III, was fully booked and admission was free.

As every year, volunteers, including choir singers, musicians, folk dancers, cultural initiative members and many more, were involved in the regional culture in Lower Austria with its numerous events and cultural initiatives and shaped the rich cultural life in the places. Highlights in 2023 included the workshop tour “Culture needs you!”, strengthening the volunteer system with the “Service Volunteers” initiative, promoting the music scene through the “musik.szene.niederösterreich” project and the popular “Tage of the “open studios”.

The annual festival aufhOHRchen, which travels through all districts of Lower Austria, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023. It promotes regional cultural participation and offers a diverse range of cultural activities, from tavern music to school projects and street music to concerts and exhibitions, a large evening concert organized by the Lower Austrian folk culture with local actors. In 2023, aufhOHRchen took place in Hollabrunn from Thursday, June 22nd to Sunday, June 25th.

Further information: Mag. Alexandre Tischer, Office of the Lower Austrian State Government – Department of Art and Culture, Tel: 0676 / 812 13006, Email: [e-mail]

Questions & Contact:

Office of the Lower Austrian State Government
State Office Directorate/Public Relations
Doris Zöger
02742/9005-13314
[e-mail]
www.noe.gv.at/presse

1702806059
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