Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten

Description

The Skulpturenmuseum Marl is devoted to the presentation and study of sculptural art, with a particular focus on Classical Modernism, contemporary sculpture, and video and sound art. Founded as a municipal museum in 1982, it brings together a collection that grew out of acquisitions that entered the city's holdings early on and later exhibition purchases.

The history of the collection begins in the post-war period, when the municipality systematically acquired works for new buildings and thus built up holdings of 20th-century works. Additional sculptures from the Marl open-air exhibitions of 1970 and 1972 further supplemented the holdings. In the early 1980s the collection was institutionalized and housed in a fully glazed space beneath the town hall; later an outbuilding of the municipal clinic formed part of the museum. A friends’ association has supported the institution since the 1990s and early on acquired a key work that also gave the association its name.

During a renovation of the town hall the museum had to vacate its previous location; the glass box closed at the beginning of 2022. Since April 2022 the museum has continued its exhibition activities at a temporary location in a school in Marl-Hüls. The collection is temporarily held in the depot of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe in Münster. For the future a permanent move to the Marschall 66 project is planned, a conversion of a former secondary school into a multifunctional cultural centre with museum, library, music school, adult education centre and event spaces; after a temporary interruption the project has been resumed and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2026.

The museum’s scope includes, alongside traditional sculptural works, objects, installations and works in public space: around 100 sculptures from the holdings are distributed throughout Marl, with an increasing concentration toward the city centre. The institution’s focus on new media is also internationally significant: since the 1980s video and sound art prizes have been awarded, now combined under the name Marler Medienkunstpreise; the awards are on pause due to the relocation but are intended to be continued at the future site.