Press: 19 Museen und 1 Zoo in Graz und der Steiermark

Welcome to the press page of the Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor!

Here you find detailed information ans press images on current exhibitions and on the museum

Items from everyday life in the Folk Life Museum tell of social life, of human fates and needs through the ages. Living, dressing, and faith are three themes that play a key role in people’s daily lives, and also shape the permanent exhibition in the Folk Life Museum. On show are objects that tell us something about people’s wishes, needs and concepts of life in the pre-industrial age, predominately. In the museum’s original openfire kitchen, we can dip—with all our senses—into peasant life from centuries gone by.

[Translate to English:] Ansicht Standort Volkskundemuseum

Image Credits

Exhibitions

Images

About the Folk Life Museum

Press contact

Upcoming exhibitions and press dates

Sonderausstellung

Who Are You, Styria? A project on collection objects and their stories

Press release

Folk Life Museum

24.04.2024

Sonderausstellung

DIGIDIC. Call for Digital Self-Defence

Press information

Folk Life Museum

04.07.2024

Images of the exhibitions

exhibition

The Other Life. Photographs by Konrad Mautner

Press conference

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

27.01. - 30.06.2024

permanent collection

Folk Costume Room

Press release

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

since 08.11.2022

permanent collection

Folk Life Museum. Worlds – Changes – Perspectives

Press release

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Images

Claudia Unger, Head of department Folk Life: Folk Life Museum and Open-Air Museum Stübing

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor, the church of St Anthony of Padua

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Folk Life Museum at the Paulustor, the church of St Anthony of Padua

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

About the Folk Life Museum Paulustor

The museum itself has been housed in the former Capuchin monastery on Paulustorgasse in Graz since 1913. Viktor Geramb, founder of the museum and long-time director of the Folk Life Museum, focused the collection, research and education on rural and farming society in the 19th century and before. Today, the Folk Life Museum deals with the lives, living environments and experiences of people in times of change and social transformation and in the field of tension between regional and global. How is today shaped? And how or by whom has it been shaped?

Worlds – Changes – Perspectives

Worlds – Changes – Perspectives is the title of the new semi-permanent exhibition in the Folk Life Museum, which was opened as part of the SHOWING STYRIA and will continue beyond this. The exhibition is divided into four main modules: ‘The colour of Styria’, ‘We’re fine!’, ‘My world, your world and how do we converge?’ and ‘What will be?’.

Each module functions like an exhibition within the exhibition, can be visited independently of the other and will be continuously altered in the next few years. The exhibition also takes into account the building, its history, the historical rooms and its relations to the exterior world. The Smoking Room (Rauchstube), transferred to the Museum from the Pack in 1914, is integral to the museum and open to visitors, as is the Traditional Costumes Room (Trachtensaal), planned during the 1930s and opened in 1938. In the near future the Traditional Costumes Room will be updated in terms of content, taking into account Geramb as a collector and researcher.

The building in Paulustorgasse

Not only the exhibition shapes the new beginning for the Folk Life Museum, the group of buildings itself has been renovated, too, according to the stipulations of the Monument Protection law, with individual parts of the site now more closely connected with one another. Underlying all the measures is the goal of establishing in Paulustorgasse a vibrant and socially relevant venue, one that is an important hub for many people due to its conveying of knowledge, its discourse and varied cultural offerings. For this reason the ‘Café Grün’ has also been set up; part of the exhibition, it invites visitors to linger a while in the museum and guests’ garden.

The Homeland Room (Heimatsaal) has been revitalised and now offers barrierfree access and is available for events. St. Anthony’s Church with paintings by Pietro de Pomis and Hans Adam Weißenkircher likewise belongs to the extended museum complex. Every year since 1916 this has been the venue for the ‘Styrian Shepherds’ and Manger Songs’. These concerts combine traditional songs from the museum’s collection with new arrangements by Styrian musicians. Moreover, artists and partners from science and education are invited to hold lectures in collaboration with the museum. Thus readings, concerts, lectures and discussions take place enabling additional perspectives on museum-related themes, as well as general cultural and social issues. The museum therefore also pursues the goal of creating a vibrant and socially relevant venue by opening its doors to and inviting the largest possible number of people.

Research and Archiving

With some 12,000 single volumes, along with 80 current specialist journals, periodicals and publication series, the specialised folkloristic library is available to users as a reference library (i.e. non-borrowing). In the folklore studies department archive attached to the library can be found comprehensive source material of historical research into daily-life culture: regional collections of fabric, inventories and survey results on such subjects as the course of the seasons and of people’s lives, work, tools, medicine, songs, dance, music or religious practices.

The museum’s extensive photographic archive with around 20,000 colour slides, as well as the many historical photographs, offer illustrative material on the general themes mentioned above. The Folk Life Museum sees itself as a platform for a topical and critical engagement with questions of historical and modern-day cultural processes and aims its exhibitions and activities at interested persons of all ages.

Folk Life Museum is part of the Universalmuseums Joanneum

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