The Academic Art Collection

The Kustodie (University Collections) has the task of keeping the historical artistic and scientific heritage of the University of Greifswald available for public communication. The presence of historical artefacts and their ceremonial use are important components of the university's public image.

The Kustodie’s current collection activities focus on the ongoing extension of the portrait gallery. In addition, artefacts of great significance for the university’s history, exemplary material evidence of teaching and research, as well as material evidence of regional history with a direct connection to the university and documentary evidence of general academic and student culture are added to the collections on a selective basis.

The Kustodie endeavours to look into abandoned or neglected university collection holdings, to salvage them if necessary and provide them for suitable use. In the next few years, the focus of object acquisition will be on objects that are particularly well-suited for illustrating the history of academia at Greifswald as a centre of study and research. One focus will be on Greifswald's production of illustrative material for teaching and scientific publication: academic drawing lessons, pictorial scientific documentation in research, model drawing and construction, and taxidermy. Items must not necessarily belong to the field of artistic works in order to be included in the collection.

All collection areas of regionally significant artistic expression that have little or no connection to the university and its history are considered complete.

A selection of the holdings can be found in the University of Greifswald’s Collections Portal [de].