The Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) is an internationally orientated art university with the right to grant doctorates and habilitation. With 1,100 students in Fine Arts, Design, Aesthetics & Art History, Media Studies, and the educational courses of study Performing Arts and ART. Education, the Braunschweig University of Art, is one of the largest art academies. Excellently equipped studios and laboratories provide the ideal working conditions for all intellectual, creative, and artistic processes.
The "Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig"/HBK (Braunschweig University of Art) was founded in 1963. Hence, it is one of the youngest art universities in Germany.
However, its history goes back to the "Zeichnen Institute" (Drawing Institute) established in 1842 by the Braunschweig local trade association. The co-founder was the court-appointed master bookbinder Johannes Jakob Selenka. Since 1985 the name of the forecourt of the HBK at the Altstadtring reminds us of him: Johannes-Selenka-Platz.
From this drawing institute of the 19th century, the state-approved Municipal Trade, Arts and Crafts School developed, which shortly afterward changed into the Master School of German Handicraft. The HBK's actual predecessor was the Braunschweig Municipal School of Fine Arts, founded in 1952, which became the State University for Fine Arts (SHFBK). Finally, in 1978, the Braunschweig University of Art.
The SHFBK was equated with the state's scientific universities from 1972 onwards and a few years later included into the Higher Education Act of Lower Saxony as a University of Arts and Sciences. Since then, it owns the right to award doctorates and postdoctoral lecture qualifications. This accreditation was followed by an expansion of the University - both in the workforce and premises.
In 1984 the award-winning new building by the Braunschweig architects Krämer, Sieverts & Partner was inaugurated. A few years later, the University moved into a former factory building where many art classes are now generously accommodated. The extension to the library building constructed from parts of the Mexican pavilion from the EXPO 2000 and designed by the well-known artist Ricardo Legorreta is, for now, the latest addition to the university campus. In June 2010, the HBK was given premises by the City of Braunschweig to be used rent-free for contemporary art and design exhibitions over five years.
The Library is the center of literature and information services at the Braunschweig University of Art. We offer scientific literature in printed form and access to electronic information. Personal assistance concerning literature and information inquiries is also available to all our users.
The Library gives you access to more than 120,000 items about all subjects taught at the University; most of them can be borrowed. Collections are particularly strong in modern, contemporary art and design.
The Braunschweig University of Art combines three domains under one roof: fine arts, design, and theory of art and media.
Each discipline has its specific methods and practices in research – oscillating between the classical academic research in the theory of art and media, practice-based research in communication and industrial design, and artistic research in the fine arts.
The Fine Art diploma course provides the best opportunities for individual artistic development. The course is seen as a personal space for development and is based on an intense exchange between teachers and students.
The course's primary focus is free and, as far as possible, independent work in one of the art classes. These classes cover the entire spectrum of the fine arts and associated artistic forms of expression. The art course results are presented and discussed at regular intervals and are explored in more depth in individual revision sessions. Numerous and well-equipped university workshops are at your disposal for realizing your artistic ideas. Excursions, visits to exhibitions, lectures, and class-relevant projects, as well as art and media classes, round off the course.
This course's objective is to be able to independently realize one's own artistic goals based on a broad foundation of craftsmanship and media - as well as material-specific skills. Course graduates, particularly those with the additional qualification Promotion of Art, have gained competencies above and beyond this to be useful in further education for adults museums, businesses art schools and universities, etc.
Exceptionally qualified students have the option of being admitted to a two-semester "Meisterschüler-class" course.
Teacher training for Art Education at the HBK Braunschweig is directed towards those who would like to teach art, based on advanced and artistic practice, in secondary and comprehensive schools to make aesthetic experience and access to art, architecture, and design available to the pupils.
In the first six semesters of the eight-semester bachelor's course, the emphasis is on the study of Fine Art. In the primary and specialized classes, the students develop, observe, and discuss their work together with the students in the Fine Art course. They will become acquainted with the different workshops and work techniques and compile their exhibitions and communication concepts.
Accompanying seminars in communicating art and art pedagogics and art science and media science are aimed at a multi-layered dialogue with all the questions and contents important in art instruction. Internships in schools and museums enable prior communicating experiences and create a starting point for their projects. The second subject (German, English, or history) at the Technische Universität Braunschweig begins in the seventh semester. Altogether it has a lesser scope than the art course and is completed with a teaching qualification for instruction up to year 11.
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