Urban Nation

The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin-Schöneberg is the city's first museum devoted entirely to street art, graffiti, and urban contemporary art. It was founded by the nonprofit Stiftung Berliner Leben, which had been inviting artists to paint murals around the city since 2013, before a permanent exhibition space was created. The museum's mission is to permanently showcase artworks that are often only temporarily visible in public spaces and to document the history of this worldwide artistic movement. Here you can discover a variety of styles, techniques, and trends in urban art, ranging from international stars such as Shepard Fairey and Banksy to well-known Berlin artists.

The museum is housed in a four-story Gründerzeit building at the corner of Bülowstraße and Zietenstraße, which underwent a comprehensive redesign between 2016 and 2017. Across 550 square meters, two floors with ceilings up to seven meters high provide plenty of room for the exhibits. One distinctive architectural feature is a walkable elevated pathway that cuts across the exhibition area and was inspired by the High Line in New York. This structure lets you view the artworks from different perspectives. The building's facade and the walls of neighboring buildings are also part of the concept, serving as an open-air gallery that displays rotating murals.

In addition to the changing exhibitions, which feature examples from every era of urban contemporary art, the building houses the Martha Cooper Library. The library is named after the American photojournalist, who gave the museum part of her collection, and it documents the development of street art since the 1970s. The building also contains eleven studio apartments for guest artists, used as part of residency programs. Admission to the museum is free, and the program is rounded out by workshops, guided tours, performances, and educational offerings for various age groups that actively involve the neighborhood.