Stadthaus Team

Curators

Daniela Baumann is a freelance curator, author and speaker, focussing on contemporary photography. The former director of The Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm has curated numerous photography exhibitions (such as Structures of Identity: Photography from The Walther Collection, which also travelled to the USA, Mexico, Spain and the Netherlands) and co-edited the catalogue Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art (in the New York Times Magazine's top ten list of the Best Photo Books of 2017, and nominated for the ICP Infinity Award in the category ‘Critical Writing and Research’ in 2018).

The historian, art historian and political scientist likes to do sports, loves climbing and always reads several books at the same time. The first exhibition she curated for the Stadthaus, was Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay, presenting works by the US-American photographer Debi Cornwall. Rebecca Sampsons Apples for Sale followed 2022.
Have a look at Daniela Yvonne Baumann's Homepage! 

Cora Carmesin was born in Ulm and studied biology, chemistry, and physics at Ulm University. In Freiburg, and in Spain. In February 2022 she became director of the Museum of Nature Ulm, while also completing her doctorate. With the university group BUND (association for environment and nature protection), she initiated numerous projects in environmental education and the protection of the environment and species. For Cora Carmesin, the knowledge and conservation of diversity are intertwined. She specifically appreciates her home country with its unique flora. One of her most promising projects in terms of environmental education is ‘Talking Tree – Berti the beech’, a cooperation of the BUND group with Ulm University (Prof. Steven Jansen), and with the botanical gardens. 

In 2021, Cora Carmesin became the first member of the BUND group to take care of the plants on the Stadthaus terraces. Now she hands that responsibility over her successor as spokeswoman for the group. But she will stay with the Stadthaus, advising us with her expertise.

She is torn between two things: Romanian stuffed cabbage, and Kässspätzle.
Born in Timişoara, she came to the land of her ancestors when she was three years old. She started doing crafts at a very young age, and as she grew older she wrote diaries, designed fashion, did photography, was a location scout for television, studied culture sciences, and used her talents as a communicator. Together with her sister and her mother she founded the fashion studio lajcc, she runs a small eatery in the city centre together with her boyfriend, she is publishing her own print magazine, Uhochdrei (U cubed; featuring creative people, young photography, and good stories), and she is a freelance social media and event manager. We can only assume that all of that is happening at the same time, somehow. That’s Andrada in a nutshell, who is always attentive, interested, and friendly, but who doesn’t talk about herself much. If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you can see what we mean. Instead of all of the above, Andrada would probably have written: #stadthaus #ulm #donotmiss

In 2022, members of university group BUND (association for the preservation of environment and nature) has joined the conception, planting and maintenance of the flower and plant beds on the Stadthaus terraces. They have come up with themes for the individual beds, bought plants, planted them, sowed, and wrote descriptions: A joint project that rests on the shoulders of several enthusiasts. The BUND members offer easy to understand introductions to what is currently growing. Which changes with every season, but it’s always interesting! For more information see our guided tours.

Jürgen Grözinger, who comes from Ulm but lives in Berlin, is a renowned percussionist and composer. Besides being active in the realm of classical music, he initiates ensembles and projects that strive to blur the lines between contemporary classical music and improvisation, between traditional concert hall settings and the club and lounge scene. He has been the artistic director of ‘neue musik im stadthaus’ since its inauguration in 1996, which is now called ‘KlangHaus’. Jürgen Grözinger’s talents as a photographer became evident in his series "Luminous - Licht im islandischen Winter", which was shown as part of the exhibition ‘Bright Moments’, commemorating the Stadthaus’ 25th anniversary.

After completing her studies at FU Berlin and Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (MA, focus on industrial architecture and design of the 20th century), the art historian from Essen has been working at Kunsthaus Essen and the German Poster Museum Essen. She also held guided tours for Kulturstiftung Ruhr in Essen and the Kulturhistorische Museum in Osnabrück. Since she moved to Ulm, she has been offering guided tours for the Stadthaus and the Museum Brot und Kunst. The mother of two also does volunteer work at Mukoviszidose Förderverein Ulm e.V.

Her roots are in Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, where Adriana Junqueira-Brugger grew up and studied history and linguistics. In 2002 she came to Germany and styed, because of love. And she has achieved a lot. At kontiki, the art school for children and young adults, she introduced the students to the culture of indigenous peoples of her home country, she teaches Portuguese at Ulm University, and completed her training as art mediator at the Frauenakademie of vh Ulm. She works as an interpreter, city guide and as pedagogic staff at Kindermusem Neu-Ulm. If you want to hear her talk, we recommend tuning in to radio free fm, where Adriana Junqueira-Brugger hosts the show ‘Carabelas’ – mostly in Portuguese.

She first joined the Stadthaus team for the big Brasilia exhibition in 2021/13. Now she supports our mediation programs, introducing children to the Stadthaus and the exhibitions in formats such as ‘Kultur auf der Spur’ (hot on culture’s trail) and ‘Kulturlöwen’ (lions of culture).

Cultural manager, art historian and literary scholar – he is a jack of all trades and has been curating exhibitions of contemporary art at the Stadthaus since 1996. He is also responsible for the programme in cooperation with Ulmer Verein für moderne Musik, where he is the chairman. He is on the advisory board of pro arte ulmer kunststiftung and runs his own culture office, organising concerts all over Europe that bridge the gap between Jazz and contemporary classical music. To try and list all his exhibitions at the Stadthaus would require way too much space. To name a few, he worked on ‘Bright Moments’, commemorating the Stadthaus’ 25th anniversary (2018) the FLATZ exhibition ‘Hitler. A Dog’s Life’, an exhibition of Douglas Kirkland’s photographs of Monroe and Chanel (both in 2019), as well as the retrospective of Ulm artist Thomas Kahl (2020). In 2022 he will be in charge of two projects, first Ursula Kaufmann's Pina Bausch photographs and in autumn Peter Bialobrzeski's "Urban Spaces".

Silvia Keppler fragments the Stadthaus into 48 basic bodies, before working out the properties of the building: She uses her modular Stadthaus model in programs such as ‘Kultur auf der Spur’ (‘discovering architecture’) and ‘Kulturlöwen’ (‘lions of culture’) to initiate contact with architecture in a playful way. It’s not that easy to assemble the building ‘correctly’ – not just for children and teenagers. She proficiently explains, in guided tours for families for example, what the deal is with ‘swimming pool ladders’ and ‘flying carpets’ at the Stadthaus.

Silvia Keppler studied fine arts at AdbK Karlsruhe, was a visiting student at HfK Karlsruhe (science of art, philosophy), spent a year in Mexico City on a fellowship, continued studying fine arts at HfK Bremen, where she was a master-class student in 2016. She has been working as an artist and photographer since 2017.

She is a sinologist, art historian and did her doctorate on the war photography of Lee Miller. Katharina Menzel-Ahr started working for the Stadthaus in 2000, with an exhibition of works by Israeli photographer Micha Bar-Am, followed by ‘Nightscapes- Fotografien der Nacht’ (2001), Stefan Hunstein (2002), ‘Hausordnungen’ (2003) and – with Antje Krause-Wahl – ‘Erblätterte Identitäten’ (2006). Katharina Menzel-Ahr worked at the Faculty of History and Arts at Universität Leipzig before she moved first to Nierstein am Rhein and then back to her hometown Bielefeld. After spending some time with her family, she returned to the Stadthaus in summer 2013, with an exhibition of works by Michael Schäfer. Most recently she organised the successful exhibition ‘The Longing for Colour’ (2016/17), presenting traditional Amish quilts from the Schlumberger collection, 2021 Desirée von Trotha's "Sahara" and 2022 "Greytree and Heavensea" by Loredana Nemes and in 2023 the very well-attended exhibition about Mongolia.

Robert Pupeter: Graduated from The State Academy for Photo Design in Munich, freelance portrait photographer and photojournalist, co-founder of FOTODOKS, the international festival for contemporary documentary photography, project partner for a diverse range of artists and designers, co-initiator of a multitude of projects, such as the hofHaus Weicht, a socio-cultural venue in East-Allgäu, mise-en-scène for Jugendherbergsverband, for the Tyrol advertising campaign, or for OutdoorSociety by ispo, and a lot of other corporate features. Talking about a lot: Robert spends a lot of time in the mountains, he explores the perception and the relationship of humans and space. He lives in urban proximity to the mountains (Munich).

A jury-member of our photography award for young people ‘Causing Democracy’  from the beginning, we finally convinced him to curate exhibitions with us. His debut exhibition: ‘A trip through Germany: The NSU murder spree’ by Paula Markerts (2004).

Find out more about Robert here: www.freieRobotrone.de oder www.RobertPupeter.de

For the Stadthaus, Wiebke Ratzeburg developed the exhibitions ‘Kosmos. Neue Fotografien aus dem Weltraum’ and ‘Südafrika fotografisch 1950 - 2010. Apartheid - Struggle -Democracy’. The photography historian and cultural manager was director of Museum für Photographie Braunschweig, with which we cooperated. In the meantime, she moved to Stuttgart with her family, where she helped develop the ‘Fotosommer Stuttgart’ and worked as a research assistant at Kunsthochschule Stuttgart (faculty of media conservation, special subject photography). In 2012, Wiebke Ratzeburg was appointed director of the Stadtmuseum Tübingen. At the Stadthaus she curated exhibitions of works by Jodi Bieber (2012), Oliver Hartung (2013), of West-African photography (2014) and on the topic of ‘Cross Dressing’ (2016).

there is more that connects us than what sets us apart

Brought up in post-soviet Uzbekistan with Korean roots, Elsa Schröttle moved to Ulm in 2013 because of her Swabian husband. In Uzbekistan she worked as a travel guide, now she teaches English and offers guided tours through Ulm and the Stadthaus. Elsa enjoys travelling and learning foreign languages; she loves exploring cultures and meeting people. Her numerous projects keep her busy, such as projects that bring together people from different countries: She was involved in the development of ‘Multikultour - Ulm Internationale Stadtspaziergänge’. The cooperation between Elsa and Stadthaus Ulm started in 2017 during the exhibition ‘Pictures of North Korea’. As an intercultural person, she was able to convey the diversity of this mysterious country and to shine a light on its hidden side. Currently, Elsa helps us to extend our international reach.

Born in the Fugger-city, growing up on a farm surrounded by nature and animals, a student in Neu-Ulm. And then: Carpenter. After that: Teacher for technology, sport and fine arts at a secondary school, freelance art educator at Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Karthago-exhibition) and Art Historian B.A. One of her subjects was multi-media. Further on: Employed by the SWR to establish the media library and as a photo editor for online news. Thereafter: Photo editor at Südwest Presse. Today: Getting qualified as a childcare-worker, employed by a kindergarten in Ulm. Oh, and: She is a high ropes course trainer.

Katrin Stern’s first appearance at the Stadthaus was in 2014, as a member of Amnesty International, as co-moderator for a conversation with a contemporary witness of the ‘comfort women’ system in the Pacific War. Currently she is teamed up with Karla Nieraad, curating an exhibition planned for 2024 by photojournalist Katharina Eglau: Egypt, Iraq, Sudan, gold miners, Sufis, women’s rights …