Stadthaus Team

Curators

The historian, art historian, political scientist, and former director of The Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm has curated numerous photography exhibitions. For example Structures of Identity: Photography from The Walther Collection, which also travelled to the USA, Mexico, Spain and the Netherlands. She co-edited the catalogue Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art. It was listed among the New York Times Magazine's top ten of the Best Photo Books of 2017, and nominated for the ICP Infinity Award in the category ‘Critical Writing and Research’ in 2018.

In 2022 Daniela Baumann curated the exhibition Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay  by the US-American photographer Debi Cornwall and Rebecca Sampsons Apples for Sale. Followed by Like a Bird by Johanna-Maria Fritz, and a project called Costume & Masquerade with photographs by Suzanne Jongmans and Jason Gardner in 2023. Please also visit Daniela Yvonne Baumann's Homepage! 

She 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. One of her most promising projects in terms of environmental education is ‘Talking Tree – Berti the beech’, a cooperation between the BUND group, the Botanical Gardens of the University of Ulm and Prof. Steven Jansen. 

Cora Carmesin was still a member of the BUND group when she started to take care of the plants on the Stadthaus terraces in 2021. Even as director of the Museum of Nature she stays with the Stadthaus, supporting us with her expertise.

The University Group BUND (association for the preservation of environment and nature) has been responsible for the conception, planting, and maintenance of the herb and flower beds on the Stadthaus terraces since 2021. The members of the group, currently coordinated by Swetlana Kreinert, come up with themes for the beds changing with the seasons. They buy the seeds, plant herbs and flowers and write descriptions for the different plants. With this ongoing project they call our attention to sustainability, environmental protection, and biodiversity in the Ulm region. They also offer exciting lessons in botany, not only for families with children.

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 (contemporary music at the Stadthaus) since its inauguration in 1996, which is now called KlangHaus (SoundHouse). He is also one of the hosts of Klassik Klub, a classical radio show, airing on WDR 3. Jürgen Grözinger’s talents as a photographer became evident in his series Luminous - the Light in Icelandic 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 Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, where Adriana Junqueira-Brugger grew up and studied history and linguistics. In 2002 she came to Germany and stayed because of love. At kontiki, an 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 Children's Museum 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 2012/13. Today she gets children excited about  our contemporary photography projects 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 (society for contemporary music), where he is the chairman. He is on the advisory board of pro arte ulmer kunststiftung (Ulm arts foundation) 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 2022/23 he curated Ursula Kaufmanns Pina Bausch Photographies and Peter Bialobrzeskis Urban Spaces, as well as 40 Years of laif, an exhibition on documentary photography.

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. Night Photographies (2001), Stefan Hunstein (2002), House Rules (2003) and – together with Antje Krause-Wahl – Leafing through Identities (2006). Katharina Menzel-Ahr worked at the Faculty of History and Arts at the University of 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. She curated the successful exhibition The Longing for Colour (2016/17), presenting traditional Amish quilts from the Schlumberger collection. Desirée von Trotha's Sahara (2021), Greytree and Heavensea by Loredana Nemes (2022), and the very well-attended exhibition about Mongolia in 2023.

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), on the topic of Cross Dressing (2016), and photographs by Barbara Klemm (2021). Currently she is preparing a retrospective on Angelika Platen for 2025.

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.