Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contempory Art

The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art, commonly shortened to Urban Nation, is a museum in Berlin, Germany, dedicated to street art, graffiti, and urban contemporary art. Located in the Schöneberg district at Bülowstraße 7, the institution serves as a global center for exhibitions, research, and exchange. It aims to make urban contemporary art accessible to a broad audience, functioning as an archive for this inherently temporary art form while supporting artists through residencies and neighborhood outreach. The museum operates under the motto "Connect. Create. Care." and offers free admission to the public.

Urban Nation originated in 2013 as a project initiated by the non-profit Stiftung Berliner Leben, a foundation of the Berlin housing association Gewobag, under the artistic direction of Yasha Young. The initial goal was to bring international artists to Berlin to create large-format public murals across the city, resulting in roughly 50 major and numerous smaller outdoor works before the museum even opened its doors. After several years of planning, the institution officially opened to the public on September 22, 2017. Its inaugural exhibition, titled "UNique. UNited. UNstoppable," was curated by 11 curators and featured 145 artists from 28 countries who produced over 190 artworks, the majority created specifically for the opening. Subsequent exhibitions have included "The power of art as a social architect" in 2018, a Martha Cooper retrospective from 2020 to 2022, and curated shows like "TALKING... & OTHER BANANA SKINS" and "LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY."

The museum collects and exhibits the full range of urban contemporary art, encompassing graffiti, murals, canvases, sculptures, installations, text-based works, action art, pop-art, photo-realism, and conceptual art. The collection and exhibition program emphasize the diverse techniques and genres of the movement, presenting works that span from street photography to large-scale paintings. As street art is inherently ephemeral and susceptible to change or deterioration, the museum acts as a preserver and archive of this transient form, while also explaining its techniques and historical genesis, which traces back to the 1970s. The interior presentation avoids a rigid room numbering system, instead encouraging an instinctive navigation across two floors connected by a walkway that allows artworks to be viewed from multiple perspectives.

The museum's holdings feature works by prominent international and local artists. Key figures represented include Shepard Fairey, Invader, Blu, Banksy, Vhils, JR, Herakut, Fintan Magee, Lora Zombie, Damien Hirst, and Martha Cooper. The museum also houses the Martha Cooper Library, dedicated to street photography and graffiti history, which contains a large part of the famed photojournalist's personal collection and documents her work spanning six decades. Additionally, the museum supports around thirty young talents annually through its Fresh A.I.R. residency program, continually refreshing its collection with new perspectives and rotating revolving exhibitions of art on its modular facade.

The museum is housed in a renovated 1880s Gründerzeit, or Wilhelminian-style, residential and commercial building at Bülowstraße 7. The Berlin-based architecture firm GRAFT carried out the redesign, transforming the historical structure into a 3,500 square meter exhibition space. By removing ceilings and inserting diagonal bridges and a highline walkway, the architects created an exciting sequence of spaces over two floors. The interior features dark wax concrete floors and walls, subdued lighting, and a fluorescent staircase. The building itself functions as a work of art, with a modular facade that regularly changes appearance as street artists transform it into gigantic murals. The surrounding Bülowstraße area serves as an open-air gallery, with murals, sprayed works, and pasted art on building walls, lampposts, and parking garage columns, integrating the museum into the urban fabric.

Urban Nation is located at Bülowstraße 7 in the 10783 postal code of Berlin, situated in the Schöneberg district. Admission to the museum is free of charge. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, with operating hours generally from 10:00 to 18:00, though it extends hours to 20:00 on Thursdays through Sundays, and remains closed on Mondays. The institution is easily accessible via public transit, with nearby U-Bahn stations at Bülowstraße and Nollendorfplatz. Beyond exhibitions, the museum offers educational formats, interactive workshops for children and young people, and audio guides available in German and English. It is backed by Gewobag's Berliner Leben foundation, with support from the Berlin Lotto Foundation, promoting social neighborhood development and cultural revitalization.