To honor the achievements of art historian and curator Werner Fenz (1944-2016), the Cultural Department of the City of Graz established a biennial scholarship for art in public space in 2020. The scholarship was initiated by an international committee of over 200 artists, curators, journalists and other members of the art world.
Starting in 2023, it will be awarded jointly by the festival for contemporary art steirischer herbst and the city of Graz and is aimed at national and international projects that deal with the cultural and political context of the city of Graz.
As an internationally successful curator and art mediator, theorist and teacher, as a member of numerous specialist committees and as founder and director of the Institute for Art in Public Space Styria (2006-11), Werner Fenz has lived the interweaving of theory and practice at an uncompromisingly high and exemplary level and thus continuously raised the profile of art in public space in and from Graz. He was closely associated with steirischer herbst and realized countless projects there.
The Werner Fenz Scholarship, endowed with 17,000 euros, sees itself as a biennial assessment of art in public space. Following the vote of an international jury, temporary projects are to be conceived and realized every two years that put art in the public interest up for discussion.
Objectives and award criteria
Art in public space today
The aim of the Werner Fenz Scholarship is to promote art that provides decisive impetus for the development of public space and social change. This means art “that claims social responsibility” (Werner Fenz) and seeks dialog with citizens.
The signs and actions of this art can relate to economic, political, social, ecological or architectural/urban planning situations. The funded projects should contribute to the discourse on current forms of art in public space and address the socio-political context of the City of Graz and the Province of Styria.
Since it is possible to position oneself seismographically, especially in temporary interventions, the focus is on temporary projects that infiltrate everyday urban life and integrate themselves into existing public systems.
Endowment and award mode
The Werner Fenz Scholarship for Art in Public Space is awarded by the City of Graz and the festival for contemporary art steirischer herbst biennal and is endowed with EUR 17,000, of which EUR 12,000 is available for the realization of an artistic work in public space and EUR 5,000 as a fee.
The invitation to tender is international.
At the jury meeting, the jury will decide whether the process will be carried out in one or two stages. The final decision on a winning project will be made by January 2026.
The winning project will be presented to the public in spring 2026 and realized as part of steirischer herbst 2026.
International jury
The expert jury is made up of five members, one of whom is from the committee of initiators and changes with each call for entries. The jury is also made up of two people nominated by steirischer herbst and two people nominated by the City of Graz’s Department of Culture.
Production
The production will take place under the direction of steirischer herbst and can therefore draw on the festival’s excellent resources and its many years of experience with artworks in public spaces. Research work on site and accommodation for the artist/artist/collective during the production period in Graz will be covered as part of the grant.
Submission deadline and realization period
The scholarship will be announced on May 12, 2025 for the implementation period fall 2026.
The submission deadline is August 12, 2025.
Submission documents
- Submission form
- Project concept (max. 2 A4 pages): brief description of content and technical details, visualization/sketch, information on duration and location, etc.
- Calculation and financing concept
- Portfolio with examples of work (in public space), images, texts, etc., if not available online (website)
- Please upload all the documents/information listed here as a single PDF in the digital submission form!
- Language: German or (preferably) English
Documentation
The project will be documented and presented as part of steirischer herbst and on Werner Fenz’s website(https://fenz.mur.at/category/werner-fenz-stipendium/).
Collection of the Werner Fenz Scholarship at steirischer herbst
The collection initiated in 2024 is to be continued in 2026 with ten project proposals that cannot be realized within the framework of the grant. It includes preparatory materials such as project concepts and sketches.
Application deadline: August 12, 2025