Wednesday, 10 June 2026, 9am–6pm - in English
How can art education create an awareness of the vitality of the world? What role do artistic practice, aesthetic experience and exhibition education play at a time when our understanding of ‘nature’ is undergoing fundamental change?
The Museum Sinclair-Haus and the international network Nature through Art invite you to a public conference. The focus is on current approaches to art education that consider art and nature in tandem – at the intersection of aesthetics and ecology, art and the natural sciences, and emotion and knowledge. The programme includes lectures, discussions and workshops. The e-book Nature through Art: Art Education for Ecological Awareness, which bringstogether the network’s key approaches and experiences, will also be presented.
Traditionally, nature has served as both a motif and a material for the arts. With the ‘ecological turn’ that began in the early 2000s, perspectives have shifted: Nature no longer appears as something antithetical to humanity, but rather as a network of relationships in which humans are embedded as active and influential beings. This redefinition has far-reaching consequences for curatorial practice and art education.
Through lectures, discussions and hands-on workshops, various approaches to educational and outreach work will be presented and discussed. The conference is the public part of a network meeting organised by Nature through Art and is aimed at art educators, curators, artists, academics and anyone else interested in this topic.
The Museum Sinclair-Haus is the only exhibition venue in Germany with a consistent focus on contemporary art and nature. Since 2022, it has been part of the international Nature through Art network – alongside Moderna Museet Malmö (Sweden), Moderna MuseetStockholm (Sweden), Garðasafn Museum (Iceland), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark) and Fondation Beyeler (Switzerland). The network facilitates exchange among art educators. With its long-standing expertise in educational work, the museum positions itself as a place where the relationships between different forms of life are explored and can be experienced aesthetically.
We warmly invite you to think, discuss and empathise with us – and to develop new perspectives on art, nature and education.
Conference Programme, 10 June 2026, 9 am–6 pm
• Welcome and introduction, Kathrin Meyer (Director of the Museum Sinclair-Haus) and Kristine Preuß (Head of art education at the Museum Sinclair-Haus)
• Cultural Education in the Anthropocene, lecture by Nicola Lepp, Professor of Culture and Education in the Cultural Work Programme, Potsdam University of Applied Sciences
• Why go to a museum when you could go to the forest?, Estelle Zhong Mengual (art historian, Sciences Po Paris) in conversation with Sinan von Stietencron (StiftungKunst und Natur [Art and Nature Foundation])
• Launch of the new e-book by the Nature through Art network with representatives from the art education departments of Moderna Museet Malmö (Sweden), ModernaMuseet Stockholm (Sweden), Garðasafn Museum (Iceland), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark), Fondation Beyeler (Switzerland) and Museum Sinclair-Haus(Germany).
Workshops
• In Togetherness: Encountering nature becomes art. Workshop led by Karin Bergdolt(artist and art educator)
• Deep Listening Movement: Methodology for artistic environmental education. Workshop led by Anno Bolender (dance artist and educator)
• The Object is Present: Aesthetic research in the context of waste collection as a practice of radical attentiveness. Workshop led by Astrid Lembcke-Thiel (independent curator for artistic processes and research-based artist)
• Meadowing: Collective research on coexistence. Workshop by Sina Ribak (researcher in ecology and art)
When you register at the venue, you can choose two of the four workshops.
Please note: The workshops will take place outdoors, so please dress appropriately for the weather.
The Museum Sinclair-Haus, run by the Art and Nature Foundation (Stiftung Kunst und Natur), is the only art museum in Germany with a thematic focus on contemporary art and nature. Its environmentally conscious exhibitions and art education programmes explore the interrelationships between different living beings, raising awareness of the network of connections within the non-human world and humanity’s role within it. People of all ages are encouraged to experience the vitality of the world in a diverse ways.
Participants experience a sense of self-efficacy through artistic and creative processes – such as working with their hands, exploring their surroundings, engaging all their senses, and sharing their experiences. Art education opens up spaces of possibility and resonance in which one’s relationships with the living world can be explored and experienced. Artistic practice fosters imagination and creativity and helps us envision alternative futures. Through collective thinking and experimentation, these future scenarios can become tangible and conceivable.
The conference addresses the key questions of art education at the Museum Sinclair-Haus:
How can we use cultural and art education to establish relationships with—and develop new ways of connecting to—plants, animals, fungi, the soil and the natural cycles of life? How can we create opportunities to experience the vitality of our surroundings?
Who can take part?
Art educators, curators, artists, academics and anyone with an interest in art and nature.
With international guests from the Nature through Art network, comprising representatives from the education departments of Moderna Museet Malmö (Sweden), Moderna MuseetStockholm (Sweden), Garðasafn Museum (Iceland), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark) and Fondation Beyeler (Switzerland).
Registration at: tickets.museum-sinclair-haus.de
Cost: Participation in the conference is free of charge; registration is required.
Venue: Bad Homburg, hall of St. Marienkirche, Dorotheenstr. 13, 61348 Bad Homburg.
The hall is located to the left of the Marienkirche church building. The Museum Sinclair-Hausis within walking distance, just a few houses away from the Marienkirche. The afternoon workshops take place outdoors in the castle grounds.
How to get there
By public transport
• From Frankfurt, take the S5 towards Friedrichsdorf/Bad Homburg to the ‘Bad Homburg Bahnhof’ station.
• From Bad Homburg railway station, take the city bus (lines 1–5, 7, 11, 12) towards the city centre, alight at the “Kurhaus” stop, then walk up Louisenstraße (pedestrian zone) towards the castle until you reach the Laternenbrunnen (approx. 5 minutes) and turn left there into Löwengasse. Follow this until the corner of Dorotheenstraße; the museum entrance is on Dorotheenstraße.
• Approx. 15 minutes’ walk from Bad Homburg railway station.
• From Frankfurt, take the U2 towards “Bad Homburg/Ober-Eschbach” to the “Ober-Eschbach” stop. Then continue by bus to the “Kurhaus” stop.
• Click here for the RMV timetable
By car
• Via the A5 from the south and north, take the Bad Homburger Kreuz exit, then join the A661.
• Via the A661 from Frankfurt, take exit 3 (Bad Homburg) and head towards Bad Homburg Stadtmitte. Continue straight along Pappelallee, then onto Hessenring; after 1 km, turn right into Thomasstraße and after 400 metres turn left into Dorotheenstraße. Unfortunately, there are very few parking spaces on Dorotheenstraße and it is very narrow.
Parking
• Parkhaus Schlossgarage (car park), Herrngasse 1 (entrance via the Ritter-von-Marx-Brücke)
• Free parking at the fairground: Am Heuchelbach 1, 61350 Bad Homburg vor der Höhe(provided no event is taking place there)