Ars Docendi recognition award for cross-university seminar concept

The Platform on Politics of the Past at the Mozarteum University Salzburg deals with cultures of remembrance from the 1920s to the 1990s. The critical reflection on the university's political past, especially during the periods of Austrofascism, National Socialism and the post-war era, plays just as important a role as art projects against forgetting and for greater awareness. Researchers are currently conducing a citizen research project that invites the local community to share relevant documents and contemporary accounts.

The artist and art pedagogue Ao. Univ.-Prof. MMag. Bernhard Gwiggner has been awarded the 2025 Ars Docendi prize for teaching excellence by the Austrian state. The interdisciplinary cooperation "tradition2go: zwischen kultur und wahnsinn" ("between culture and madness") was a collaboration during the 2023/34 academic year between the Sculpture Class at the Mozarteum University and the Salzburg Museum. The project went hand in hand with the exhibition "Masks, Traditional Costumes, Cult Objects - 100 Years of Folk Culture" at the Salzburger Monatsschlössl Hellbrunn.

Competence in sustainability is competence for the future. Artists and educators carry a great responsibility but also have great potential for not only reflecting on social change but also contributing to it. The start of academic year 2025/2026 brings with it the start of a new elective studies block in Art & Sustainability, for which students can obtain a supplementary certificate. It offers the chance to explore the complex relationship between sustainable developments in our university and society at large, and artistic and scholarly practice.

The Boy Gobert Prize for young actors in the Hamburg theatre scene, worth €10,000, has been awarded to Payam Yazdani, a 2025 graduate of the Mozarteum University’s Thomas Bernhard Institute. We congratulate him on his success!