Department of Art

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The Department of Art qualifies students for artistic and scientific activities in the spectrum of fine arts and applied design. 
The teaching areas of the Department of Art are characterized by openness and understanding for each other. Students have free access to all teaching areas within the Department of Art, and in some cases also to teaching areas in the Department of Design. This open and variable concept, called the Offenbach Model, is unique in the world; it takes into account the forward-looking practice of constantly changing challenges and opportunities in art and design. 

In the course of study, emphasis is placed on experimental exploration, process-oriented development from idea to conceptual concretization to implementation, in which students' individual, social and intellectual competencies can grow.
In the intersection of free and applied working methods, innovative possibilities can be explored and new fields staked out.
Unlike classical art academies, there are neither classes nor masters at the HfG. Students can study in parallel with different professors and develop their own artistic position and practice through a variety of teaching areas and perspectives. 
The artistic and creative, scientific and technical courses offered by professors, teachers for special tasks and heads of workshops, as well as artistic and scientific staff, changing guest professors and lecturers, all come into their own.

Theoretical teaching areas

The HfG is an artistic-scientific university. It offers a broad spectrum of scientific-theoretical subjects, which flank, deepen and complement the teaching of the artistic-design subjects in a judgmental manner. The Department of Art teaches art history, philosophy/aesthetics, sociology/theory of the media, and perception theory, supplemented by other theoretical courses geared to specific artistic-design issues.

Depending on the theoretical subject, developments in art and culture and their social role are reflected upon here. This is by no means only about the systematic historical classification or the critical discussion of the corresponding developments; rather, the exchange between artistic-design and theoretical-scientific disciplines, which is programmatically cultivated at the HfG, is also effective in the opposite direction. Just as what is researched in theory and science can be reflected in artistic and design work, conversely, for theory and science the problems and developments that emerge in the artistic-design subjects can be the occasion for the revision of concepts or the development of new questions and fields of research.

This double perspective determines the theoretical and scientific work: it contributes to a self-understanding of the artistic-design subjects about the concepts and questions that implicitly or explicitly guide them, and at the same time it faces the constant challenge of practice.

Vocational Preparation

The HfG trains excellent, independently active and contributing artists and designers who can hold their own in a changing professional world. In addition, the career preparation program offered at the university with counseling and training accompanies students on their first steps into professional life. It offers a series of lectures and seminars on the subject of starting a business and also a consultation hour to help students plan their careers and professional entry into the world of work.

Yrd works

Taschide klein

Sandra Tan and Johannes Schiebe, graduates from the Department of Design founded design studio Taschide

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Loimi Brautmann and Nicolas Kremershof, graduates from Visual Communication Faculty founded Urban Media Project (together with Oliver Kremershof)

Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Lecturer

Additional lectures summer semester 2023

Anselm Baumann

anselm.baumann@ostpool.de 

Jennifer Becker

Jonathan Bepler

Laura Brunner

Nicholas Bussmann

Ubin Eoh

​Markus Frohnhöfer

mfroh2@icloud.com

Jan Hartmann

janhartmann_@web.de

Karoline Kirberg

Esra Klein

klein.esra@gmail.com

Nadine Kolodziey

nadinekolodziey@gmx.de

Dirk Krecker

Xenia Lesniewski

Leonie Martin

Mario Mentrup

mariomentrup@yahoo.de

Maria Mohr

mail@mariamohr.de

Ishkhan Nazaryan

ishkhannazaryan@googlemail.com

​Sonja Palade

sonja.palade@gmail.com

Sarah Schoderer

Götz Sophie Schramm

info@goetzschramm.com 

Martin Selbert

al@saasfee.de

Nina Sieverding

nina.sieverding@form.de

Charlotte Simon

charlotte@mmodemm.com

Sophie Watzlawick

Amin Weber

amin@amination.net

Mounira Zennia

mouniz@icloud.com

Study in the department of art

Beginning in 2022, the following degree programs will be offered in the Department of Art:

  • Bachelor of Fine Arts
  • Master of Fine Arts
  • Master of Fine Arts with a larger theoretical component

The diploma programs will expire in 2028.

Further information

  • Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in art
  • Diploma program in Art
  • Study and examination regulations of the Art Department

Course Objectives

The courses qualify students for artistic-creative activities in the fields of art, media and design as well as theory and science. As a Department of Art at an art university, the teaching areas pursue the exploration of artistic-creative contents as well as the promotion of the individual creativity of the students. The aim of the course is to acquire the corresponding practical, artistic-creative, and scientific-theoretical basics as well as methods of experimental work. In addition, technical implementation is taught and tested, and aesthetic judgment is trained.

In the workshops, laboratories and studios, computer and media technologies as well as analog and classical creative-artistic techniques are taught, researched and further developed. Accompanying the practical qualification, comprehensive historical, cultural, social and economic contexts are taught in all teaching areas through the theoretical-scientific subjects. 

No separation between art and design

The "Offenbach Model" dispenses with the traditional separation of liberal and applied disciplines. This model is unique and is based on the practice of softening and hybridizing the boundaries between art and design and between different teaching areas in education. The Department of Arts' degree structure is characterized by courses of equal standing that are accessible to every student. Students can pursue their inclinations and interests across foci without having to neglect a respective subject-oriented specification.

Dean's Office

The Dean's Office is the parliament of the university; it manages the department, prepares and implements the decisions of the Departmental Council. It concludes target agreements with the Senate and the Presidential Board and, within the framework of structural and development planning, decides on the equipment of the teaching areas and on the use of personnel and material resources. The Dean's Office is also responsible for the organization of studies and examinations.

Dean

Prof. Alexander Oppermann

oppermann@hfg-offenbach.de
T 069.800 59-220

Vice Dean

Prof. Kerstin Cmelka

cmelka@hfg-offenbach.de

T 069.800 59-173

Dean of Students 

Prof. Dr. Marie-Hélène Gutberlet

gutberlet@hfg-offenbach.de

Student Liaison  

Prof. Dr. Marie-Hélène Gutberlet 

gutberlet@hfg-offenbach.de

Prof. Mike Bouchet 

bouchet@hfg-offenbach.de 

Office Manager, the Dean’s Office and Examination Committee

Christina Wittich
wittich@hfg-offenbach.de
Tel.: + 49 (0)69 80059 123
Main building, 115b

Examination Comittee

Anja Mainardi-Ploch

mainardi-ploch@hfg-offenbach.de

Tel.: + 49 (0) 69.800 59-192

​Hauptgebäude, Raum 115b

Departmental Secretary

Yvonne Truber

truber@hfg-offenbach.de

Tel.: + 49 (0)69 80059 200

Main building, 115a

Postal address

Hochschule für Gestaltung

Dean' Office Department of Art

Schlossstrasse 31

63065 Offenbach/M

Germany

Visitors

Room 115a / 115b, 1st floor, main building

Entrance: Schlossstrasse 31

Opening times

Monday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 12 noon

Closed on Friday

Dean’s consultation hours

By appointment