Fresh on the table
Area Dortmund
Dortmund is the gateway and the tourist “hub” for the eastern part of the metropolitan
area. From here there are a large number of routes leading to interesting venues for art fans in the immediate vicinity.
The Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum in Hagen, including the brand-new (2008) Emil Schumacher Museum offers visitors insights into the Folkwang philosophy. High-class installations in the Centre for International Light Art in Unna, and exhibits in the Gustav Lübcke Museum in Hamm are just two of the major attractions in an exciting “eastern trail” linking 18 art museums in the Ruhr area, which have joined forces especially for the Capital of Culture.
Furthermore Europe’s largest detective novel festival, “Murder on the Hellweg”, integrates smaller towns in the region into the “Essen for the Ruhr” programme, thereby making them interesting places for visitors to the Capital of Culture. It is precisely the small and seemingly inconspicuous places which give the Ruhr its own unique charm visit.
Creative Ruhr – music economy and new media
Olafur Eliasson, Centre for International Light Art Unna, Photo: Werner Hannappel
Cosmopolitan, creative, inspiring – Dortmund’s new symbol is the “U” building, which used to house the Union Brewery.
The listed tower, with its nine metre high, golden “U” built in 1927, can be seen for miles around. It is now being turned into an open and vibrant venue for art, creativity and new media. This will be the meeting point for an important collection of modern art, exciting media exhibitions, a “creative bazaar” and imaginative gastronomy. 21st century culture, creativity, innovation and the potentials of the new media technologies can all be experienced at close hand here in the Dortmund “U”.
The developments in and around the Dortmund “U” is embedded in a powerful music economy with its own music quarter in and around the Brückstraße in the city centre. The Dortmund Concert House, with its attractive transparent facade and outstanding acoustics opened in 2002. This was followed by the North Rhine Westphalia Orchestra Centre, thereby filling the Brückstraße with new life. Every day there are different forms of music, including concerts in the “domicil” jazz club, DJs in the “chill’R” cafe lounge, and live music in the surrounding bars. From 2009 onwards Dortmund will be staging the “klangvokal festival of 1.000 voices” featuring an unusual and spectacular programme of concerts with a rare repertoire, and exploring interesting comparisons between radically different music genres, experiments with other artistic genres, and new event dimensions.
There are no more coalmines in Dortmund, and no more steel mills. Dortmund is now a minefield of ideas. In the successful rivalry between Munich and Berlin the Ruhr now profits from Dortmund’s leading international position as an increasingly important centre for software and systems engineering, information and communications technologies.
On the journey from the Ruhr to the new metropolitan area Dortmund has achieved a thoroughgoing paradigm shift from the old heavy industries of coal and steel to a diversified, flexible and scientifically based economy.
15.000 new jobs in key business branches of the future are being created on the site of the old Phoenix steel works, a mere five kilometres away from Dortmund city centre. At the same time the site will comprise an attractive residential quarter with highquality leisure facilities. A new artificial lake will make Phoenix a very special attraction in the modern city in Dortmund.
Dortmund has succeeded in learning the lessons from the monostructural era of coal and steel. It has created a functioning mixture of academic training, job creation and international networks, whilst retaining the traditional brand marks of the city, football and beer. So raise your glasses to the future!