Mind the Gap! 
What Options Do International Artists and Cultural Workers Have After Graduating in Austria?

 

This workshop presents the residency options available to international artists in Austria after completing their studies, with a focus on working as a freelance artist. What options are available? What needs to be considered when settling in Austria and when applying for a work permit? When am I allowed to work as a self-employed person, and when as an employee?

The workshop also includes an introduction to the new digital EU border systems EES (Entry/Exit System) and ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System), as well as an overview of the social insurance system and insurance options in Austria.

 

Objectives

  • Assess residency options for international artists in Austria after graduation
  • Understand the requirements for settling in Austria
  • Learn about the framework conditions for obtaining a work permit
  • Recognize the differences between self-employed and employed work
  • Understand the new digital EU border systems EES and ETIAS
  • Gain an overview of the Austrian social insurance system and relevant insurance options


An offer in cooperation with the Center for Further Education of the mdw.
 

Sabine Kock © Edith Ruthner


Course lecturer Sabine Kock

Sabine Kock is a freelance philosopher, cultural scientist, and curator. Her areas of focus are epistemology, aesthetics, discourses of remembrance, gender & diversity, and new forms of work & innovative cooperatives. From 2000 to 2003, she worked at the Project Center for Gender Research at the University of Vienna; from 2003 to 2015, she was managing director of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, and during these years she was also a co-founder, as well as chair from 2005 to 2012, of the Austrian Cultural Council. She was the founder and, from 2015 to 2023, CEO of the solidarity-economy cooperative Smart Coop Austria.

As part of Art-Mobility Austria, she advises artists on matters of international mobility, and is part of D-Arts, as well as the international network of Mobility Information Points and the international Platform Cooperativism Consortium network. Most recently, she curated two projects on the politics of remembrance: www.theater-erinnert.at, as well as, in autumn 2025, the exhibition Ruth Klüger – Ceija Stojka. Dichten ins Leben.

Webinar

 

 



Date
WE, 10.03.2027 
10 am–1 pm

Location
online via ZOOM

ECTS
The webinar, including preparation and follow-up, counts as 4h of 60 minutes each for the Career Center elective

Registration
From 15.09.2025 at www.mdw.ac.at/zfw/kurse