Reminiscing and Networking as the Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies Celebrates 50 Years
The inaugural “reConnect mdw” alumni festival in October invited former students to return to their alma mater, network with current students and faculty, and transform the mdw into a lively place of memories. mdw alumnae and alumni work all over the world, pursuing a diverse range of careers and inspiring new generations of artists. They also convey our university’s values and spirit to others with dedication, passion, and excellence in their respective fields.
The 50th anniversary of the Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM), which now boasts over 2,000 former and current students, provided all the more reason to celebrate. In light of this important milestone, a point was made to honour figures from the department’s history while also surveying the development of cultural management and gender studies at the mdw in various formats such as workshops, discussions, lectures, and film screenings. Moreover, an anniversary party and a celebratory matinee (entitled “Bravo, Prawy!”) were organised by members of the IKM Alumni Club (recently renamed IKM Club – Network for Cultural Management).
Former students and graduates of the department provided exclusive and in some cases unusual impressions of Vienna’s cultural landscape and their places of work in the series “Behind the Scenes”. This included a tour through the attic level of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which is normally closed to the public. We discussed audience service as a factor in cultural institutions’ success at Wien Museum, and a visit to the Künstler_innenhaus provided us with a very personal look into curatorial practice. At the Papyrus Museum, we learned about the malleability of languages and writing systems while being swept away into the long-forgotten everyday life of the distant past. And at the Wiener Konzerthaus, we moved around behind the scenes and also attended the concert Welt, Gute Nacht!
All of these participating institutions employ enthusiastic individuals who studied at the mdw, embarked upon career paths of their own, and now enrich the University’s network with their expertise. Sharing in and making visible our graduates’ successes, experiences, and discoveries is a central point of this new alumni festival, for their stories leave one touched, stirred, and inspired.
In “Re-Connecting with Sarajevo”, former students from Bosnia and Herzegovina came together with experts to reflect upon their career paths against the backdrop of war and displacement. During the Bosnian War, the mdw admitted students to study music in Vienna so that they would be able to assist in the reconstruction of their home country’s musical life and infrastructure following the war there. In periods where existential threats loom large, music and art can serve as expressions of resistance, as a survival strategy, and as a means by which to overcome trauma, all the while bolstering individual resilience and social cohesion.
reConnect mdw is an open festival that facilitates networking and strengthens the mdw’s own network. The second edition of reConnect mdw is slated to take place from 12 to 18 October 2026 in cooperation with the Exilarte Center. Information will be available soon at connect.mdw.ac.at, the digital networking platform of the mdw. Complete your free registration there and stay connected!
