Folkwang University of the Arts

The Folkwang University of the Arts is the central training venue in music, theatre, dance, design and scholarship with locations in Essen, Duisburg, Bochum and Dortmund.

The various arts and scholarly disciplines have been united under one roof here since 1927, in accordance with the Folkwang ideal of a collaboration between the arts spanning every discipline. Since 2007 this has also included Photography, Communication Design and Industrial Design courses.

In 1927 the "Folkwang School of Music, Dance and Speech" was founded, and in 1928 the name of the already existing Essen School for Trades and the Applied Arts was changed to "Folkwang School of Design". For more than 80 years the name Folkwang has stood for excellence in teaching, learning and production of the arts, and it has long since became a cultural brand name far beyond German national borders.

The 1360 or so students of the Folkwang University of the Arts come from nearly every country in the world. 360 teachers are there to assist them. As well as excellence in training, the staff always have the Folkwang University of the Arts' central element in view: collaboration of the individual disciplines, spanning all areas, and active interchange between them. The so-called Labs should also be mentioned in this regard; these are firmly anchored in the course curricula, and they function specifically to open up new artistic and scholarly thinking spaces. Students from at least two departments collaborate together in these project laboratories.

More than 300 public events take place at the Folkwang University of the Arts every year, and these enjoy a position of importance in the cultural landscape of the Ruhr region. They are presented by students and teachers on the university's six in-house stages or in cooperation with the numerous cultural institutions in the region. This allows the students an early insight into the realities of the acting and musical professions.

Right in the middle of one of Europe's densely populated areas, a broad and innovative spectrum of art and culture awaits students at the Folkwang University of the Arts - in a surrounding environment that is lively, diverse, multi-cultural and constantly in motion, just like the Folkwang University of the Arts itself. The Main Building is situated in an idyllic setting in the Essen-Werden district. A baroque building complex from the 18th century houses many of the courses on offer.