The breakthrough of modernity sparked by the Vienna Secession led to a reorganization of the School of Applied Arts, in which such renowned artists as Josef Hoffmann, Kolo Moser, Alfred Roller, Oskar Kokoschka, Heinrich Tessenow and Franz Cizek joined the faculty and established the schoolís excellent reputation, both at home and abroad.
In 1941 the school attained de facto university status, with a new and improved and more in-depth curriculum. In 1970 it was granted de jure university status.
The University of Applied Arts Vienna is devoted to the cultivation and refinement of the arts, as well as to relevant teaching and research. 1100 students from 26 countries attend the university, whose faculty numbers 340. Art students complete their essential course work in master- classes. Approximately 120 students graduate each year.
The university library comprises 75,000 volumes and 320 periodicals. The University of Applied Arts Vienna is home to more than 1,000 students, many of whom come from other European and overseas countries. The range of courses available at the school is unusually extensive, encompassing architecture, fine art (painting, tapestry, animated film, graphics, sculpture, photography, ceramics), stage design, design (fashion, graphics), industrial design, media design, art teacher training and restoration. It is precisely this diversity of artistic disciplines, which is also supplemented by a large number of scientific subjects, that serves to create the very special Angewandte atmosphere.
The fundamental concept of the university as a venue for critical reflection concerning personal thoughts and actions, and as a place where questions are more important than so-called patent recipes, is alive and well at the Vienna University of Applied Arts. Studies at the Angewandte are not limited to the mere communication of artistic techniques and skills. The development of individual creativity and theoretical and conceptual reflections on the artistic oeuvre are at the heart of the learning process. Students at the University study and experience art not for its own sake, but as both the starting point and medium for communications, in which the analysis of parameters relating to the meaning and effectiveness of art within a social context plays an established and significant role. The encouragement to develop a creative vision and the facilitation of artistic experiment in combination with a declared commitment to technical excellence and conceptive brilliance are the basic elements of the quality standards, which apply to students and teachers alike at the Angewandte.
The Angewandte regards itself as a haven of free artistic and scientific expression. A forum for debate and a research laboratory for the artistic imagination, which should, and will, attain its full potential in the society of the future.
Our claim to be one of the world's best art schools and our aim of remaining so, is indelibly linked to the systematic further development of our quality standards, the constant renewal of creative potential and uncompromising support of artistic and scientific liberty.
You are most cordially invited to sample this unique atmosphere both in a virtual manner through a visit to our web site, and in reality by attending one of our numerous events, or undertaking a course of study.
