Art at the Schloss
Hellenistic sculptures in the Antikensaal, exhibition openings in the library, and paintings and photographs along its towering corridors: Mannheim Baroque Palace has long been a venue for displaying art. With a new curatorial program, the University of Mannheim now invites students, staff, and visitors to engage in conversations about art.
Behind the red-and-yellow walls and large glass doors of Mannheim’s Schloss lies more than a place for learning, research, and work — it is also a destination for art lovers. Anyone walking through its spacious corridors quickly encounters sculptures, photographs, and paintings lining the walls. “We want to create new opportunities to show art on campus — not only for its aesthetic value, but also as a mirror of society,” says Benedikt Kastner, the university’s art coordinator.
In early 2025, Kastner, himself an art enthusiast, developed a comprehensive curatorial plan — a “passion project,” he says. The aim is to use art to engage with social, cultural, and political change. “We want to spark conversation while also attracting people who might not otherwise come to the Schloss.” Alongside his work coordinating university committees, he has spent the past several months building relationships with artists and organizing exhibitions, overseeing their installation, promoting events, and hosting opening receptions. The goal, he says, is to make art accessible to everyone.
The program launched in late October 2025, when self-taught painter Jake Sandquist presented his work at an opening reception in the Schneckenhof Forum (Schloss Ostflügel). “The paintings usually remain on display for a few months,” Kastner explains. “Starting in spring 2026, we’re planning a major exhibition by photographer and Mannheim alumnus Rolf Großmann titled ‘What Is Happiness?’ His black-and-white photographs will be shown both in the Schneckenhof Forum and in the East Wing’s Green Corridor.”
Hockey sticks and cocktail dresses
Formal eveningwear meets sports equipment: under this theme, photographers Matthias Hangst and Rudolf Lange portrayed recipients of the Elite Sports Scholarship Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region. The students appear in clothing drawn from both parts of their lives — training suits paired with patent-leather shoes in a lecture hall, or in a cocktail dress with ice skates and a hockey stick inside the library. The photographs will remain on display through August 2026 on newly installed gallery rails along the first-floor corridor of the Ehrenhof Ost.
“This is only the beginning, of course,” Kastner says. In addition to Großmann’s photo exhibition, he is working with Viktor Boecking of the University Library, who organizes exhibitions at the Central Lending Library Schloss Westflügel. An exhibition titled „Women in the Resistance against National Socialism“ will remain on view there through spring 2026.
Kastner’s broader vision is to assign themes to different corridors — hope, climate change, or history, for example. For the latter, he already has an idea: “The Schloss basement contains several portraits of members of the Academy of Sciences and the Humanities,” he says. “It will require some funding, but I hope we’ll soon be able to display them.”
For more information about exhibitions and art at the University of Mannheim, see the exhibition website.
Text: Jessica Scholich / April 2026