The last three years have brought many changes—presenting us as people and as a team of the Draiflessen Collection with great and very exciting challenges. In the course of the last year, it became increasingly noticeable how enormous the thirst for exchange and togetherness has become, but above all, the need for movement—this had and still has an enormous impact on our work and projects, our planning, and also our cooperative relations. A positive impact!

So it was perhaps not surprising, but rather a very nice experience, that more people than before found their way to Mettingen and the Draiflessen Collection. However, that is not all: our commitment and our projects also literally went on a journey, leaving not only our walls but even national borders. An exhibition by the artist Renee van Bavel in Venice, Italy, on the occasion of the 59th Biennale Arte opened the international stage for the Draiflessen Collection, as did a “magic art event” by Daan Roosegaarde in Bilbao, Spain. The further development of the Nolde/Kuball project in the form of an extensive exhibition of the results in cooperation with the documenta archive at the Fridericianum in Kassel not only heightened interest in the Draiflessen Collection within Germany but strengthened our network as well, which now extends far beyond national borders.

It was an unbelievably great exhibition year, which could not have been realized in this form without the commitment and motivation of each one of our team members, nor without our cooperation partners, artists, and scientists in other museums and businesses who realize our ideas—but above all not without our guests, who keep coming back to us with interest and curiosity, and who were even prepared to make a community art project by a British artist come true in the periphery of Westphalia. Therefore, it is once again time to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who makes Draiflessen the special place it is! And: it is time to look forward at this juncture, even though an annual report is always a review, to everything else that lies ahead.

Dr Corinna Otto, Director