From the storage depot in St. Pölten to Buxtehude, to the Kunstmeile Krems. On the beginnings of the Artothek Niederösterreich.

“Art is something that endures. As a collective heritage, so to speak. That the state of Lower Austria doesn’t hide this cultural asset in a storage depot but seeks to share it with us is something wonderful”—Christiane Krejs gets excited when she reflects on the beginnings of the Artothek. When asked in 2001 whether she wanted to take on the project, the art historian was immediately persuaded. “I thought the social aspect behind it was important, as well as the idea of having more time to spend with art at home,” she says.

“There was a spirit of optimism. Establishing the Artothek was a wonderful challenge that was well supported,” recalls Krejs. The concept is relatively unknown in Austria. The City of Vienna’s set up is limited to graphic works and can only Viennese people can use it. That’s why the first director of the Artothek looked to examples in Munich, Bonn, and Frankfurt, where Deutsche Bank loans works out to regular clients and staff—albeit for a very high fee. “I drove as far as Buxtehude, where there is a nice, small shop for loaning artworks,” she says. The first venues for loaning prints, so-called graphotheks, were founded in the GDR under the socialist motto, “Art doesn’t need to be purchased, we pass it on to the public.”

Krejs researched how loaning systems and administration is handled elsewhere and how best to set up image and client databases. Insurance and packaging had to be worked out. Reusable cardboard transport boxes have proven their worth to this day.

In September 2002, the time had come in Krems: for around 70 schillings a month, artworks could be selected from a collection of around 800 pictures. Being located in the former Eybl carpet factory, not far from the Kunsthalle, turned out to be a stroke of luck. “Suddenly, it was like: let’s go look at art now and over here there’s the possibility to borrow something,” says Krejs.

The offerings were well received right from the start. Since then, the Artothek has often provided its audiences their first direct encounter with art. School classes borrowed works for lessons. Seniors from the nearby retirement home came to a workshop on the works of Ona B. and the color red. The Salomon winery decorated its tasting room with the atmospheric landscapes of the Amstetten artist Helmut Swoboda. A couple who had no space for their favorite painting in their tiny apartment also made a big impression, says Krejs. “They came back a few weeks later. They had taken down a partition to make room.”