– What is the legal entity of Steidinger Apparatebau GmbH?
Private startup owning & operating 2 classified industrial & monasterial monuments.
Sector: Industrial & Monasterial Heritage
- Industrial: „Phono-/Chronography & Wood Furniture“
- Monastic: „Lost Early Monastery“ Heritage (benedictian monastery found in 1084 AC)
Location: Black Forest in Southwest Germany at the highest railway station
City: In the heart of St. Georgen: ~13k inhabitants
Started 2016 as an art initiative leading to the foundation of
- Cultural Association (Global Forest e.V., Reservoir e.V. 2019) renting in
- Commercial platform „Steidinger Apparatebau GmbH“ operating the unrented parts of „Klosterbergfabrik“ with own inventory, admin staff etc. from 2019
– What do you do? (core work and main activities)
- We provide cultural & creative space between the inner city’s only preserved „founders time“ factory & villa monuments and the monastic square at it‘s only left remnant, the monastery wall
- We administrate & coordinate a sociocultural centre hosting an artist residency (Global Forest) next to publicly rentable space for sport, wellbeing, coaching, botanical, culinary and other creative disciplines as well as crowd development of tours, events, living museum, storytelling café, inclusive workshop with perspectively own products in the field of culinary, audio & energy
- We cover the whole process of monument preservation & utilization:
1. Technically renovate building space, improving energy, insulation, sanitary, etc. to
- scale up existing creative spaces (art & craft workshops, ateliers, renovation & production space)
- develop a craft cluster for preservation and revival of knowledge and competence in historical craft & architecture
- perspectively extending on > 1.000 m² roof spaces and building circular autarky testfield for eating, drinking & living (energy water food nexus)
2. Organizationally we create a for collective ownership & multi-level-participation
- 2024: transfer of Steidinger and the monastery wall into a new EU cooperative
- Synchroneous selling of shares to citizen with transfer of shares to the factory
- Welfare status (legal work & study, volunteering, continous public offer)
- Long-term stability for tenants (art association, studios), partners, etc.
- Scale up existing artist residencies (Visual Arts & Music), trans-disciplinary kid workshops and start CME’s field „Literary Translation“ (start March 2024) with living space for in the Factory & Villa
Summary of our CRAFT & DESIGN residency project:
– When is the residency and for how long? 1.10.2023 – 28.2.2024
– What will the participants do during the residency?
1. Renovation of historical elements (double window systems) and
2. Work on concepts for further trans-disciplinary building projects (e.g. monastery wall) with the 4 other residents and during one-week camps with 3-5 groups of students
– Specificities of your residency: topic, facilities, equipment, mentors, etc?
Topics: monument renovation and utilization which can include
- Mix of traditional and contemporary craft,
- available technology of local companies
- Temporary architecture and
- Reasonable circular economy components (in the areas of energy, water and food)
Facilities:
- Factory 2.000 m² work & development space 1.000 m² potential on and in the roofs
- Living space 2 x 200 m² factory lofts + 110 m² villa appartment (5 Double bedrooms) with big gardens, greenhouse, workshops, barns, garages, potential spa components like pool, sauna, etc. etc.
Equipment:
- We provide art & craft workshops and equipment: wood, textile, paper, ceramics, etc.
- Multimedia production studios
- welcome to add all kind of health & wellbeing courses to the portfolio of kitchens, gym and contemplative spaces
Volunteering Mentors: are retired craft professionals and apprentices from partnering companies as well as professors for the disciplines
- Architecture, Interior Design
- Static & building engineering,
- Textile a.o. organic material engineering & design,
- Art, craft & circular economy
– What profiles of A&CP are you looking for (sector, expertise, interest, etc)?
A&CPs experienced in renovating or utilizing monuments, preferably craft competencies
- Plastering, organic insulation
- Roof making
- Wood & carpentry
- Textile
- Masonry
- and all building craft disciplines (hydro / plumbing & botanics)
- or candidates interested in gaining those competencies showing related experience in working with monuments
We maintain close connections to universities and NGOs in Austria (Vorarlberg), Ukraine (Artitst at Risk) and Georgia (one mentor Prof. Jörg Obergfell stays up to 10.9. in Tiflis and could make an interview there)
Good chances if applying as a couple with kids able to live in a double room (as the space is voluminous), your partner might apply directly if no visa requested or could stay at a payed base outside the CME project.