The ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe is the only cultural institution of its kind in the world. It responds to the fast-paced evolution of digital technologies and the resulting change in social structures. The work of the ZKM combines production with research, exhibition with event and communication with documentation.

The ZKM is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Media Museum, the Institute for Visual Media, the Institute for Music and Acoustics and the Institute for Media, Education and Economics. This gives it a variety of options for running interdisciplinary projects and international cooperations.

The ZKM explores new media both in theory and practice, puts its own developments to the test, presents examples of potential new media applications and takes a critical look at our information society.

Run in close collaboration with the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and similar institutions, the ZKM provides a forum for dialogue between art and science, politics and business. It is a platform for experimentation and debate, with the aim and mission to play an active role in the work of the future and to continuously confront the issues surrounding the appropriate use of technology.

In addition to the public collections, the ZKM’s events, guided tours and media centre provide plenty of scope for participation. It can also be hired as a venue for receptions, functions, symposiums, workshops, gala dinners or other special occasions. The atmosphere created by the art and architecture and the availability of high-spec equipment make it the perfect choice for all kinds of events.

The Weserburg, Germany’s largest museum of contemporary art, is the first in Europe to implement the idea of a collectors’ museum, whereby the city of Bremen and private collectors each play a role – a concept that has won much international praise.

Particular themes from a range of significant European collections have been selected, which provide a striking insight into art from the present day or the recent past. Each private collector’s singular passion for art is rewarded by the museum’s ability to place the works in historical context in this vibrant setting.

Photos, advertising, websites and editorial design: a high-profile celebration of Germany’s creative scene in Hamburg’s Deichtor Halls.

VisualLeader – the best in German magazines is the gallery’s annual exhibition featuring absorbing photo galleries, captivating snapshots, original advertisements, creative websites and much more besides.

Staged for the seventh time in the Deichtor Hall’s House of Photography, the 2009 exhibition showcased photos, features, adverts and online content from the LeadAwards winners and nominees – in other words, the pick of the crop from the German magazine industry.

The exhibition includes all the pieces which have been nominated for this year’s coveted LeadAwards, Germany’s foremost accolade for print and online media. Together, the works present a remarkable display of the creative talents and potential of the German magazine and advertising sector.

VisualLeader is not only the largest exhibition of its kind in Germany, it is also assembled in a unique way. Unlike other competitions for the creative industries, there is no specific application process. Instead, an independent panel of experts trawls through every back issue of the 200-odd German magazine titles for the year and selects those works worthy of an award. These are then assessed and scored by a grand jury of notable figures in the industry. This makes for a selection and judgement process that is both totally independent and truly comprehensive, meaning that that year’s gold, silver or bronze award-winners can justifiably claim to be among the best of the best.

The unique format of the VisualLeader exhibition presents a snapshot of Germany’s creative scene. It highlights trends, sets the standard for the future and inspires innovation in print and online media, showing what lies ahead and what is here to stay.

125 years ago this year, the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei – a cotton mill company – acquired a piece of land approximately ten hectares in size in a western suburb of Leipzig. The company then spent the next few decades turning it into the biggest cotton mill in continental Europe.. The company then spent the next few decades turning it into the biggest cotton mill in continental Europe.

This fascinating factory complex, which was likened to a city within a city, contained homes, allotments and a kindergarten and remains virtually intact today. When the mill finally ceased production in 1992 the site underwent a permanent change, and it was artists – more than 100 of whom now have their studios in the former mill – who were at the forefront of this revival. International names among their number, and who still work at the Spinnerei, include Neo Rauch.

Not only artists but also musicians, dancers, artisans, architects, art dealers, printers, designers and many others have succumbed to the charms of the Spinnerei. Even some Leipzig-based galleries such as Galerie EIGEN + ART were drawn to the site, and the growing international interest in Leipzig art has lured others there too.

Eleven galleries and exhibitions – some originating from as far away as New York and Mexico City – have found a home for themselves in the Spinnerei, where together with the artists they form a ‘cosmos of art’ unparalleled worldwide.

Street art in this city means the vast and often illegal artistic hijacking of public spaces. Berlin’s street are the gallery here. The air is thick with creativity, with so much art, wall-to-wall posters and sprayed-on designs jostling for attention that it’s hard to know where to look first.

We are all members of a fundamentally captive audience. What is vandalism for some, is for others a way of making our cities more beautiful. Berlin is a creative hub for street art. This new urban art form no longer has much in common with graffiti. While still generally illegal, it’s not all about adolescents marking their territory. For want of exhibition space, the urban environment is being co-opted for art, with more and more young artists – including art college graduates – switching to the streets to showcase their talent.

Kiel’s municipal art gallery, founded in 1979, moved to a cavernous former post office building at the beginning of the year 2000.

The 1,000 square metre venue is mainly used to exhibit contemporary artworks, with an emphasis on northern Germany and the Baltic. Particular attention is paid to works by artists based in Kiel and Schleswig-Holstein.

Every two years, the gallery awards the Gottfried-Brockmann-Prize, an award for young artists from Kiel, which is accompanied by an exhibition and catalogue.

The Sprengel Museum in Hannover, with its comprehensive permanent collection and diverse temporary exhibitions, ranks among the most important museums of 20th and 21st century art.

The Sprengel Museum is ending the year in style with a comprehensive exhibition that runs from 29 August 2010 to 9 January 2011. Entitled ‘All eyes on Fränzi and Marzella. Two models of the Brücke artists’, it features more than 190 loan items from German and international museums and collections devoted to the two adolescent girls whom Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Max Pechstein so loved to paint.

Special shows are also hosted by the Photography and New Media wing and the Works on Paper department and there are various exhibitions especially for kids.

A nice touch in the museum is the presentation of its planned extension, for which a competition is underway. The models submitted by the architectural firms have been on public display since 4 March 2010.

Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle, one of Europe’s most highly respected art museums, showcases works highlighting important developments within art from a contemporary perspective, as well as controversial subjects in today’s society.

Playing the City, a project in 2009 which saw Frankfurt’s city centre become the setting for a broad range of interactive art staged by more than 20 German and international artists, was a great success. This format for bringing art into urban spaces is to be reprised in Frankfurt from 19 August to 5 September 2010.

The Pretty Portal Gallery has been showcasing contemporary and urban art since 2007, focusing on graffiti and the street art scene in particular.

Pretty Portal features artists who commandeer urban spaces as a medium for social commentary. Driven by a selfless passion to create and communicate – often illegally – on the never-ending canvas of the city and its streets, the spiritual heirs of Keith Haring and other graffiti artists have developed their own particular styles. Pretty Portal provides a platform for these artists, in which their creations can shed their transient existence, and offers them a ‘safe’ place to tread new paths.

Platform3 is a pilot project which combines innovative art and cultural works with a qualifications programme geared towards the labour market.

Funded by the department of work and industry and supported by Wohnforum Munich, Platform3 facilitates two complementary career paths. On the one hand, it runs a practical course, which is currently training three assistant facility managers and exhibition technicians. In parallel to this, the project also offers a traineeship for careers within the cultural sector. This is aimed at graduates who wish to expand their knowledge and skills and to gain more practical experience by participating in art and culture projects. Platform3 gives a team of four unpaid trainees the opportunity to realise elaborate projects in consultation with its artistic directors and also to acquire key qualifications for a career in the cultural sector through its seminars and workshops.

As a production site, Platform3 has more than 21 artist’s studios as well as a guest studio sponsored by Munich’s culture department. This allows the artistic process to be shifted closer – both physically and conceptually – to the arts management side and stimulates an intensive exploration of contemporary art and how it is brought to the public’s attention. Platform3 is situated in the south of Munich and is well served by public transport.