GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts

The building complex in Art Deco style was built between 1925 and 1929. With its inner courtyards and the adjacent park of the Old St. John's Cemetery, the area is a unique cultural attraction and at the same time a place of tranquillity and relaxation on the eastern edge of the city center. The building owes its name to the merchant and patron Franz Dominic Grassi.


Cosmopolitan and tolerant since 1873
The GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts is a cultural institution that enables visitors of all ages to explore furnishings and everyday objects from different eras and cultures. The museum aims to cover a diverse range from antique handicrafts to contemporary design. Our museum is meant to be a space of exchange and culture for locals and visitors. We want to stimulate the senses and through this, encourage visitors to have yet unknown experiences and give them new incentives to engage with art, sharpen their own perspective, critically approach subject matters and perhaps even draw conclusions about society or themselves.

Our commitment to the transference of knowledge, education and social values extends to everyone – regardless of their ethnicity or orientation. We believe that our epoch-spanning and interdisciplinary collection can also build a bridge between people. Art should also always be a kind of pleasure: Our aesthetically very finely designed permanent exhibition aims to meet this need.

Discover new perspectives with us!

Sustainability
The topic of sustainability has accompanied the museum for some time now. In all areas of the museum, efforts are made to act as sustainably as possible. This ranges from the gradual conversion of the lighting in exhibitions and offices to LED, to the purchase of green electricity, the use of ecologically justifiable materials in the construction of exhibitions and for events, the use of reusable tableware at events, the climate-neutral production of advertising and printed matter, and so on.

The museum is currently drawing up its carbon footprint in cooperation with the City of Leipzig and is a project partner of GREEN CULTURE INDEX.

>> The Collection
With its exquisite collection, the museum ranks among the world's leading museums of applied arts. The collections are comprised of arts and crafts pieces from antiquity to the present day.
From the very beginning, the museum's collection was meant to cover a wide range of materials and epochs of European and Asian applied art. In recent decades, the collection has also expanded to include art objects from other parts of the world. Originally supported by the citizens of Leipzig, the collection continues to grow to this day thanks to the commitment of private donors. It currently holds around 230,000 unique objects and pieces from serial production. The classic collections hold an abundance of objects from areas such as ceramics, porcelain, glass, textiles, gold and silverware, ornamental and utility tin, base metals, wrought iron, sculptures of wood and stone – in particular picture carvings of the late Gothic period – furniture and wooden utensils, coins, medals and plaques.

Only a small part of the collection is permanently on display.

>> Online Collection
The museum wants to make its collection accessible to a broad public and strengthen participation in the common cultural heritage. Therefore, the cultural institution has marked 1,000 highlight objects from the permanent exhibition in its digital collection with the Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
With this marking, those interested in art - for example scientists, artists, teachers, students and pupils - can reproduce and share the public domain images of the works and use and edit them for any purpose if the GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst is mentioned. The metadata, keywording or iconographic sources are available via a so-called OAI interface.
By allowing the artworks to be downloaded via the Online Collection, we open up a far-reaching and intensive discussion about 3,000 years of art and cultural history.


Opening hours:

Museum
Tuesday to Sunday and holidays: 10 am – 6 pm
Closed on Mondays, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
Free admission on the first Wednesday of every month

Library
Wednesday and Thursday: 1 pm – 6 pm