“I like being part of the Vienna SALOON very much, because they organize interesting meetings in exciting places, accompanied by people from the art world I wouldn’t have met otherwise. The SALOON meetings allow for chatting and networking and time for deeper discussions (you could never have while meeting briefly at an opening) and therefore establishing strong connection within its members.”
Käthe Schönle, artist, SALOON Wien
The SALOON Vienna is a network for women* working as curators, artists, designers, cultural managers, and journalists as well as in galleries, museums, cultural institutions, and universities.
The name refers to the former male domains of the Salon de Paris and the Saloons of the Wild West. The monthly Saloons pick up both ideas: members present their works, projects, and exhibitions and visit renowned artists, curators, exhibitions, galleries, museums, and other protagonists of the Viennese art scene. Each Saloon has the goal to foster exchange and dialogue between Viennese institutions and Saloon members and to connect practitioners of all fields of art with each other. The following dinners further function as interpersonal exchange.
Independent curator and writer Tina Sauerländer (peer to space) founded the SALOON in Summer 2012 in Berlin. In Summer 2017 the SALOON expanded to Paris, lead by curators Anne Roquigny and Valentina Peri. In Autumn 2017 the SALOON network extended to the Viennese art scene, where the curators Julia Hartmann, Aline Lara Rezende, and Doris Richter run the dependence. In 2024, Aline and Doris stepped down. Juliana Furthner and Pia Wamsler succeeded them as Board Members of SALOON Vienna. Since 2019, many more Saloons have opened in London, Dresden, Hamburg, Prague, Jerusalem, Munich, Toronto, Montreal, and Brussels.
The SALOON Network is a non-profit-oriented network and private club with the aim of creating new projects, exhibitions, or other forms of cooperations between women* practitioners in the SALOON sister cities. More information about the SALOON Network here.
*trans and cis women as well as non-binary people
“The SALOON creates an open & secure space for exchange, discovery and growth. And it enables new projects and commissions. During the SALOON Exchange Program in fall 2018, I met Berlin-based artist Marte Kiessling, who commissioned me to create a new website for her.”
Emilie Gervais, artist, SALOON Paris
"SALOON enables effective networking in the art industry, exchange of experiences with like-minded people, mutual promotion. The spirit of the SALOON is awesome!”
Laura Hirvi, Director, Finnish Institute, Berlin, Germany, SALOON Berlin
“I believe gender discrimination is a huge problem in the arts. The SALOON network encourages women to be more visible in the art world in order to be more successful. For this reason, I am very happy to be involved with this wonderful group of female artists, writers, curators and entrepreneurs.”
Christa Joo Hyun D'Angelo, artist, SALOON Berlin