Today, on September 1, 2025, Mumok General Director Karola Kraus was awarded the Austrian Honor Cross for Science and Art 1st Class by Cultural Minister Andreas Babler. The ceremony took place in the Mumok cinema.
Vice Chancellor and Minister of Culture Andreas Babler paid tribute to the performance of the first woman at the head of the Mumok in the following words: “When Ms. Kraus took over the management of the Mumok in 2010, the house was at a turning point. With her clear view, its international experience and its unshakable passion for art, she led the museum to new radiance. Central Europe, but also an institution that radiates far beyond our national borders.
I wish her successor Fatima Hellberg every success and a lot of fun taking this outstanding institution. ”
In her eulogy, the university professor and chairman of the supervisory board emphasized Dr. Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, Karola Kraus, and her team understood to anchor Mumok as a place-relevant place and trigger point in public discourse. As an example of the latest exhibition projects, she states: “For me, a glossary of your practice can be read here: orientation instead of pose, negotiation instead of claim, care as a structure”.
“I feel extremely honored that today I received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class from Vice Chancellor and Cultural Minister Andreas Babler,” said Karola Kraus in her thank -you speech. “For me, this award is an honorable recognition and a dignified conclusion of my 15-year term as director of the Mumok. It proudly fulfills me that my team and I consolidate the international reputation of the Mumok and his claim to topic leadership in the areas of socially related discursive art and art theory since modernity. The team set -up and committed – the best conditions for a successful future of the museum that is very important to me ”.
Among the invited guests of honor were Peter Auftreiter (Technical Museum), Margherita Belcredi (Phileas), Martin Böhm (Dorotheum), Bettina Brunner and Sylvia Tucka (Austrian Ludwig Foundation), Ramesh Daha (Secession), Sylvia Eisenburger (Society of Friends of Fine Arts), Jonathan Fine (art history museum), Angelika Fitz (AZW), Ralph Gleis (Albertina), Fatima Hellberg (Designed Director Mumok), Theresa Hochhauser (Uniqa), Bettina Leidl (MQ), Andrea Mayer (Cabinet Director of the Presidential Chancellery), Peter Pressesch (Maria Lassnig Foundation), Franz Rappold (President Mumok Board), Stella Rollig) (Belvedere), Gabriele Schor (Verbund Collection), Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Designed Managing Director Vienna Actionism Museum), The artists Josef Dabernig, Peter Kogler, Eva Schlegl, Julian Turner and Heimo Zobernig as well as the gallery owners Miryam Charim, Martin Janda, Christine König, Ursula Krinzinger, Inés Lombardi, Christian Mayer and Renate Kainer, Rosemarie Schwarzwälder and Hubert Winter.
Karola kraus Studied art history, newer German literature and classical archeology. From 1991 to 1994 she headed the non-commercial art space Daxer and worked on various international exhibition projects, among other things she looked after the contribution in the German Pavilion of the 47th Biennale Venice in 1997, co-curated exhibitions in Andratx, Athens, Berlin and Moscow and curated exhibitions in Miami and New York. From 1999 to 2006 she was director of the Braunschweig Art Association, then director of the State Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Since October 2010 it has been a directorate of the Mumok Museum Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna.
In 2022 Karola Kraus was curator of the Austrian pavilion of the 59th Biennale Venice.
She had teaching posts at the Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg and the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe and took part in numerous state and private jury sessions.
Karola Kraus is Vice President of the Roswitha Haffer Foundation, which serves the award of excellent achievements in the field of visual arts and forgives the highest -doped art prize in Europe. In 2017 she was awarded the ViennaartAraward for special services in the “Museums” category.