What moves the SPK 2026
News from 02/27/2026
At the annual reception in the James-Simon-Galerie, the SPK organisations presented their highlights and focal points for the current year. SPK President Ackermann: "We offer a strong programme and rise to challenges
Almost 300 guests from politics, culture, science, business, tourism and society attended the annual reception of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation on 26 February in the James-Simon-Galerie on Museum Island. Marion Ackermann, SPK President since June 2025, hosted this special evening for the first time. Her guests included the Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Wolfram Weimer, who is also Chairman of the SPK Foundation Board, as well as the Director of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska, and Sandra Richter, who heads the German Literature Archive in Marbach. Both are members of the foundation's new international advisory board.
Members of the German Bundestag and the Berlin House of Representatives, numerous Berlin directors, museum directors and heads of well-known companies were welcomed. Artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Struth and Andreas Mühe were also among the guests. In keeping with tradition, the SPK institutions presented their highlights and focal points of the current year.
Marion Ackermann said: "We have a very strong programme this year - from Göbekli Tepe to Constantin Brancusi, from Paul Cassirer to Sophie Calle, from Berlin press photography to the 250th birthday of Queen Luise and 'Music on Demand'. Although Berlin tourism is stagnating, we maintained our visitor numbers last year with 3.6 million visitors to the museums. This gives us new momentum and motivates us greatly. I am grateful to the federal and state governments that we will receive 12 million euros more from this year. Half of this will go towards new special exhibitions. We need them. Education and outreach work is also particularly close to my heart. There is enormous potential here. It's about facing up to the challenges of our time, taking up and initiating social discourse."
The Chairman of the SPK Foundation Council, Minister of State Wolfram Weimer, emphasised: "The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation preserves an incomparable treasure of our cultural history. It bears responsibility for keeping it visible in the present and the future. The SPK's 2026 annual programme promises to give it a major boost by systematically digitising its collections, entering into new collaborations at home and abroad and reaching even broader and more diverse target groups with innovative exhibitions and educational programmes. We are doing our utmost to support the foundation in all its endeavours."