Arts Academy
The Internationale Sommerakademie des Mozarteums is one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious summer academies for the performing and visual arts, held every July and August in Salzburg under the auspices of the Universität Mozarteum. It was founded in 1953 by the Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka, who established his celebrated “Schule des Sehens” (School of Vision) here; the broader academy grew from that founding programme.
Oskar Kokoschka chose Salzburg deliberately. In 1953, with the Salzburg Festival already re-established as a major European cultural event, the city had a unique density of artistic energy in summer, and Kokoschka wanted a school that would sit inside that energy rather than apart from it. His “School of Vision” was not a technical drawing course but a programme built around relearning how to see, grounded in his own expressionist practice. It attracted students from across Europe and established the Sommerakademie’s early reputation.
Over the following decades the programme expanded far beyond Kokoschka’s original vision. Today the Sommerakademie offers over 70 courses spanning music performance, conducting, composition, painting, sculpture, graphic art, stage design, and related disciplines. It draws participants from across the world: advanced students, emerging professionals, and mid-career artists seeking intensive tuition in a concentrated period. Faculty includes practising musicians and artists of international standing.
The Universität Mozarteum administers the programme, and venues include the Mozarteum complex on Mirabellplatz and, for visual arts work, rooms within Hohensalzburg Fortress. The overlap with the Salzburg Festival in late July and August is not accidental: Sommerakademie students and faculty inhabit the same city as the Festival, and end-of-programme exhibitions and concerts, generally open to the public, add a layer of emerging artistic presence that is less visible but genuinely enriching for anyone paying attention.
Locations
Built 1910-1914
The Mozarteum Foundation is the institution that runs both of Salzburg's Mozart museums, organizes the Mozart Week festival each January, and operates the concert hall on Schwarzstrasse where major chamber and orchestral programming happens outside the Salzburg Festival.
