Significance for canton and city 

By renovating and renewing the museum, the Canton of Bern is securing the Kunstmuseum for future generations. The city has the opportunity to better connect the urban space with the museum and thus upgrade the entire upper part of the Old City.

Kunstmuseum Bern is one of the oldest art museums in Switzerland. Exactly 150 years ago, in September 1875, the Kunstmuseum Bern Foundation was founded by the Canton of Bern, the City of Bern, the Bern civic community (Burgergemeinde Bern), the Bernese Art Society (Bernische Künstlergesellschaft) and the art association (Kantonal Kunstverein). This laid the cornerstone for the Stettler Building, which opened in 1879. Albert Anker was a member of the Cantonal Parliament and headed up the “Art Museum Commission” (Kommission für ein Kunstmuseum).

As the educational and cultural centre of the Canton of Bern, Kunstmuseum Bern has fascinated visitors for almost 150 years – be it on school outings, family visits or events such as the Museum Night. The Canton of Bern has been the sole public funding provider since 2015 and finances Kunstmuseum Bern as a cultural institution of national importance through a service agreement in accordance with the Cantonal Cultural Promotion Act.

The renovation will give the canton a modern and sustainable infrastructure: it will enable Kunstmuseum Bern to continue to fulfil its mandate of protecting, caring for and teaching about the first-rate cultural assets entrusted to it, offering activities to school classes from the entire canton, loaning works of art to other cultural centres in the canton and providing assistance with questions relating to provenance research. This will preserve the national and international appeal of Kunstmuseum Bern and ensure its operation for subsequent generations.  

The City of Bern, both in its role as a capital city and as the canton’s main city, benefits in several ways from the renovated Kunstmuseum. The upgrading of Hodlerstrasse, which has been under discussion for many years, and the upgrading of Bärenplatz and Waisenhausplatz can be coordinated with the museum’s renovation. This offers the opportunity to connect the urban space with the new Kunstmuseum, improving the importance and appeal of the entire upper part of the Old City. 

Added to this are the benefits for the hotel, food service and retail industries. The new building will make it possible to offer more attractive services and art experiences, which will provide an opportunity to sustainably increase visitor numbers. Studies show that the cultural audience generally attaches great importance not only to the cultural offering but also the food service options. A study by the Tourism Research Unit of the University of Bern that was carried out by Kunstmuseum Bern in 2024 shows that the total annual gross added value generated by Kunstmuseum Bern in the Canton of Bern amounts to around CHF 10.5 million. For 100,000 visitors in a year, this comes to approx. CHF 100 per admission. 

A lively space in the heart of the city 

The time leading up to the completion of the replacement building for Kunstmuseum Bern should be used to gain experience with meeting places in the spirit of “learning by planning”. In the view of those involved, this will ensure that the best possible solution can be implemented once the new museum building has been completed – that a solution can be found that satisfies the interests of all stakeholders, i.e. those of the museum, the city and the general population as well as those of businesses and neighbourhoods.

The approach to date had planned to achieve the traffic abatement by temporarily closing Hodlerstrasse to private motorised traffic outside rush hours, with the exact modalities to be adjusted in further planning. In-depth clarification work has shown that, depending on the specific design, such a solution would entail disadvantages that should not be underestimated (e.g. increased traffic in the neighbourhoods, lack of ways to turn around if physically blocked off) and that other measures can be used to achieve the upgrades needed in the museum’s street-side surroundings. First and foremost among these considerations is the idea of an attractive meeting place, which will be designed to harmonise with the new museum building and the renovation of Bärenplatz/Waisenhausplatz.