Questions such as "What is public space?" "Who owns public space?" "Who uses public space?" "What political, social, economic and ecological or other socially relevant issues are emerging?" are publicly negotiated in this context and made both vivid and accessible through themed art projects in urban and rural areas.

A wide variety of disciplines, such as visual and performing arts, literature, music, architectural approaches and interdisciplinary contemporary art forms are taken into account. With this in mind, the Institute for Art in Public Space Styria invites artists, initiatives and communities to approach us in order to realize contemporary projects together.

Gabriele Mackert has headed the Institute for Art in Public Space Styria and the Austrian Sculpture Park in Premstätten since January 1, 2025.

Mackert has extensive experience in art and media studies. She studied art and German language and literature at the University of Fine Arts and the TU Braunschweig. The internationally recognized curator and author was most recently head of the collection for 18th to 21st century art and ethnology at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. From 2005 to 2008, she headed the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen. Prior to this, she curated at the Kunsthalle Wien, among others. In addition to her work as a curator, Mackert was a university lecturer at the Institute for Site-Specific Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She was also a juror for art in architecture for the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning in Berlin, organized conferences and published numerous articles.