Selected Events 2009

Leipzig Cotton Mill Turned Cultural Center Hosts American Artists

The piano recital Yuka Kobayashi

June 25, 2009. Chancellor Angela Merkel was in town on June 25 to lead off festivities to celebrate the Leipzig Spinnerei cotton mill's 125^th birthday. The gritty, sprawling smokestack-industrial era facility, for decades the largest cotton mill on the continent, shut down operation in 1993. It reopened its doors as a multifaceted center for working artists in 2003. In conjunction with the celebration, the Leipzig International Art Program (LIA), located at the Spinnerei, organized a piano recital and reception in honor of four young American sculptors and painters from the New York City Academy of Art, currently artists in residence at LIA; Consulate General Leipzig is supporting the project and Consul for Public Affairs James Seward delivered remarks to some 50 art lovers filling a workshop-turned-recital hall, including the Eileen Guggenheim, Sponsor-Patron of the American Academy of Art, on the role of cultural diplomacy in enhancing relations between Germany and the United States.