Basel Kunstmuseum Reopens; City Tour Bus Comes To Town; Gellert Graffiti Artist To Be Honored; Champions League Trophy Comes To Basel

News For 19 April 2016

 

The Kunstmuseum Basel reopened its doors last Sunday after the completion of a three year, 100 million franc renovation and expansion.  The renovated original museum has been closed for the last 13 months and was originally built in 1936.  It will continue to exhibit the bulk of the museum's collection, and will feature a new bookshop, workshop spaces and an underground link to the new building across the street.  The longest part of the project was the new contemporary art building, where construction started in early 2013.  Designed by Basel based architects Christ & Gantenbein, the new building will house the museum's contemporary art collections focused on art from 1950 to 1990.  The world-renowned Kunstmuseum’s collections encompass 4,000 paintings and 30,000 drawings, including one collection dating back to the 17th century, making it the world’s oldest municipal art collection.

**********************   Basel has joined other global tourist-destination cities in having a sightseeing bus tour on offer.  On Saturday, the maiden voyage of the double-decker, Basel City tour bus left from its first of fourteen stations.  Like the other services, the Basel tour has a hop-on/off feature allowing passengers to flexibly tour areas of interest and customize their experience.  Eventually, the operator hopes to have 20 scheduled stations to make the service easier to find and join.  One of the main challenges the service now faces is arranging for a driving permit in the inner part of Basel, which has been declared a pedestrian only zone, open to motorized services for emergency and essential commercial services.  In the meantime, riders can expect a state of the art service, with each seat featuring an iPad based console for purchasing tickets (if they haven't been bought in advance), and tour information in multiple languages.     ***************

Basel graffiti pioneer Dare - née Sigi Von Koeding is being considered for having a Basel street posthumously renamed in his honor.  His graffiti was a common sight throughout the city until his death in 2010 at age 42 from a brain tumor.  Since then, his work has attained such legendary status that its even included in the book "Street Art Basel & Region".  A blog in his honor has been the focus of the street renaming effort, and has generated enough interest and inquiries at the Basel Nomenclature Commission that a serious evaluation of the plan has been started.  Though the commission's president Paul Haffner was aware of the effort, he said no formal application has been made and that generally renaming a street is challenging because of residents' concerns.  

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Basel Urban Councillor Hans-Peter Wessels and Peter Gillieron, president of the Swiss Football Club association, were on hand in Nyon to receive the UEFA Europa League championship trophy.  The 15 Kilo trophy cup will be awarded to the victorious team in the upcoming finals in late May but until then will be delivered by the dignitaries for display at the Basel Historical Museum in Barfusserplatz.  The tournament, which is already under way will see its finale at the St. Jakob's stadium on May 18, at which time the winning team will claim the trophy.