Personal information
Biography
Rachel Mader is an art researcher; since 2012 she has directed the competence centre Art in Public Spheres, at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Art.
2009-14 head of project Organising contemporary arts: artistic practice and cultural policy in Postwar Britain; 2008-9, research assistant at the Institute for Contemporary Arts Research (IFCAR) at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). From 2002 to 2008 she was a research assistant specialising in contemporary art history at the universities of Bern and Zurich.
She completed her PhD in 2006 with a dissertation entitled “Beruf Künstlerin. Strategien, Konstruktion und Kategorien am Beispiel Paris 1870-1900” (Women as professional artists: strategies, construction and categories using the example of Paris from 1870 to 1900) Frank & Timme, 2009.
She was awarded the 2006 Deubner Prize for her article “Meister der Leuchtstoffröhren – Wie Dan Flavin zu seinem Stil kam” (Master of fluorescent lights: how Dan Flavin arrived at his style). She has spent time researching in London (Organising Contemporary Arts), New York (on the theme of collective artistic creation in the 1980s) and Paris, and has been awarded various scholarships.
Rachel Mader has also worked as critic (springerin, camera austria) and curator (including Shedhalle and Belluard Bollwerk Festival Fribourg), and has organised conferences and discussions with artists. Since 2008 she has been a member of the foundation board of GegenwART at the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern and currently she is co-president of SARN (Swiss Artistic Research Network).