Krems Culture Stacks

Department for Arts & Cultural Studies (DKK/DAC)
University for Continuing Education Krems

A university library has stacks - rows of shelves organised by subject, open to anyone who wants to browse, pull something down, and seriously engage with compelling material.

Krems Culture Stacks works the same way. Each Stack is a short, concentrated academic offering drawn from courses we already teach at university level. You choose what interests you, how deeply you want to engage, and whether you want to walk away with academic credits or simply with new ideas.

A Stack is not a degree, not a certificate program, and not a module. It is something different — an agile constellation of university courses, each carrying its own academic credit, assembled around a question or theme that is worth taking seriously right now. Some Stacks fit neatly into existing degree pathways. Others stand alone. All of them are built from accredited courses taught at UWK — which means the academic level is genuine, not simplified.

Every Stack is available at three levels of participation. Every credit earned is documented and portable. And every offering begins with a question worth taking seriously.

• Each Stack is built from two accredited 3-credit courses — typically a content course and a practice-based Arts & Culture Lab — giving a total of 6 credits per Stack
• Some Stacks include an optional self-directed praxis component (project, independent study, research paper, internship) bringing the total to 9 credits for participants who desire expert feedback and choose to work toward a graded outcome
• Choose your level: Observer (attend the content courses), Participant (engage with the full Stack including lab and workshop sessions), or Crediting (earn formally assessed, portable academic credits)
• Credits earned at the Crediting tier are recognised under the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and documented on a formal university certificate issued by UWK
• Stacks are part of the UWK Stackable Program framework — credits earned can be presented toward future Certificate Programs, Academic Expert Programs, or Master's degrees at UWK and beyond, subject to program requirements

Each Stack belongs to one of four categories — not by subject field, but by the kind of academic engagement it offers and the kind of participant it is built for.

Expanding Horizons
For curious minds with no career agenda. These Stacks are built around questions worth taking seriously — about culture, place, memory, image, and story. No prior academic background required.

→ Browse Expanding Horizons Stacks

Research in Praxis
Where active research meets public engagement. These Stacks are led by researchers whose current work is the content — offering direct access to knowledge being made, not just knowledge already settled.
→ Browse Research in Praxis Stacks

Innovate & Experiment
Emerging topics taught in formats that fit the content. These Stacks bring future-facing questions into the room — about technology, culture, media, and the shifting boundaries between them.
→ Browse Innovate & Experiment Stacks

Upskill & Advance
For professionals whose field has moved on. These Stacks deepen existing expertise at academic level — without requiring a full degree commitment. Credits earned here are the most likely to carry forward into existing Certificate Programs and Master's degrees.
→ Browse Upskill & Advance Stacks

► NOW ENROLLING

Write Your (True) Story
Expanding Horizons · 6 credits · On-site, Campus Krems + Wachau · English
What makes a story true? A weekend or three-Saturday Stack exploring storytelling traditions from Aboriginal narrative to AI — and into your own writing.
→ Full details and enrolment

Curating Joe Zawinul
Research in Praxis · 6 credits · Intensive Weekend Block · On-site, Campus Krems + AGZ Archive · English / German
Josef "Joe" Zawinul — Viennese-born, globally influential — left behind a collection held in the Archive of Contemporary Arts in Krems. This Stack enters that archive directly: working with the collection, exploring what curation means when the subject stands at the intersection of jazz, electronics, and cultural identity. For musicians, archivists, music historians, and anyone drawn to the question of how a life becomes a collection.
→ Notify me when enrolment opens

Image Forensics Lab
Innovate & Experiment · 6 credits · Online — synchronous sessions + async work · English
How do you know whether an image is real? This Stack draws on current research in image analysis, media studies, and visual culture to develop practical and theoretical tools for reading images critically. Relevant to professionals from journalism, law, communications, cultural heritage, and digital media — not only to arts and cultural studies specialists. Enrolment details to follow.
→ Notify me when enrolment opens

Cultural Economy: Project Creation
Upskill & Advance · 6 credits · Hybrid — intensive block + online work sessions · German / English
You work in culture. You have ideas worth funding. What you need is the project management vocabulary, the budget structure, and the feasibility framework to make them legible to the people who give grants, commission work, or approve institutional budgets. This Stack combines academic grounding in cultural economics with applied project development — participants leave with a real draft proposal and faculty feedback on its quality and feasibility. Relevant to cultural managers, curators, festival organisers, heritage professionals, and independent practitioners across the arts sector.
→ Notify me when enrolment opens

► UPCOMING

Wine, Memory & Place
Expanding Horizons · 6 credits · On-site, Wachau region · German / English
Wine as a carrier of memory, landscape, and cultural identity. No wine expertise required.
→ Notify me when enrolment opens

Research Methods in Arts & Cultural Studies
Research in Praxis · 6 credits · Online or Hybrid · English
→ Register interest

AI and the Cultural Imagination
Innovate & Experiment · 6 credits · Online or Hybrid · English
→ Register interest

Digital Archiving for Cultural Institutions
Upskill & Advance · 6 credits · Online or Hybrid · German / English
→ Register interest

Krems Culture Stacks are available at three levels. The tier you choose determines your access, what you receive at the end, and the price — not the quality of the experience.