Organising an artistic shake-up in a brewery

Two Zurich-based art collectors are hoping to turn a former brewery into a cultural institution that will revive Berlin’s Neukölln district. Members of the local art scene welcome the development, but not all are convinced the lively quarter actually needs reviving.  Walking up to the former Kindl Brewery is like entering a cathedral. The brick entrance is framed by a tear-shaped nook. The 5,500 square-metre space, crowned with a 38-metre tower, is currently under construction but will soon thrive as a multi-level contemporary art centre with galleries, studios and a café.  Art in former breweries is a growing trend. Seattle has the Old Rainier Brewery, which rents out studio lofts to artists, while Los Angeles has the Brewery Art Colony, a live-and-work space for artists. Now, Berlin, the city of micro-breweries with its own brewing school, has given birth to the KINDL Center for Contemporary Art.  Two Zurich-based art collectors, German banker Burkhard Varnholt ...