MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Decorative arts museum in Innere Stadt, Austria
The MAK is a museum of applied arts in the Innere Stadt district displaying furniture, glassware, ceramics, and design from multiple periods. Its exhibition spaces feature both historical crafted objects and works by contemporary artists and designers.
Emperor Franz Joseph I founded the museum in 1863 as an educational institution for artists and manufacturers to support the arts industry. Over time it developed into a major center for researching and presenting applied art.
The museum displays works by Austrian designers and craftspeople reflecting Baroque, Biedermeier, and Art Nouveau styles. You can see how ideas about beauty and function changed across different periods.
The museum is located at Stubenring 5 and is easily reached by public transportation. The exhibitions are fully accessible, and audio guides in several languages are available to help you explore.
In 2015 the MAK bought the screensaver "Event Listeners" by Dutch artist van den Dorpel, becoming the first museum to acquire art with bitcoin. The work is a digital piece, not a painting or object, and the purchase was reported as a first for a museum. The museum also presents over 300,000 objects online, the largest online collection among Austria's federal museums.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,209 contributors worldwide.
