Kunst-Museum Ahlen, Art museum in Ahlen, Germany

The Kunstmuseum Ahlen occupies a Gründerzeit villa of Freifrau von Kalkstein at the former West Gate of the old town, renovated for the museum's opening in October 1993. A new building with a barrel-vaulted roof was added in 1996, forming an ensemble of historic and modern architecture. The collection holds around 1,500 works by more than 200 artists.

The museum opened in 1993 when collector Theodor F. Leifeld transformed a former private residence into a public art space. A modern wing was added in 1996 to provide additional exhibition areas.

The collection began in 2006 and is built around light as a theme, from late Impressionist and Expressionist paintings by Renoir, Nolde and Rohlfs to German constructive-concrete art after 1945 by Fritz Winter and Imi Knoebel. Works by ZERO artists Heinz Mack, Adolf Luther and Günther Uecker hang alongside a large Timm Ulrichs group and the Andreas Horlitz bequest of 2016.

The museum sits in Ahlen's pedestrian old town at the site of the former West Gate, so it is reached on foot from the surrounding streets. The historic villa and the 1996 new building are connected as one complex, with the sculpture garden and the light projection on the barrel roof outside. Allow time for both the changing exhibitions and the collection rooms.

The museum's outdoor area holds a sculpture garden, a large light projection by Egill Saebjörnsson covering the new building's barrel-vaulted roof, and a light artwork by Adam Barker-Mill. In 2024 collectors Brigitte Spethmann-Heitlage and Eckhard Heitlage donated part of their Speth-Lage collection of Concrete art.