Réseau Art Nouveau Network (RANN) was established in 1999 by European cities with a rich

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

. The Network is committed to preserving this heritage. Through the use a scientific approach, it aims to keep professionals informed and to make the general public aware of the cultural significance and European dimension of the Art Nouveau heritage.

Description

The Réseau Art Nouveau Network was founded to share information about Art Nouveau heritage, and to protect works of art and architecture in this style, also known as the Ecole de Nancy,

Glasgow Style The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook Schoo ...

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

, Modernisme, Nieuwe Kunst, Stile Liberty, Sezessionstil, among other names. The movement at large was grounded in aesthetic ideals and a celebration of early

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. In 1999, several European cities worked together to found the Network, including Barcelona, Glasgow, Vienna, Budapest, among others. By 2017, the network included institutions in over 20 cities or regional areas to join together the best research and practices "essential to the effective preservation and promotion of our Art Nouveau heritage" and to create public events and a series of projects. Many Art Nouveau buildings throughout Europe are considered to be examples of the "remarkable architectural heritage" of various nations, and often these structures have historic monument protection designation. As a professional, international consortium of institutions and cities, RANN conducts research as well as conservation efforts to preserve and promote Art Nouveau. The organization is financed in part by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, and is certified as an official Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. By 2017, the network included Havana, Cuba in North America. As of April 2023, the network consists 24 cities in Europe with shared goals to study, protect, and raise public awareness of

-style art, architecture and design. In Gábor Sonkoly's book, ''Urban Heritage in Europe'', he writes that "The importance and the European universal dimension of the shared Art Nouveau heritage of these cities and countries have also been specifically reflected during the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018. RANN has hosted the " World Art Nouveau Day" since 2017. The headquarters of RANN are located in Brussels.

Projects

''Art Nouveau in Progress'' exhibition

The work of RANN has contributed to the public's knowledge of the architectural works of

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barc ...

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

and

Hector Guimard Hector Guimard (, 10 March 1867 – 20 May 1942) was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Beranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building i ...

. In 2004, they organized a traveling exhibition in Europe, ''Art Nouveau in Progress'', that included the work of numerous architects, designers and artists who worked in the classic organic styles of Art Nouveau and also included later works incorporating less decorative works that were more influenced by

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

. The exhibition was organized into three curatorial times: "vision, disappearance, and continuity and regeneration, or more accurately, hitherto unseen designs; no-longer-to-be-seen buildings; and projects seeking new uses." This curatorial strategy informed the public on how the styles were approached in each city that was represented. The show received both praise and criticism, for example, Paris and Prague were not included although they both contain many works of Art Nouveau; a significant absence. It was praised for including little known works in Budapest, including the Palace of the Pachyderms at the

Budapest Zoo The Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden () is the oldest zoo in Hungary and one of the oldest in the world. It has 1,072 animal species and is located within the City Park of Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cit ...

. Each city that presented the traveling exhibition contributed local elements including art-nouveau textiles. The exhibition originated in Brussels in 2003 and later travelled to 11 other European cities, commencing in 2006.

''The Nature of Art Nouveau'' exhibition

The traveling exhibition, ''The Nature of Art Nouveau'', explored the correlation between Art Nouveau and ecology which traveled to 14 member cities. Among these venues were the Palacio del Secundo Cabo in

La Habana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

, Romania. The exhibition was part of a larger project on Art Nouveau and ecology that addressed the "centrality of nature" within the movement. In addition to design characteristics the project researched the origin of building materials used, and the impact of weather on Art Nouveau structures.

''Art Nouveau World Day'' annual event

RANN organizes the ''Art Nouveau World Day'' annually. Various public events are organized including photography competitions.

Member countries

Several institutions from the following cities and regions are members, including the following: * :

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

* :

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Liege,

Mons Mons commonly refers to: * Mons, Belgium, a city in Belgium * Mons pubis (mons Venus or mons veneris), in mammalian anatomy, the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone * Mons (planetary nomenclature), a sizable extraterrestrial mountain * Batt ...

, St. Gilles * :

La Habana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Bad Nauheim Bad Nauheim () is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. The town is approximately north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a w ...

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

* : Nancy,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

* :

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

* :

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Ligurian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city in the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as well a ...

* :

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

* :

Ålesund Ålesund () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of Ålesund Municipality. The centre of the town of Ålesund lies on the islands of Hessa, Aspøya, Ålesund, Asp� ...

* : Aveiro * :

Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

* :

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

* : Alcoy,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

Reus Reus () is the capital of Baix Camp, in Camp de Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. The area has long been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental significance during the time of the Phylloxera plague. Currently it is known f ...

Terrassa Terrassa () is a city in central-eastern Catalonia and in the province of Barcelona (Spain). It is one of the two capitals of Vallès Occidental county, being the larger in both area and population. The name ''Terrassa'' derives from Latin ''Te ...

* :

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

* :

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

* :

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

* :

Subotica Subotica (, ; , , ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city in Central Europe and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Sub ...

Candidate cities

* :

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

References

External links

Réseau Art Nouveau Network
a European network of Art Nouveau cities.
The list of RANN members
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reseau Art Nouveau Network Art Nouveau Architectural history Organizations established in 1999