That exciting exhibitions are regularly showcased at the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven or in the Cabinet for Contemporary Art is well known in the art scene. In 2007, with the establishment of the Kunstmuseum, the Kunstverein Bremerhaven von 1885 e.V. obtained its own museum. Many artists who are now well-known, such as Gerhard Richter, Candida Höfer, Clegg & Guttmann, Bernhard Prinz, Elvira Bach, Anne Berning, Paloma Varga Weisz, Gregor Schneider, Karin Kneffel, Katharina Grosse, Rolf Julius, Stefan Wissel, Axel Lieber, Tatjana Doll, Sergej Jensen, or Michaël Borremans - to name just a few - were presented here early in their careers, away from the art metropolises. Some had their first public exhibitions in Bremerhaven.

Less known, however, is that the Kunstverein Bremerhaven von 1886 also possesses a very large art collection of its own. Since its founding year, exhibits have been acquired for the collection. The association has always oriented itself towards international art development and has consistently acquired high-quality young art early on. Many of those who exhibited in Bremerhaven and later became famous are represented in the collection with their works.

However, the collection has not been accessible to the public until now. Only individual works were on display as loans in special exhibitions at home and abroad. In Bremerhaven, the association simply lacked suitable exhibition space. Here, on three floors in 14 rooms of various sizes, 700 square meters of exhibition space are now available to present the artistic positions of the over 100-year collection history.

The focus here is not on art historical presentation, but on a collection that has grown out of direct contact with the artists. Their works and groups of works document the local commitment to art in Bremerhaven and the active engagement between the artists and the curators.

Especially since the late 1960s, works by significant artists have entered the collection through this collaboration. Examples include Gerhard von Graevenitz, Raimund Girke, or Klaus Staudt. Later, groups of works by Franz Erhard Walther, Ulrich Rückriem, Jürgen Partenheimer, Palermo, Stephan Balkenhol, Ilja Kabakov, or Hamish Fulton found their way into the collection, and more recently, younger positions by Andreas Slominski, Norbert Schwontkowski, Manfred Pernice, Gregor Schneider, or Ceal Floyer.

The opening of the new building took place on Sunday, October 7, 2007, with an exhibition of freshly painted paintings from the current Remix series by the artist Georg Baselitz and sensitive portrait photographs by Benjamin Katz, entitled "The Direction Is Right".