Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House Los Angeles

As historical places of debate, they follow in the tradition of their former residents Marta & Lion Feuchtwanger and Katia & Thomas Mann, and promote intellectual and artistic discourses within the cultural, academic, and political networks in Southern California.

The Villa Aurora: an artist residence in Marta & Lion Feuchtwanger’s former home

Villa Aurora maintains and cultivates the historic landmark home of exiled German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta as a residence for an international body of artists. The Villa is a transatlantic bridge-builder, promoting intercultural exchange and enabling dialogue between the arts community in Los Angeles and its resident artists. Villa Aurora carries the memory of the artists and intellectuals who found refuge in California during the Nazi era and who had a significant influence on cultural life on the American West Coast. Every year, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. awards up to twelve fellowships to visual artists, composers, authors, and film makers. Grant recipients reside at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades for three months. In addition, the organization awards the yearly “Feuchtwanger Fellowship” to writers or journalists whose freedom of expression is suppressed in their own countries.

The Thomas Mann House: a transatlantic space for debate in Thomas Mann’s former residence near the Pacific Ocean

The Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles aims to create a vibrant transatlantic space for debate, where outstanding personalities, in dialogue with each other and the host country, address fundamental contemporary and future issues related to politics, society, and culture. The interdisciplinary program of the Thomas Mann House owes much to the spirit of Thomas Mann, who, during his time in the United States dealt extensively with issues such as the roots of fascism, democratic renewal, freedom, migration, and exile. In the spirit of Thomas Mann’s radio broadcasts to “German Listeners!,” the Thomas Mann House, as a central element of its activities, focuses on the big issues of our time. The Thomas Mann Fellowships enable academics, pioneering thinkers, and intellectuals who live, or have lived, in Germany to tackle the pressing challenges of our time and to foster the intellectual and cultural exchange between Germany and the United States.

Partner & Fellows from NRW in Los Angeles

Every two years since 1999, the KunstSalon Köln, in cooperation with the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, has awarded a three-month fellowship in the field of fine arts. The KunstSalon scholarship includes the financing of a catalog and, in the following year, an exhibition at the Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage in Cologne. Scholarship holders in recent years include Alwin Lay (2016), Sarah Kürten (2018), Sarah Szczesny (2021) and Nieves de la Fuente (2023).

In the more than 25 years of its existence, Villa Aurora has welcomed around 400 artists in Los Angeles. Grant recipients from NRW include the composer Carola Bauckholt (2022), known for her compositions of visual art, musical theater and concert music; the filmmaker Faraz Shariat (2023), who developed a feature film about German colonial history in Namibia in collaboration with fellow Paulina Lorenz during their joint stay in Los Angeles; and the artist Antje Majewski (2023), who worked on her projects A Journey Reversed and The Osage Orange. In 2024, Villa Aurora will receive visual artist Viktoria Binschtok and author Karosh Taha for their three-month fellowships in Los Angeles.

Over the past few years, the Thomas Mann House was joined by academics and thought leaders from North Rhine-Westphalia such as journalist and author Magdalena Kröner, who in 2021 focused on semantics and ethics of digital technology and culture and their societal consequences; political scientist Prof. Dr. Christoph Bieber, who conducted a case study on the development of an ethical smart city policy focused on the dignity and autonomy of city dwellers during his time in Los Angeles; and musicologist PD Dr. Kai Hinrich Müller, whose transatlantic events and concert series Opera & Democracy discusses the democratic potential of opera and gives a voice to silenced composers. After its launch in Los Angeles, the series will continue in Germany at other institutions such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Berlin Bauhaus Archive and the Cologne University of Music and Dance (11.04.2024).

Further information on the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V. can be found here: www.vathm.org