---

Founded in 1976, the Freie Kunstakademie Nürtingen (FKN) is a unique institution in the liberal educational landscape of Germany. The vision of humanising the individual and society through art may be viewed in the context of educational-political debates of the time, in which Joseph Beuys also founded his Free International University (FIU). Since then the FKN has continuously been refining itself. The courses currently on offer include painting, drawing and sculpture as well as ceramics, performance art, new media, textile media and art research. The publication to mark forty years of the institution presents current developments as well as milestones and turning points in the academy´s history in richly illustrated essays, portraits and interviews. A further section deals with the location, the Melchior-Areal. Here, two hundred years ago, the first cotton-spinning mill in Württemberg was founded. The building´s conversion is a supreme example of the repurposing of industrial property.

---