Boesner group of companies

Boesner
legal form	GmbH
founding	April 1982
Seat	Witten, Germany
management	Wolfgang Boesner (founder), Klaus Boesner, Jörg Vester
Number of employees	850
Branch	Artist material
Website	www.boesner.com

Boesner catalog, has been published regularly since 1986

The Boesner group of companies is a wholesaler and retailer of artist materials, frames and art books in Germany , France , Austria and Switzerland .

The company has 46 branches, a shipping service as well as a magazine and book publisher ars momentum Kunstverlag .

history

Company founder Wolfgang Boesner (* 1951) holds a degree in business administration. In 1981 he became a painter and sculptor in Bochum. On April 1st, 1982 he founded the Boesner company. Three years later, the company moved to the Herbede district of Witten , where the company's headquarters are to this day.

In 1986 the younger brother of the company founder, Klaus Boesner, joined the company. In 1987 the second branch was opened in Cologne , and in 1989 the third in Forstinning near Munich . In the 1990s - especially from 2004 to 2011 - Boesner expanded into Switzerland , Austria , France , Sweden and Denmark .

To date, the number of branches has grown to 46 and the number of employees to around 850. The average sales area of a Boesner branch is 3,000 m².

Corporate structure

Holding

The overarching organization of the Boesner group of companies is boesner GmbH holding + innovations , which provides central services for the branches (product purchasing, media design, marketing, IT system support). The areas of finance and personnel are also located at the Witten location.

Branches

The group of companies consists of a total of 46 independent branches, of which 36 are in Germany, three in Austria, four in Switzerland, four in France, one online shop in Sweden and one in Denmark. Most branches offer individual framing work in their own frame workshops, cafes or reading corners in the book departments complete the offer. There are regular training courses and seminars in the areas of material application, painting technique and marketing for artists . The managing directors are usually involved in the respective branch.

Boesner shipping service

The boesner Shipping Service GmbH is also located in Witten since 2001 and delivers orders from around the world. The range includes around 26,000 items.

Events

According to the company's own statement, over 500 workshops , readings and demonstrations take place in the Boesner branches every year. The subject areas range from painting techniques ( oil painting , acrylic painting , watercolor painting ) to printing and etching techniques , but also open up legal issues and self-marketing for artists.

Art award

On the occasion of the company's 30th anniversary, Boesner donated the boesner art award in 2012 , which was presented for the second time in 2014. The art prize honors outstanding achievements in the fine arts and is the only prize in Germany that focuses on the material aspect. The boesner art award is endowed with a prize sum of 17,500 € (1st place: 10,000 €, 2nd prize 5,000 € and 3rd prize 2,500 €) and is aimed at professionally active artists . A jury of art scholars , curators and museum experts with the following members decided on the award in 2014:

Kunibert Bering ( Art Academy Düsseldorf )
Sepp Hiekisch-Picard ( Bochum Art Museum )
Christoph Kohl ( Märkisches Museum Witten )
Dietmar Rübel ( Dresden University of Fine Arts )
Monika Wagner ( University of Hamburg )

Boesner organized the festive presentation of the boesner art award 2012 and 2014 in cooperation with the Märkisches Museum Witten , in which the concluding exhibitions were also on view.

Publications

The boesner art portal

At www.boesner.com/kunstportal the company regularly publishes text and film contributions that provide inspiration and impetus for all aspects of artistic work: portraits of contemporary artists, background stories, interviews, exhibition reports, information on artist materials and their application, book tips and the latest Information on events and workshops in the boesner houses.

Customer magazine

Kunst & material is Boesner's customer magazine . It appears every eight weeks with a circulation of 34,000 copies according to its own information.

Another customer magazine with a stronger practical and material focus is the boesnerzeitung. It appears every 3 months with a circulation of 68,000 copies and is free of charge.