Karlheinz Schönswetter —
Initiator and Visionary
Steel Crazy after All These Years

The Stahlpark project in its current form would never have been possible if it hadn't been for the great vision and dedicated commitment of a certain multi-talented gentleman – Karlheinz Schönswetter. Every summer in July or August he'll enter the plaster hall in his typical blue overalls, wearing a captain's hat and smoking a cigarillo. That's where he feels truly at home. When it comes to repairing a protective gas cutter amidst a cloud of iron dust, organising the various workshop activities, shifting iron parts, giving technical or artistic advice, welding parts on his sculptures or carrying the conversation at the lunch table, that's when Karlheinz Schönswetter really comes into his own.
The number of the various projects and works the inventive artist, art teacher and art agent has authored so far is quite staggering. Even at a young age during his training as an art teacher at HBLA Salzurg (i.e. Federal Academy of Higher Education) he felt drawn towards the nearby car repair shops. In 1981, following twenty years as a teacher at primary, secondary and polytechnical schools, Karlheinz was appointed headmaster of the secondary modern school at St. Pantaleon in Upper Austria. It was at that time that he and architect F. Brandstätter developed the concept for the "Schule am Hang" ("School on the Hillside"), a school dedicated to the special requirements of art and workshop teaching. During that time, Karlheinz was actively involved in various projects of the Upper Austrian Art and Workshop Teacher Association (??) while serving as instructor at several adult education courses and acting editor/co-founder of technical journals.
Also, Karlheinz was the driving force behind more than 150 art galleries instituted at schools throughout Upper Austria since 1987. And as if that wasn't enough, he kept himself busy as District Spokesperson for Cultural Affairs of Braunau District.
1988 marked the inception of the "Gallery at the Power Station" project, again as a direct result of his endeavours. Only one year later he introduced the concept of the Steel Workshop. Taking a sabbatical leave from his teaching activities, he then worked as a freelance art counsellor and cultural advisor until he decided, in 1994, to follow a call to the Pedagogic Institute in Linz to set up and head a "(??Stabsstelle ?? administrative body) for art and culture at Upper Austrian schools".
In recent years his focus has been primarily on continuing his previous work in the area of art teacher education. He also founded several galleries and conducted several transnational art projects in co-operation with representatives of economy and industry. Finally, he also acted as the principal organiser of the annual Summer Workshops in Riedersbach on behalf of Energie AG.
Another private project he has been conducting with ever growing enthusiasm during the past few years and which he utilises for his own artistic purposes is the Farbwerk Radegund (Radegund paint factory) project. Here he works on sveral monumental paintings while organising painting workshops and other events.
Several of Karlheinz Schlönswetter's grand visions concerning art and culture have become a reality. Numerous individual projects, his own art productions, creative children minding and adult education classes, several teacher training courses as well as curatorial and cultural counselling activities for commercial enterprises testify to that fact.