Arnold Schönberg’s 150th birthday is in 2024—a jubilee year of numerous events in tribute to this universal artist and a pioneer of musical modernism. And Ulrike Anton, director of Vienna’s Arnold Schönberg Center, can now look back on her first full year.

isa21 – the 2021 International Summer Academy of the mdw took place from 14 to 29 August with “unlimited” as its theme. And indeed, the promise that such a theme would suggest was in large part realised thanks to a hybrid format and a comprehensive prevention concept.

Even if isa’s 2020 focus on heroism might initially strike one as anachronistic, the fact is that the celebration and/or rejection of heroes is an immanent part of cultural systems. An ongoing search for guiding figures sees individuals from politics and various sports stylised as heroes, while the term “everyday heroes” is reserved for those working as firefighters and rescue personnel.

"Just Play!?" was this year's theme at isa – the International Summer Academy of the mdw.

This year’s isa theme opens up a great deal of latitude for creative approaches in the arts and in research.