A centre of culture in Wohlen

Adapted from an article in the daily newspaper „Wohler Anzeiger“ No. 25 / 30th March 2007:

Wohlen: The Montanarini-Isler Foundation is planning a culture house in the city centre.

„In about one or two years we will be able to present a concrete project”: The directors of the Montanarini-Isler Foundation with (from left) Urs Müller, Silvia Breitschmid-Montanarini and Luca Montanarini at the site where the culture house is to be realised.

If ever Wohlen wishes to get an architecturally and historically valuable centre, it could only be developed around the Isler area. This dream is now newly nourished by a private initiative. „There is no better place than this to realize our vision of a centre for art and culture”, says Urs Müller. He is secretary to the Montanarini-Isler Foundation which was created to preserve and open to the public the lifeworks of the great painter Luigi Montanarini and his wife Heidy Isler.

At present, more than a thousand works of the master are stored in the cellar of the “Kantonsschule” in Wohlen. For many years the foundation has been dreaming of giving a “home” to a part of these works. Now the project becomes tangible. In the open space between the Isler adiministration building (Bar Ibarus) and the recently renovated manufactory building the foundation is planning the construction of a culture centre.

Luca Montanarini and Silvia Breitschmid-Montanarini, President and Vice-President of the foundation board: “This culture centre would give us the opportunity to perfectly serve the foundation’s purpose.”

„Central Wohlen is a jewel“: Luca Montanarini and Urs Müller, both architects, are convinced that there is great urbanistic potential in and around the Isler area which should be made use of. “With the restaurant Sternen, the church, the straw museum and the Isler villa central Wohlen is a jewel really”, says Urs Müller. “Isn’t it fantastic how life starts vibrating in the centre of the village?” Last but not least thanks to the fact that the historical building of the former Isler factory was renovated with much effort. And there is no end to this trend. A restaurant with garden shall be opened in the manufactory building. And it is right between this restaurant and Bar “Ibarus” that the initiators wish to erect the new culture centre.