“I wanted to love Vienna, but I didn’t dare to:” An exhibition on the life and work of Lore Segal
This KTA-supported exhibition in a local history museum in Vienna centers on writer Lore Segal, who grew up in the district of Josefstadt for the first 10 years of her life. She escaped Austria on the first Kindertransport from Vienna on December 10, 1938, and spent her remaining school years with five different foster families in England. Her memories of ostracization in Austria and her migration from England to the Dominican Republic and the United States have influenced her writing: her novels Other People’s Houses, Her First American and Half the Kingdom and her short story collections Shakespeare’s Kitchen and Ladies’ Lunch. Lore Segal is the recipient of numerous prizes, among them a Guggenheim and a Literary Lions Award and the O. Henry Prize. Curated by exile studies scholar Karin Hanta, the exhibition draws on primary sources such as the pre-war diary of Lore’s mother Franzi Groszmann and numerous letters of the extended family, thus revealing new insights into the life of this acclaimed artist.
Bezirksmuseum Josefstadt, Schmidgasse 18, 1080 Vienna, Austria
Opening event with Lore Segal present via livestream Wednesday February 28, 2024, 7pm
Hours: Sunday 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Wednesday 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and upon request.
Contact director Maria Ettl at: bm1080@bezirksmuseum.at for guided tours. Schedule of events at www.bezirksmuseum.at