"The Vienna Ku?nstlerhaus (German: Ku?nstlerhaus Wien) is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein. It was built between 1865 and 1868 by the Austrian Artists' Society (Gesellschaft bildender Ku?nstler O?sterreichs, Ku?nstlerhaus), the oldest surviving artists' society in Austria, and has served since then as an exhibition centre for painting, sculpture, architecture and applied art. Since 1947 it has also managed a cinema, which is used as one of the screening venues for the annual Viennale film festival ... In 1897 a number of modern artists seceded from the Ku?nstlerhaus and founded the Vienna Secession. In 1972 the society opened its membership to practitioners of applied art, and in 1976 it was renamed the "Austrian Artists' Society, Ku?nstlerhaus". Since 1983 it has included filmmakers and audio-visual artists among its members. Its limited company (Ku?nstlerhaus-Ges. m. b. H.), founded in 1985, organises exhibitions both for the Ku?nstlerhaus and for other museums and institutions."--Wikipedia Dec. 2011.