Existing as the very first digital platform for collectors of contemporary art, Independent Collectors was founded in 2008 by a group of collectors and friends surrounding Christian Kaspar Schwarm (b. 1972, Germany) who dared to open access to a previously hidden world. Today we are the largest non-commercial archive of private collections worldwide.

The BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors is your go-to guide to privately built yet publicly accessible collections of contemporary art. The very first of its kind, the art guide allows you to discover and personally visit havens of contemporary art that you would not know to exist.

In 1929 the exiled German-Jewish soap maker Emmanuel Bronner stepped on to a box in Pershing Square, Los Angeles to promote world peace and unity across religious and ethnic divides. Using the labels of his organic soap products as a medium to deliver his message, Bronner started building a company designed to spread a universal thought: We are All-One or None!

In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Island” the birds on fictional Pala were taught to sing the word K-A-R-U-N-A to remind people of the virtues compassion and mindfulness. Founded in 1990 in east Berlin, the KARUNA e.V. is pursuing the same goal. Working with homeless children and teenagers the NGO is known for its unconditional approach to social work. Since 2017 we have been supporting KARUNA, consulting the team in matters of strategy and communication. Together we developed the KARUNA KOMPASS – a newspaper designed to address the primary reasons behind homelessness among young adolescents. Dedicating the first issue of the KARUNA KOMPASS to the reasons behind youth homelessness, namely immoderately strict or lack of parental care, we identified some of the most common misconceptions and behavioral patterns fueling destructive power dynamics both at home and in society. In close collaboration with KARUNA founder Jörg Richert, we present solutions in line with the substantial ideas and ethical concepts of KARUNA’s approach.

Last year in June, Berlin's oldest street magazine "Strassenfeger" ceased their production after 24 years, leaving 300 sales people unemployed from one day to another. Together with the social cooperative KARUNA we couldn't let that happen, so within two weeks we came up with Berlin's youngest street magazine ...

When artist A.A. Bronson was asked to participate in the BMW Art Talk „Why Berlin? - The arts and the City“ at Soho House Berlin during Gallery Weekend 2018, he surprised everyone by performing a love letter to the city of Berlin which he had writted specifically for the occasion. The letter is based on The Epistle to the Galatians by Paul the Apostle and the performance moved almost everyone in the audience to tears (including us!). Months later we were in the midst of putting together a Berlin street magazine for the homeless called KARUNA KOMPASS. Discussing the lack of positive energy in Berlin, the letter popped into our heads. This incredibly inclusive and poetic letter that had been read to people sipping champagne in a super exclusive setting. Yet we thought it was meant to be heard by every Berliner regardless of their social background. With the kind support of Esther Schipper we got in touch with A.A. Bronson who gave us the right to publish the letter in this unusual context.

In our on-going video series, we see writer and curator and Francesca Gavin team up with social media influencers and art advocates embark on a journey to a handful of some of the exquisite collections featured in the BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors.

Berlin’s cultural landscape is as diverse as the many conflicting ideas on how to shape it. Located at the very heart of the city, the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor has made it its primary objective to provide an open platform for the capital’s cultural discourse.

Against the backdrop of the foundation’s 20th anniversary, we were asked to come up with a format idea that serves to communicate the importance of culture in society, as well as the foundation’s multifaceted endeavours to protect it.

In our on-going video series, we see writer and curator and Francesca Gavin team up with social media influencers and art advocates embark on a journey to a handful of some of the exquisite collections featured in the BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors.

In a city full of artists and creatives and home to a flourishing startup scene, the growing foundation of new creative business such as online galleries and other digital art businesses in Berlin is omnipresent. With current topics already in place, Independent Collectors in collaboration with the BVDG and the EIGEN+ART lab initiated the talk “Digital Only?”, inviting startups, artists and curators to discuss current trends that give way to the future of the online art world.

Against the backdrop of the omnipresent digitalisation of our modern world the issue of technology actively changing the art market has become a widely discussed and pressing matter. To shed some light on its status quo as well as possible developments in the future Independent Collectors and the Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers (BVDG) developed The Beta Manifesto for the Future Art Market.

IC's curator Georgie Pope in coversation with the Executive Director of The Armory Show.

The continuously contouring art collection from Independent Connector's co-founder Christian Kaspar Schwarm has found a temporary home located in Bremen’s Weserburg Museum.

In collaboration with publishing house Edition Taube we invited a small number of guests to join us in our Tea Garden during Art Basel. In the midst of the annual art fair madness we met in a private garden to sit in a minimalistic surrounding featuring furniture and objects designed by Friederike Daumiller.

Last May in Berlin, The New York Times brought together a select group of the world’s most distinguished art experts and influencers —from dealers and gallery owners to architects, museum directors and curators, from auctioneers and collectors to art industry advisers and corporate executives. IC's Christian Kaspar Schwarm was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the art fair industrial complex. With gallery foot traffic declining and art fairs proliferating, the questions keep coming: How many fairs is too many? How can galleries keep up? Will there be a shakeout? And what can a fair do to distinguish itself in an ever more crowded field?

Working from a multidisciplinary library of several thousand non-fiction publications, books play an important role in our everyday lives. In 2015 Independent Connector's co-founder Christian Kaspar Schwarm started an annual book subscription project, shipping 8 books a year from our Berlin office to anyone looking for inspiration from the most diverse backgrounds and disciplines.