The Joseph Beuys Cafe, part of the Permanent Conference, presents changing exhibitions of work by internationally acclaimed German artist Joseph Beuys.

When a cafe sells neither food nor coffee all that is left is conversation, conversations about the artist and his profound community work known as 'social sculpture'. Beuys was indebted to the German Romantic tradition reaching back to individuals such as Goethe, Schiller and Novalis and later, Steiner.

Friedrich Schlegel wrote that the Romantic imperative demands that all nature and science should become art, and art should become nature and science. Beuys' response was that every person is an artist.

The Joseph Beuys Cafe investigates connections within these themes, including Rudolf Steiner’s legacy which has emerged as significant in the life and art of Joseph Beuys, whose library held approximately 100 books written by Steiner, many heavily annotated in the margins.