In the political upheavals of the last two centuries, Germany's attempts to assert itself as world player have also left their impression on the arts. Artists, for a part, have helped shape Berlin from the representation of power in government buildings, to the conception of museums and the works they collect, and the aesthetic interventions conceived by avant-garde artists from the niches they carved out of what became an international, teeming metropolis.

Once a symbol by the postwar division of Germany and Europe, Berlin today has emerged as a pivotal city in the middle of a continent moving towards economic and political unity, while also preserving traditions of cultural, regional, and artistic diversity.

Berlin truly offers students a uniquely rich and layered experience. Culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods mark a city functioning not only as the federal and national, national capital, but also as the new center of European Union decision-making and business, and as a springboard to eastern Europe. Precisely these multifarious roles and tensions continue to make Berlin the setting for critical inquiry and a flourishing arts scene.

In 2002, inspired by documenta11, Lexia in Berlin offered a parallel summer program in visual studies. Summer 2003 marked the beginning of an ongoing second track in Visual Culture. It is designed to make the most of what Berlin has to offer in the way of art collections and artistic innovation, to consider the conditions for creating, collecting, and displaying works of art, and to examine the interplay of culture and politics. Fall 2006 marked the beginning of Lexia's Architecture Program.