ABSTRACT
The role of the museums as depositories of knowledge for professional education in the provinces was far from negligible. Many of the institutions involved in founding museums also actively promoted design education themselves. Alongside museums, schools of applied arts and design were an essential part of the programme of design reform. The schools also reflected common professional, social and gender prejudices of the time. Drawing on examples from a range of schools in different centres, the chapter provides a critical analysis of their success in shaping the development of design and applied art practice in Austria-Hungary. Design museums would serve as intermediaries, but they were also understood as educational institutions in their own right, with their own specific programmes and audience. Activities of the school for female education precluded theorizing about modernity, modern aesthetics and the place of women.
