Philara is a private collection of contemporary art comprising more than 1,800 works in such genres as painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, and video. In the mid- 1990s, Gil Bronner began to build his collection, which, with its strong connection to the Duesseldorf Art Academy, has set itself the task of promoting local emerging artists. 2006 Bronner acquired the former Leitz factory in Duesseldorf and established a studio building for approximately seventy local artists many of which come directly from the classes of the Duesseldorf Art Academy. The exhibitions that were in the same building were supported by the association Philara – Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst e.V. and became a virtually self-perpetuating event. There was, at the beginning, no real game plan, the exhibitions rather happened as the collection grew organically.