ann goldstein resigns as director of the stedelijk museum amsterdam
News — Aug 28, 2013
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam announced today that Ann Goldstein has resigned as Director effective December 1st 2013. Appointed as general and Artistic Director in June 2009, Ms. Goldstein began working with the museum in October of that year and assumed her post in January 2010. In announcing her resignation to the board,
Ms. Goldstein indicated that her work at the Stedelijk Museum is now done and that the museum is poised for a new Artistic Director to lead it into the future.
Alexander Ribbink, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Stedelijk Museum, comments: “It is with regret that the Board
of the Stedelijk Museum received Ann Goldstein’s resignation. Ann led the Stedelijk through an important and challenging period of its existence, enhanced its international visibility and successfully oversaw its reopening. We shall miss her profound artist-centric vision on the positioning of
the museum, her passion for artists and her defense of the museum as a living institution. The Supervisory Board is deeply grateful for her many contributions to this institution.
We wish Ann all the best for the future.”
Ann Goldstein states: “It has been a privilege to serve this great institution, to oversee its re-opening after nearly nine years of closure, and to live and work in a community that deeply values the vital presence of the Stedelijk Museum in people’s lives. While assuming responsibility for a closed museum presented tremendous challenges, it also offered unexpected opportunities. With The Temporary Stedelijk (2010–12) we were able to reconsider what a museum could be for its publics—open or closed—offering exhibitions, public programs and education initiatives in
our unfinished historic museum building and throughout Amsterdam prior to our reopening. Now, nearly a year since our reopening, we have achieved our long-anticipated goal of a fully functioning, international museum with an exhibition schedule that prepared for the next two years. I announced my resignation to the Supervisory Board on June 26, 2013, confident that my work is done and the museum is firmly poised for a new artistic director to lead it into the future. I feel a strong affection for this remarkable institution’s exceptionally devoted staff, board, and community, and have often said that the esteemed and inspiring history of the Stedelijk is part of my DNA as a museum professional. It will surely always remain close to my heart.”
Ms. Goldstein will serve as Director until December 1st 2013. She will remain involved in the Stedelijk-organized exhibition Mike Kelley, which travels to MoMA PS1 in October 2013 and to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in March 2014.
The management of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam consists of two statutory directors: an Artistic Director and a Managing Director. The Supervisory Board has started the process of recruiting a successor and aims to appoint a new Artistic Director in the first half of 2014. Managing Director Karin van Gilst will ensure business and leadership continuity during the transition.
Appendix
Ann Goldstein joined the Stedelijk Museum as General and Artistic Director in January 2010. Soon after her arrival, Ms. Goldstein conceived a special interim program called The Temporary Stedelijk (2010-12) as a way to regain a public presence for the Museum, which had been closed for construction for more than six years. The two-year program of special exhibitions, collection presentations, educational initiatives and public programs began in August 2010 with the exhibition Taking Place, which reintroduced the Stedelijk’s renovated yet still unfinished historic building. The program continued with changing displays of the museum’s modern and contemporary art and design collections, and temporary exhibitions including Monumentalism, Nairy Baghramian, Keren Cytter, Piero Golia, Jennifer Bornstein, Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey, and Blues Before Sunrise by artist Steve McQueen, as well as an extensive program of performances, film screenings, concerts, lectures, symposia, and educational initiatives.
For the reopening in September 2012,
Ms. Goldstein oversaw the reinstallation of the museum’s collections and the temporary exhibitions Beyond Imagination, Works in Place, Mike Kelley, Aernout Mik, Jo Baer, and Lucy McKenzie.
Ms. Goldstein acquired more than 1,500 works for the Stedelijk’s collection, with over 600 as gifts from private collectors, donors, and artists, including major donations from the collections of Maurice van Valen, Paul Andriesse, and Martijn and Jeannette Sanders. Ms. Goldstein’s acquisitions represent a broad range of Dutch and international artists and designers— Petra Blaisse, Stanley Brouwn, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas, Dan Flavin, Simone Forti, Sheila Hicks, Loes van der Horst, Patrick Jouin, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Harmen Liemburg, Cady Noland, Josephine Pryde, and Ettore Sottsass, among them—and include her
recent purchase of nineteen works by African and Dutch artists produced as part of Project 1975, a program organized by the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam.
Since its reopening in September 2012, the Stedelijk has welcomed 750,000 visitors, making these past twelve months the most successful year in the museum’s history. Other accomplishments during Ms. Goldstein’s tenure include an acclaimed new graphic identity, and an enhanced commitment to education, fundraising, public programming, hospitality, and visitor services, including the highly successful new museum store operated by Koenig Books.
Future exhibitions and programs initiated during Ms. Goldstein’s directorship include Global Collaborations (2013-15), Gijs Bakker and Emmy van Leersum: Gijs + Emmy (2014), Textiles Collected by Seth Siegelaub for the CSROT (2014), ZERO (2015), Willem de Rooij (2015) and Carl Andre (2015). Also on the schedule are five exhibitions initiated by her predecessor, former director Gijs van Tuyl: Marcel Wanders (2014), Jeff Wall (2014), Marlene Dumas (2014), The Martijn and Jeannette Sanders Collection (2014), and Amsterdam School (2015).
In April 2012, in recognition of her work, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College presented Ann Goldstein with the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence.
