News — Jan 11, 2017

Today it was announced that Bart Rutten, Head of Collections of the Stedelijk Museum, has been appointed as the new Director of the Centraal Museum Utrecht, starting May 1st.

Bart (44) began in the Stedelijk in 2008 as curator of visual arts, with a particular focus on video and film art. In the following years he expanded his scope, with great attention to the breadth of the collection. 

Bart was, with other colleagues, responsible for the new collection display in the reopened Stedelijk, and co-produced major exhibitions, like the extenseive Malevich show in 2013 and the Matisse exhibition in 2015, which attracted the highest attendance in the history of the Stedelijk. He also made remarkable presentations beyond the walls of the museum, such as The Living in Huize Frankendael in Amsterdam, Blues Before Sunrise with Steve McQueen in the Vondelpark and various presentations of contemporary art at Club Trouw in Amsterdam. He has always had a great interest in the cross-fertilization between art and other fields of visual and/or popular culture and the incorporation of art in society.

In 2015 he became Head of Collections and is in that role responsible for, among other things, the conservation and management of the collection, storage, restoration workshops and, together with the Director, for the acquisitions of the museum. 

Bart Rutten will be with the Stedelijk until mid April, and he will be dedicating his time to the new collection display that will open at the Stedelijk medio 2017, and which will be the crown to his years at this museum. 

Bart Rutten about his move: "Over the past nine yeas, the Stedelijk has offered me tremendous opportunities to develop myself. As a young curator I have gotten to know the collection, which has become very dear to me. Now I am looking forward to be leading the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands and to get work with the special collection of the Centraal Museum in all its diversity, and with the characteristic building and its spacious exhibition rooms in the old stables. The central location of the museum in the country and the ambitious cultural climate will be a fantastic circumstance to work in."

Although the Stedelijk will be losing an important member of its staff, we are also very proud of Bart making this fantastic step in his career. 

There are more examples of curators of the Stedelijk switching to directorship; Hendrik Driessen became director of De Pont in Tilburg and Alexander van Grevenstein of the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. Two years ago Hendrik Folkerts, curator Public Program at the Stedelijk, was added to prestigious team of Documenta 14.