Seeking Director

The Van Abbemuseum was founded in 1936 and is one of the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe. Working with the collection and education programmes, among others, we question and perform our role in the presentation of art in society, encouraging visitors and ourselves to consider how the past relates to the present with openness and hospitality and through knowledge exchange. In understanding the collection as cultural memory and the museum as a space for the public, the Van Abbemuseum seeks to be meaningful and connected to Eindhoven while being of national interest and relevant to the international art ecosystem that is engaged with art’s role in society. The museum attaches great importance to involving a diverse public in terms of origin, education, ability and social position. Its programmes are developed in collaboration with its publics. The museum’s collection of over 3,600 works of art includes key works and archives by Joseph Beuys, Marc Chagall, René Daniëls, Marlene Dumas, Sheela Gowda, Patricia Kaersenhout, Gülsün Karamustafa, Iris Kensmil, Oskar Kokoschka, John Körmeling, El Lissitzky, Paul McCarthy, Pablo Picasso, Martha Rosler, Piet Mondrian and Lidwien van de Ven. The new building, which includes a 27-metre high tower was designed by Able Cahen and was inaugurated in 2003. The Van Abbemuseum is a member of L’Internationale, confederation of European museums, arts organizations and universities, which include Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain), MACBA (Barcelona, Spain), M HKA, (Antwerp, Belgium), MSN (Warsaw, Poland), Salt (Istanbul, Turkey), Institute of Radical Imagination (Naples, Italy), tranzit.ro (Bucharest, Cluj and Iaşi, Romania, and HDK-Valand (Gothenburg, Sweden).