Steven Ten Thije

Background

About Steven Ten Thije

The Van Abbemuseum is a museum for modern and contemporary art, which opened its doors in 1936. I manage the teams responsible for the collection, library and archive. This includes making exhibitions with the collection and the acquisition process, next to managing loan traffic, library use and digitisation of our archives. We hold dear the fact that we are a public museum and wish to offer an inspiring and meaningful programme for our diverse publics. The collections of the museum includes art and design and is around 3.400 pieces. Our major challenge for the years to come is to make the museum a sustainable and inclusive institution that functions as a place of positive gathering and exchange. To this end we believe that it is important to decolonise the museum, which in our view means for us, located in an old imperial, modern colonial centre, that we need to 'demodernise'. I've been part of the Van Abbemuseum team for over ten years and have worked in different functions. Starting as researcher in 2009, I became project leader of the second programme of the European museum confederation L'Internationale in 20213: The Uses of Art. L'lnternationale is a confederation with seven members connection North, South, East and West Europe, functioning as a platform to think through major questions considering the way in which museums can contribute to society now and in the years to come. After this I worked as collection curator, before become head of the collection department. Aside I've been active as teacher on various art schools (Dutch Art Institute | Artez, Rietveld Academy and Sandberg Academy, Master of Artistic Research, KABK, The Hague). I worked as writer and editor, publishing among others the essay commissioned by the Mondrian Fonds The Emancipated Museum (2016). I"m currently also board member of the Supervisory Board of the Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam since 2016. The background photo is a by Peter Cox and presents a project by Erwin Thomasse, Turn Panic into Magic (2021). It is a neon on the top of the museum that goes on and off on the rhythm of breathing exercise done to prevent a panic attack. The sign was placed during the COVID-crisis, but still seams very relevant in today's unstable world.