Ann Goldstein. Photo Rineke Dijkstra, courtesy the Stedelijk.
Ann Goldstein today announced her resignation, effective Dec. 1, from her position as director and artistic director of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. The first woman and first foreigner to head that institution, she assumed her post in January 2010. The museum, which had been closed for renovations since 2003, reopened in September 2012 under Goldstein’s leadership.
“We were looking for someone who could get this museum back on its feet,” Alexander Ribbink, chair of the museum’s supervisory board, told A.i.A. at the time. In a statement today, he noted, “Ann led the Stedelijk through an important and challenging period of its existence, enhanced its international visibility and successfully oversaw its reopening.”
“My work is done” at the museum, Goldstein said in the statement. “Nearly a year since our reopening, we have achieved our long-anticipated goal of a fully functioning, international museum with an exhibition schedule prepared for the next two years.”
Among her accomplishments at the Stedelijk was the Temporary Stedelijk (2010-12), a program of exhibitions and public programs in the 1895 building, where renovation was not yet complete, which allowed the museum to maintain a public profile. The Stedelijk acquired more than 1,500 works during Goldstein’s tenure. Since reopening, the museum has received some 750,000 visitors, according to the statement.
Previous to taking over at the Stedelijk, Goldstein, who turns 56 this year, spent 26 years as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (in her hometown). She is known for organizing ambitious, scholarly exhibitions such as “A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968” (2004), and “1965-1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art” (1995-96).
