AMSTERDAM.- The Rijksmuseum has named new heads for five departments: Education & Public Information, Exhibitions, History, Painting and Communication & Marketing. By appointing new and young talent for the five strategically important departments, the Rijksmuseum is entering the next phase of its development, which is focused entirely on the re-opening in 2013.

Education & Public Information Department: Annemies Broekgaarden (1960).-
Starting in 2000, Annemies Broekgaarden served as the head of the Tropenmuseum Junior in Amsterdam. As a member of the board of management, she has borne responsibility for the development of the museum’s new educational policy since 2007. In recent years, Annemies Broekgaarden, who studied cultural anthropology in Utrecht, has focused on the professionalisation of national and international children’s museums. She also initiated the creation of Dick Bruna Huis, a permanent exhibition of the work of Dick Bruna, in Utrecht. She began work at the Rijksmuseum on 1 December 2008.

Exhibitions Department: Tim Zeedijk (1976)
Tim Zeedijk studied art history in Utrecht under Peter Hecht and has been involved since 2003 in the design of the New Rijksmuseum via Adviesgroep Museale Visie, the advisory committee on museological vision. He bears responsibility for maintaining contact with the French interior designer Wilmotte, who is seeing to the layout and furnishing of the main building’s galleries. He has written several publications on the history of the Rijksmuseum’s collections and on the plans for the new approach to art and history. Zeedijk will begin work as head of the Exhibitions Department on 1 March.

History Department: Martine Gosselink (1969)
Martine Gooselink is a partner and co-founder of the cultural collective De Nieuwe Collectie. Since 1995, she has pursued her cultural-entrepreneurial ambitions for museums at home and abroad, initiating and realising exhibitions, publications and cultural projects. Martine Gosselink is a specialist in the visual culture of the historical periods when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and Dutch West India Company (WIC) were active. Her efforts have resulted, for instance, in the creation of the ‘Atlas of Mutual Heritage’ database and an exhibition on the maps of Johannes Vingboons, held at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. Gosselink also initiated the Dutch Manhattan Heritage Program as part of the year of Henry Hudson (2009). The companion exhibition ‘New Amsterdam. The Island at the Center of the World’, for which Gosselink serves as external curator for the Nationaal Archief national archives, opens on 12 September 2009 in New York City. She began work on 16 February.

Painting Department: Gregor Weber (1956)
Gregor Weber studied art history at universities in Cologne, Aachen and Utrecht. In his capacity as head of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister museum of Old Masters in Kassel, he began organising various exhibitions in 2004 on 16th to 18th century Dutch painting, including three about Rembrandt. Before this, Weber served for ten years as curator of Italian painting at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister museum of Old Masters in Dresden. Starting in 1995, he worked as a lecturer at various institutions, including the University of Bamberg, which appointed him ‘honorary professor’ in 2005. His academic publications take a broad approach and address the art theory, iconography and stylistic analyses of art originating from the areas to the north and south of the Alps. In employing Weber, the Rijksmuseum has gained an authoritative figure in the field of 17th century painting. He will begin work on 1 April.

Communication & Marketing Department: Marjolijn Meynen (1974)
Marjolijn Meynen has ten years’ national and international marketing experience as a marketing specialist with Mars (Pedigree, Cesar, Sheba) and Sara Lee (Zwitsal) and later as a marketing consultant with Branddoctors, where in recent years she served as both manager and member of the management team, bearing responsibility for such clients as KPN, Microsoft and Albert Heijn. In addition to her professional career, she has contributed to various advisory projects for Kunst & Zaken. This foundation aims to enhance the management of cultural institutions with knowledge and expertise from the private sector. She began work in her new position on 5 January.