AMSTERDAM.- As 2013 draws to a close, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam looks forward to greeting its one millionth visitor since the reopening. In 2013 the museum drew some 700,000 visitors, making 2013 a record year in the museum’s history. Diverse exhibitions such as Communitas by Aernout Mik and Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde received lavish praise, both home and abroad. This year, the Stedelijk is open 365 days a year, also on Mondays – another first! And, starting on 21 December, admission is free for the under 18s.

Karin van Gilst, general director of the Stedelijk: “2013 has been an unforgettable year for us. We’re back on the map – for visitors, artists and the city. 2013 is also a milestone year, with the highest attendance rates in the Stedelijk’s history – quite a feat for a museum that goes back as far as 1895. It tells us how much people value modern and contemporary art in their lives. And that inspires us and challenges us to reach out to audiences and artists. Thanks to the ticket revenue, and to the support of private patrons and corporate sponsors, we have succeeded in achieving our desired and much-needed goal of increasing our self-generated revenue. Now we’re able to take our plans and ambitions for 2014 to fruition. I would like to give my sincere thanks to our principal benefactor, partners, sponsors, business club members, all friends and donors for their loyalty and dedication. We’re looking forward to 2014 with great anticipation!”

Visitors not only flocked to the museum to see the permanent collection and exhibitions, they also took part in the activities organized in the context of the Public Program. 30,000 people attended 92 program events, ranging from lectures and performances to film screenings, symposia, dance productions and public debates. The Stedelijk organizes the program in close collaboration with partner institutions that include EYE, Koninklijk Concertgebouw-orkest, De Appel and the performance platform If I can’t Dance. In 2013, the collaboration with TrouwAmsterdam resulted in three editions of the Contemporary Art Club, a fusion of contemporary art and music.

Education is one of the museum’s core missions, and this year the education activities attracted 52,000 visitors to the Stedelijk.

The new group of Blikopeners, young peer educators working part time at the Stedelijk, organized the annual Museum Night program, basing it on the theme of Malevich – Stedelijk Space Station. The Blikopeners’ evening won the museum the N8 Award for most outstanding program.

With the support of the Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds, the successful Alzheimer program of the Stedelijk and Van Abbemuseum, modeled on a similar project run by the MoMA in New York, has now gone national: the program is being adopted by other 10 Dutch museums.

In 2013, the Stedelijk hosted many exhibitions, large and small. There was the retrospective of American artist Mike Kelley, the latest film by Guido van der Werve, recent paintings by Jo Baer, the first major presentation in over a decade of work by video artist Aernout Mik, new work by young Scottish artist Lucy McKenzie, interactive installations by Daan Roosegaarde and Hellicar & Lewis, and The Best Book Designs of 2012.

Currently on view at the Stedelijk: Work by contemporary Polish artist Paulina Olowska, by American conceptual art icon Lawrence Weiner, the much-praised survey exhibition Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde and the interactive design exhibition by Jurriaan Schrofer and LUST.

The three-year program Global Collaborations resulted in the acquisition of work by non-Western artists, that is presently on display, and with the exhibition Made in Commons, which opened in late November at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam.
The large survey exhibition of work by Mike Kelley, curated by the Stedelijk, travelled to Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2013, and is currently on view in New York at MoMA PS1. In February 2014, the show will travel to MOCA in Los Angeles.

2014 kicks off with the first large-scale design exhibition since the museum’s reopening: Marcel Wanders: Pinned Up at the Stedelijk (which opens on February 1st), followed by an exhibition on the work of jewelry designers Gijs Bakker and Emmy van Leersum (as per February 22), an extraordinary selection of works by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall (beginning on March 1st), new work by Paulien Oltheten & Anouk Kruithof (as per March 14), a selection from the collection of collectors Martijn and Jeannette Sanders (as of July 19), and a survey of the work of Marlene Dumas (starting on September 5).

In 2013, the Stedelijk was honored to receive a number of generous donations, notable among them work gifted by Amsterdam gallery director and art collector Paul Andriesse, the Stichting H.N. Werkman and collectors Pieter and Marieke Sanders.

On 30 November 2013, the Stedelijk Museum said farewell to artistic director Ann Goldstein. The Supervisory Board expects to announce her successor in the spring of 2014.