In the past few months, we bade farewell to Thomas Leysen and Elsje Janssen as members of the Board of CODART. We are pleased to announce their successors: Nico Van Hout and Gautier Platteau.

Thomas Leysen joined CODART’s board in 2013 to serve as liaison officer between the board and the Friends of CODART Foundation. When his term as Chair of the Friends ended, he was appointed a full board member. Thomas has been crucial in strengthening the commitment to CODART’s mission in Flanders. His passion for Flemish and Dutch art, as well as his extensive network and business experience, made him a wonderful asset to our board and network. We are very grateful to Thomas Leysen for his dedication to CODART over the past decade.

We welcomed Elsje Janssen to the board in 2017. Her experience in the museum field and especially in the field of tapestries and textiles has helped CODART set its goals to expand the network and include more curators working in the applied arts. As a director of collections of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp she helped strengthen ties with our Flemish partners and members. She has now handed this role over to her former colleague Nico Van Hout. Elsje Janssen left the museum last year to devote more of her time to her art – making memory textiles. You can find more information on her personal website: www.elsjejanssen.be

Nico Van Hout has been a highly active member of CODART since he became Curator of Seventeenth Century Paintings at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where he is currently Head of Collection Research. Nico is a renowned Rubens expert and also has a background in paintings conservation. We are looking forward to having him on the CODART board, enriching us with his enthusiasm and wide-ranging knowledge of our field.

Gautier Platteau is new to the CODART network. He started his publishing career with Lannoo publishers and lives in the Belgian city of Kortrijk where he is curator at the new Groeningeabdij museum (opening 2024). Ten years ago he founded the publishing house Hannibal Books, which specializes in art books. Its major recent publications include the catalogue of the Van Eyck exhibition in Ghent and the catalogue of the 2018 Bruegel exhibition in Vienna. Platteau aims to make an impact with printed books, and to present Old Masters as well as work by modern artists from the Low Countries to the rest of the world.

We want to thank Elsje and Thomas for their time and commitment to CODART, and look forward to working with Nico and Gautier.

See this page for more information about the board of CODART.