The Antwerp City Museums announce the appointment of three new curators: Ben van Beneden in the Rubenshuis, Véronique Van de Kerckhof in the Rubenianum and Claire Baisier in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
Information form the city of Antwerp press release, 13 April 2010
Ben van Beneden – Rubenshuis
Ben van Beneden (°1956) studied art sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven. He began his career at the Antwerp municipal museums and subsequently worked in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. He has been employed at the Rubenshuis, Antwerp, since 2004 and is responsible for the collection and exhibition policy. He has collaborated on numerous international exhibitions of 17th-century art, including Jacob Jordaens (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp), Antoon van Dyck 1599-1641 (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp and Royal Academy of Arts, London) and recently Kamers vol kunst in 17de-eeuws Antwerpen (Room for art in 17th-century Antwerp) (the Rubenshuis and Mauritshuis, The Hague). His research concentrates primarily on the relationship between intellectual culture and art, and on the reception of ancient and Italian art in the Netherlands. He is currently preparing exhibitions on Rubens and architecture, and on Rubens’ family portraits.
Véronique Van de Kerckhof – Rubenianum
Véronique Van de Kerckhof (°1975) studied art sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven and cultural management at the University of Antwerp. She began her career in 1997 as a scholarly project assistant at the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels. In 2000 she began working for the Antwerp museums. She was scholarly assistant at the Rubenshuis for four years, and then at the print room of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, for three years. In 2008-2009 she temporarily worked on the opening of (Museum) M in Leuven. In January 2010 she resumed her job with the city of Antwerp. Her sphere of interest has always been Flemish art and culture of the 16th and 17th century. She has contributed to the following exhibitions: Met passer en penseel. Brussel en het oude hertogdom Brabant in beeld (The painter and the surveyor: Brussels and the former Duchy of Brabant) (Brussels, 2000); Met glans verworven. Rubens’ zilveren sierstel (A glittering acquisition: Rubens’s silver set) (Antwerp, 2001); Meestertekeningen van Jan van Eyck tot Hieronymus Bosch (Master drawings from Jan van Eyck to Hieronymous Bosch) (Antwerp, 2002); De wereld is een tuin. Hans Vredeman de Vries en de tuinkunst van de renaissance (The world is a garden. Hans Vredeman de Vries and Renaissance art) (Antwerp, 2002); and Wonderlycke dieren op papier in de tijd van Plantin (Amazing animals on paper from the time of Plantin) (Antwerp, 2007).
Claire Baisier – Museum Mayer van den Bergh
Claire Baisier (°1972) studied art sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven and received her doctorate 2008 for her dissertation on the documentary value of 17th-century interior views of Antwerp churches. From 1999 to 2006 she acquired substantial experience as a scholarly assistant at the Centrum voor Religieuze Kunst en Cultuur (Center for Religious Art and Culture), as head of the department of religious patrimony and as curator of exhibitions of religious art. She has written numerous publications and given various lectures on art-historical and religious subjects, particularly on Antwerp sculpture and painting of the 17th and 18th century. Claire Baisier is an expert at the Centraal Kerkbestuur Antwerpen-Centrum (Central Church Managment Antwerp-Center) and a member of the assessment committee Landelijke Organisaties Volkscultuur (National Organisations for Popular Culture) and of Landelijke Expertisecentra voor Cultureel Erfgoed (National Expertise Center for Cultural Patrimony). Since 2006 she has been a religious patrimony consultant at the Musea en Erfgoed Antwerpen (Museums and Patrimony of Antwerp) and a coordinator at the Monumentale Kerken Antwerpen (Monumental Churches of Antwerp).
