The Frans Hals Museum announced today that its director Ann Demeester is leaving the museum on 1 February 2022. Demeester has been in charge of the museum since 2014.  She is leaving Haarlem to become the director of the Kunsthaus Zurich, the largest art museum in Switzerland.

The Frans Hals Museum has experienced many highlights during Demeester’s directorate,  including the restoration of the Regents and Regentesses paintings by Frans Hals, the merging of the ‘Hof’ and ‘Hal’ museum locations, as well as a number of ground-breaking exhibitions such as Frans Hals and the Moderns.

The Kunsthaus Zürich has a collection that spans many centuries, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh and Picasso to Pipilotti Rist. Amongst other things, the museum distinguishes itself through its extensive collection of works by Alberto Giacometti and Edvard Munch. A spatial expansion by architect David Chipperfield this fall, and the addition of two extensive collections (Bührle and Looser) comprising French Impressionists and American art from the 1950s to 1970s respectively, makes the Kunsthaus the largest museum in Switzerland.