On 31 December 2020, Meta Knol is stepping down as director of Museum De Lakenhal. She will be moving permanently to Leiden European City of Science, where she has been interim director since July. Oskar Brandenburg (Head of Program and Collections) will continue as interim museum director until a successor is appointed. Although Knol admits that ‘her heart belongs to Museum De Lakenhal forever’, her task there is now complete.
In July 2020, Meta Knol became interim director of the Leiden European City of Science 2022 at the invitation of Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center and the Municipality of Leiden. As the development of this new organization gains momentum, Knol has decided to definitively leave the museum. At Leiden European City of Science, she will focus on offering the city of Leiden prospects with science and culture for the year 2022 – after the pandemic.
Meta Knol was director of the museum in Leiden for over eleven years. During this period, she led a change process in the museum which resulted in the festive reopening by King Willem Alexander in June 2019. The collection inspired the renewal process that was based on a powerful, substantive vision, which she discussed during her statement at CODART TWINTIG in Warsaw (2017). Meanwhile, the organization was restructured, visitor numbers doubled, the seventeenth-century building was meticulously restored and extended with a new wing. Over the past year, the renovated museum has reaped lots of praise and received various awards and nominations.