ROTTERDAM.- Art Rotterdam celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2019. In the run-up to this festive event, the organization took the necessary steps. To reinforce its reputation as an exciting discovery site on the one hand and strong market place on the other, it has sharpened its multifaceted concept, focused on young art. Collaboration is the key word here.

Strengthen the team
Liv Vaisberg, former co-director of Independent Brussels and co-founder of Poppositions, will join the Rotterdam team. As part of her work she contributes to the new strategy. With its international network, Liv is the perfect person to bring even more international collectors to Rotterdam and to actually bring them into contact with the galleries.

Cooperation model
Art Rotterdam 2019 has a more intimate character and counts 25% fewer galleries than the 2018 edition. With this measure to improve the cooperation between local and international galleries, Art Rotterdam wants to strengthen the position of its participants. The 2019 edition is characterized by a new collaboration model in which galleries share their relationships and actively support each other. This collaborative model with its dynamic and customized architectural presentation of the artworks is an attractive alternative to the presentations that are common in the art world.

AkzoNobel Art Foundation
AkzoNobel Art Foundation manages one of the best-known corporate collections in the Netherlands. Under the title Now / Forever artworks from various disciplines and different galleries will be exhibited by the Art Foundation during Art Rotterdam 2019. The architectural setting is a design by Tom Postma Design. Curator Hester Alberdingk Thijm, director of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation, says: "For this presentation we have selected artworks submitted by galleries exhibiting at Art Rotterdam. We have selected works of various disciplines and media, yet each of them has a certain innate quality. The primary selection criteria for us were contemporaneity (Now) and the capacity to stand the test of time (Forever)".

NN Group Art Award
For the third year in a row, the presentation of the NN Group Art Award will take place during Art Rotterdam 2019. And again the prize goes to an exceptional talent whose work can be seen at the fair. The most important criteria for nomination are: completing an art education in the Netherlands, making high-quality work and propagating authentic and innovative craftsmanship. The 2018 winner was Pauline Curnier Jardin (Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam). Like her, her successor receives an incentive prize of € 10,000,-.