AMSTERDAM.- The board of De Appel in Amsterdam announced that Monika Szewczyk will be director of the art center starting on May 1, 2019. Szewczyk succeeds Niels Van Tomme who left De Appel at the end of 2018 to become director of Argos in Brussels.

A native of Szczecin, Poland who grew up and gained early curatorial experience in Vancouver, Canada, Szewczyk brings with her broad international experience, most recently as a curator for documenta 14: Learning from Athens. Prior to her move to the Greek capital in 2014 to realize this uniquely bi-located edition of documenta, she developed the inaugural exhibitions program of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

Szewczyk also spent four formative years in Rotterdam, as head of publications at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and core tutor at Piet Zwart Institute for postgraduate studies and research. “These years kindled a great love for many people and initiatives then forging creative lives in The Netherlands, and for De Appel in particular as it was a key institutional partner, the creative home of dear colleagues and an outlet for my emerging voice as a writer and speaker.”

With Szewczyk De Appel found a director who expresses a deeply felt love for art. She embraces different traditions and looks to new dimensions of practice. “It’s a time of institutional renewal at De Appel and I am excited to work with the team and board to make the most of this opportunity. We can draw on the wisdom of artists, poets, critics, constructivists, politicians, beauticians, economists, entrepreneurs, historians, futurists and De Appel’s worldly support base. So my guiding question is: How can we redefine our collective desires through art and together shape our shared space – our home, our neighbourhood, our Amsterdam, our very idea of development?”

Szewczyk has proven herself in the past as a sparkling thinker and hands-on doer who quickly took root in a variety of contexts and has, as a result, a particularly rich network.

The board and team of De Appel are greatly looking forward to working with her in the coming years.