DRESDEN.- Saxony's Minister for the Arts, Dr Eva-Maria Stange, introduced Dr Marion Ackermann as the new Director General of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden to the public today in Dresden. Marion Ackermann will take up the post on 1 November 2016, and will, as Director General, be responsible for overseeing the directors of the 14 museums. "We are delighted that Marion Ackermann is exchanging the Rhine for the Elbe. She was the selection committee's first choice, and I was most pleased to act on its recommendation," explained the Minister for the Arts. She continued: "We were seeking a long-term solution for the head of the SKD's Executive Board which would guarantee continuity, and Marion Ackermann fulfils this brief perfectly. An experienced museum director and art historian, she possesses global connections and is highly communicative. Not only will she continue to extend Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden's international focus, but will also involve the region's art lovers to a greater degree, creating new possibilities for the analysis and discussion of works and the mediation of art itself."

Marion Ackermann: "After seven intense years in Düsseldorf, the unique constellation of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden prompted me to make the switch. Your warm welcome here in Dresden has made it easier to bid farewell to the Rhine - admittedly a place close to my heart. One appealing aspect of my future remit lies, on the one hand, in the dialogue between fine and applied arts suggested by the broad-based collections, which enjoys such a long and prolific history here in Saxony.

It goes without saying that I am also fascinated by the collection's profound, historical dimension, which ranges from the Old Masters and the Türckische Cammer (Turkish Chamber) to Gerhard Richter. Finally, the ethnological museums within the SKD are ideally suited to stimulating discussion with and regarding the world's diverse cultures. Together with my fellow directors and the entire team, I aim to bring all these different elements to life, making them resound. I am not only interested in increasing the international appeal of the collections, which are, as we know, admired throughout the world. I would also like to encourage the local population to play an active role in all these processes, through a wide-ranging educational programme offered by the individual establishments, for instance. I am particularly keen to harness the museums' potential and the channel of the arts in order to make a contribution to a cosmopolitan, liberal society."

Dirk Burghardt, Managing Director of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, commented: "Marion Ackermann's decision to become a part of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is excellent news. Her extensive museum experience and national and international networks constitute the ideal prerequisites for the post of Director General in Dresden. The museums within Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are currently in the midst of a process of transformation, so it is wonderful that a successor to Hartwig Fischer could be found so swiftly. We will now work with Marion Ackermann to confirm our assessment by the Science Council in January 2014 as a world-class museum institution with outstanding research potential."

With a total of fourteen museums and further establishments, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are among the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world. Emerging from the aristocratic collections of the Saxon electors in the 16th century, predominantly from the Kunstkammer situated in Dresden's Residenzschloss (Royal Palace), they thus represent 450 years of Saxon history.

The collection's gradual installation in the restored Residenzschloss, the fundamental refurbishment and redesign of the Albertinum, numerous prestigious special exhibitions at home and abroad and high-profile efforts in terms of scholarly research into the collection's more recent history have all resulted in the consolidation and expansion of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden's international reputation of late.

The State Ministry for Science and the Arts had appointed a selection committee including prominent figures from the fields of art and culture to determine a successor for Hartwig Fischer. The independent selection committee proposed Marion Ackermann as the new Director General of the Dresden art collections.