DUSSELDORF.- Prof. Dr. Susanne Gaensheimer is to become the new Director of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Gaensheimer – who spent the past eight years heading the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt – will move to Düsseldorf on September 1, 2017. She succeeds Prof. Dr. Marion Ackermann, who accepted a new post as General Director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden last year. Prof. Dr. Susanne Gaensheimer, an art historian, was recommended by a search committee headed by Secretary of State for Culture Bernd Neuendorf. The committee's proposal was confirmed by the Board of Trustees of the Kunstsammlung NRW. The appointment of Susanne Gaensheimer was also endorsed by the State Cabinet under the direction of Minister-President Hannelore Kraft. “With Susanne Gaensheimer, we have succeeded in recruiting an exceptionally competent museum director who is as experienced as she is committed. Ms. Gaensheimer also enjoys a high-level of international recognition. The state government is delighted to be able to transfer the directorship of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen to such an outstanding personality,” commented Minister-President Hannelore Kraft.

Susanne Gaensheimer, who was born in Munich in 1967, studied art history in Munich and Hamburg. In 1995 – 1996, she completed a program with the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. In 1998, she earned her Doctorate with a dissertation on Bruce Naumann. Beginning in 2001, she spent seven years directing the Collection of International Art After 1945 at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich. She has been the Director of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main since 2009. During her tenure, she succeeded in expanding the museum by adding a second branch, the MMK 2.

In 1999 – 2001, Susanne Gaensheimer was already active in North Rhine-Westphalia as the Director of the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster.

“Susanne Gaensheimer is committed to both classical modernism and contemporary art. One of her greatest challenges will be to present and to conduct research into the Dorothee and Konrad Fischer Collection, which we able to acquire recently at great expense. Beyond that, I look forward to seeing fresh, exciting impulses emerging at the Kunstsammlung NRW,” emphasized Minister of Culture Christina Kampmann with regard to Susanne Gaensheimer’s appointment.

“The Kunstsammlung NRW is among the most important collections of classical modernism, postmodernism, and contemporary art internationally, and it is a great joy and a tremendous honor for me to assume responsibility for this very special collection, both at the K20 as well as at the K21,” declared Susanne Gaensheimer. Beginning in 2013, she has held a teaching position with the Department of Art History at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, where she has been an honorary professor since 2016. She has shared her expertise as a member of numerous commissions and juries, among them the jury of the Turner Prize, as well as the search committee for the curators of the 7th and 8th Berlin Biennales in 2012 and 2014.