Wim Pijbes, who helmed Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum for over seven years, has been appointed managing director of the newly founded body Stichting Droom en Daad in Rotterdam.
The initiative—which, according to De Telegraaf, is the brainchild of the Van der Vorm family of entrepreneurs and whose name roughly translates as Dream and Do Foundation—seeks to “develop initiatives aimed at promoting the arts in and for Rotterdam, to contribute to an even more attractive city for its residents and visitors.”
“Stichting Droom en Daad puts dreams into action to make the city even better and more beautiful. We invest in the arts for everyone; from Urban to Erasmus. Our Foundation initiates, promotes, participates, invests and realizes to contribute to an attractive city: liveable for residents and loveable for visitors,” Pijbes said in a statement.
Stichting Droom en Daad will develop projects in the fields of music, theater, dance, architecture, film, literature, and visual arts. Its first endeavor will be to support the 46th edition of the prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam which opens tomorrow, January 25.
NRC reports that conversations to launch the foundation took place between the Van der Vorm family and Pijbes at the end of 2016.
Last year was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for Pijbes, who stepped down from his position at the helm of the Rijksmuseum in March, ending a successful tenure to take up the directorship in July of the Museum Voorlinden, a new private museum dedicated to the collection of chemical industry magnate Joop van Caldenborgh, located in a suburb of the Hague.
Pijbes made headlines again in late September when he announced he was quitting from the Museum Voorlinden after a short three-month tenure. At the time, Pijbes argued that he and van Caldenborgh had different visions for the museum’s future.
Stichting Droom en Daad joins Rotterdam’s flourishing art scene, home to institutions like Witte de With, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, TENT, and Kunsthal Rotterdam. In addition, the fair Art Rotterdam and the art school Piet Zwart Institute are turning the city into an attractive hub for international artists and art professionals, despite the funding cuts imposed by the Dutch government in the last few years.