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Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum announced that Bart van der Heide will leave his position as the museum’s chief curator and head of research on November 1. “Van der Heide has decided to orient himself towards the next step in his career,” interim director Jan Willem Sieburgh wrote in a statement from the museum. “We will greatly miss his substantive contribution and content knowledge . . . and wish him every success with his next step.” 

The museum did not immediately respond to comment for further details on the terms of van der Heide’s departure. Van der Heide joined the Stedelijk in his current curatorial capacities from Kunstverein München, where he was director, in February 2015. Previously he was curator at London’s Cubitt Gallery and Rotterdam’s Witte de With.

The news follows a tumultuous year at the Stedelijk. Former director Beatrix Ruf left the museum in October 2017 amidst accusations of running an art consulting business service during her three-year tenure there and posing a conflict of interest. In June of this year, Ruf was cleared of the charges, prompting three members of the museum’s supervisory board—Jos van Rooijen, Madeleine de Cock Buning, and Rita Kersting—to step down from their positions.

“In the best interests of the museum, it is time to bring the recent turmoil to an end and start afresh,” read a June statement from the Stedelijk’s board of supervisors. 

Source artforum.com