General​/Artistic Director

For the Nieuwe Instituut, we are currently seeking an inspirational General/Artistic Director with an innovative artistic vision. The ideal candidate will promote the institute’s ambitions, understand the significance of architecture, design and digital culture for our society, and recognise the importance of heritage as collective memory. The director will convincingly strengthen the Nieuwe Instituut’s international presence and harness the potential of all our employees.

They will also build partnerships with Dutch institutions and international allies. We are looking for someone who can combine the roles of connector, team player and figurehead.

Located in Rotterdam’s Museumpark, the Nieuwe Instituut and Sonneveld House museum together form the Netherlands’ national institute for architecture, design and digital culture. Since its foundation in 2013, the Nieuwe Instituut has evolved into a national cultural institution with an interdisciplinary focus, situated at the intersection of architecture, design and digital culture. The institute plays an increasingly prominent international role and demonstrates a strong social orientation.

Its scope extends from the museum and heritage institution, Sonneveld House, a 1933 icon of Dutch modernism, to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, one of the largest architecture collections in the world, with approximately four million drawings, models, photos, letters and digital files. In addition, the Nieuwe Instituut stimulates scientific and speculative research and programs numerous exhibitions, lectures and debates at home and abroad, often in collaboration with national and international partners.

In the past policy period, under the leadership of directors Aric Chen, Josien Paulides and, from 2024, Aukje Bolle, the Nieuwe Instituut has further transformed itself into an emphatically hybrid organisation with various functions – museum, heritage institution and sector‑supporting network organisation – with one larger, integrated mission: connecting knowledge of the past with contemporary and future design assignments. The institute showcases the transformative power of new design ideas and applies the knowledge of the past to today’s urgent global challenges, such as climate change, technological acceleration and social inequity.

Designers, including architects, designers and digital makers, make an important contribution to meeting these challenges. Nieuwe Instituut creates space to test new ideas in practice. The Zoöp – the institute’s organisational model which recognises non‑human life – is an example of this. Nieuwe Instituut is a hospitable and lively place, where different designers show their work, makers, thinkers and visitors meet, and knowledge is collected, developed and shared.

In recent years, important steps have been taken in terms of content, finance and organisation, with remarkable results such as the development of the Zoöp, impactful partnerships and initiatives such as Architecture Everywhere. Visitor results have also been positive, with a record number of visits and a positive assessment by the Council for Culture.

The new General/Artistic Director:

• Represents the Nieuwe Instituut nationally and internationally and acts as an artistic figurehead.
• Positions the institute in terms of content and strategy as a leading platform and as an agenda‑setting testing ground.
• Manages the heads of the Programme, Agency and Collection departments and is the direct manager of the Research department.
• Actively acts as a co‑manager, as a sparring partner for the management team and as a discussion partner for the works council.
• Develops and monitors the institute’s artistic and content‑related direction, in relation to social and ecological issues and with an eye for accessibility and public reach.
• Connects heritage and design capacity with research and public programming.
• Works in managerial collaboration on the strategic multi‑year policy.
• Stimulates an approach that is interdisciplinary,…