09.07.2024
Two dedicated and innovative museum professionals are set to join the team at the Museumsinsel Berlin (Museum Island Berlin) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Dr Anette Hüsch, who is currently director of the Kunsthalle zu Kiel, will take over as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) from 1 March 2025. Dr Antje Scherner, director of the handcrafts and design collection and the sculpture collection at Hessen Kassel Heritage, will be the new director of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst (Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art) at the Bode-Museum (Bode Museum) from 15 August 2024.
Dr Anette Hüsch, currently the director of the Kunsthalle zu Kiel, will take over direction of the Alte Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from 1 March 2025. She will take the place of the gallery’s current director, Dr Ralph Gleis, who will be transferring to the Albertina Museum in Vienna at the end of the year. With the appointment of Anette Hüsch, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has gained an experienced, enterprising and dedicated museum director for the Alte Nationalgalerie.
Born in Hanover in 1972, Anette Hüsch studied Theory and History of Art, Media Theory, as well as Philosopy, Aesthetics and Visual Communication at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. In 2003, she obtained her doctorate at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe under Professor Hans Belting with her thesis on the history of images and media. After completing a period of academic training with the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Hüsch worked as a research associate at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart from 2007 to 2008. Her other professional experience as a freelance curator includes a number of national and international exhibition projects for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, conducted in collaboration with institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Sammlung Zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Berlin, Bonn and Brussels. She has also worked as a consultant on the art collection of the European Patent Office, with its branches in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Munich and Paris.
Hüsch has been the director of the Kunsthalle zu Kiel since 2010, where she was responsible for a number of exhibitions every year and launched several collaborative projects that were carried out on a national and international level. She also significantly broadened the museum’s scope for cultural education, expanding it to encompass more inclusive and interactive programmes. She established provenance research at the museum and promoted the digitisation of its collections. Together with the Kunsthalle’s benefactors and the help of other foundations and third-party donors, Hüsch was able to acquire several works of classical modernism and older art, as well as international works of contemporary art. She also serves as the managing chairperson of the Schleswig-Holstein Art Association.
Hüsch was responsible for instigating the refurbishment of the heritage-listed ensemble of buildings, which has been closed since 2023 due to construction work, and was instrumental in securing the funding needed for the project.
When it comes to cultural policy, Hüsch is incredibly well connected, serving on a number of boards and juries at the federal, state and regional level, including as a member of the board of trustees at the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States (Kulturstiftung der Länder) and as chair of the cultural heritage expert committee for the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Anette Hüsch explains:
I’m particularly interested in the prospect of further developing the Alte Nationalgalerie from a contemporary perspective, especially given that it was founded as a site for contemporary art. What is important to me is to work together with the team to further open up the museum and to broaden the scope of the work conducted at the museum to incorporate new perspectives – for example, cross-media projects that might also integrate the foundation’s other collections. I’m really excited to step into this new role!
Dr Antje Scherner, director of the handcrafts and design collection and the sculpture collection at Hessen Kassel Heritage, will be the new director of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from 15 August 2024. Scherner will succeed Julien Chapuis, who left the museum in 2023.
Born in Stuttgart in 1966, Antje Scherner studied Art History, Theatre Studies and German Philology at the LMU Munich and in Rome from 1986 to 1993. She received a doctoral scholarship at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome, where she was also employed from 1999 to 2001 as a research assistant to the institute’s director. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Tübingen in 2001 with a thesis titled Rome’s Cappella del Monte di Pietà – Architecture and Relief Decoration in the Roman Baroque Period.
From 2001 to 2006, Scherner worked at the Dresden State Art Collections, primarily for the Grünes Gewölbe. After working for several years as a curator of the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel’s applied arts collection, she took over as director of the handcrafts and design collection and the sculpture collection at Hessen Kassel Heritage in 2010.
At Schloss Friedrichstein (Bad Wildungen) and the Hessian State Museum in Kassel, Scherner redesigned the permanent exhibitions Turcia and From the Treasury of History. She has also organised several successful, and in some cases international, special exhibitions. Scherner is regarded as a specialist in early modern Italian sculpture, but has also made a name for herself with her interdisciplinary exhibition work. She is a renowned expert on sculpture and statuettes from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, as well as on the history of cabinets of curiosities and the cultural history of objects.
Antje Scherner is a member of a number of different academic boards, commissions and forums, including the Ivories Studies Group, the Historical Commission for Hesse and the Forum Turcica. She has also lectured at universities in Dresden, Marburg, Heidelberg and Göttingen, and has authored a number of academic articles.
Her plans for the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst involve launching a series of cross-over projects that will involve multiple collections, for example in collaboration with the neighbouring museums on the Museumsinsel. Juxtaposing European and Byzantine art with artefacts from other global cultures could provide viewers with fresh perspectives on the permanent exhibition. Scherner also hopes to amplify the visibility of the cultural function and relevance of the extraordinary works of art in the Bode-Museum, as well as their origins in a bygone world. She also plans to strengthen the museum’s outstanding reputation as a site for basic research.
Antje Scherner says:
I not only wish to show the wonderful exhibits from the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, but also to incorporate the work conducted by the museum behind the scenes into their presentation through direct dialogue between researchers, conservators and visitors. This will allow scientific analysis of the works to be conducted in a way that is clearer and more tangible for a broader audience. It’s especially important to me that we also appeal to people who come from a migrant background.