2023-06-29 09:43:33
Jonathan Fine becomes the new general director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The American will succeed Sabine Haag at the head of the museum association on January 1, 2025. Secretary of State for Culture Andrea Mayer (Greens) announced this personnel decision on Thursday. Fine prevailed once morest 19 applicants.
The appointment of the New Yorker born in 1969 and “Main Act of the Day”, according to Mayer, is at the same time an internal solution, as Fine has been in charge of the world museum belonging to the KHM since 2021. However, he is not an ethnologist, even though he made a name for himself as head of collections at the Ethnological Museum of the Berlin State Museums before his engagement in Vienna. Jonathan David MacLachlan Fine is an art and cultural historian who has also studied history, literature and law.
“His CV reads like a list of the elite universities in the USA,” said State Secretary Mayer, emphasizing the future KHM boss’s cosmopolitanism. This multidisciplinary approach is important for a museum today, as a general director must represent what connects the inside and outside: “A general director is not a solitaire.” Fine manages the balancing act between “great demands and a grounded, cooperative understanding of leadership”.
“I’m full of gratitude and humility,” Fine said modestly regarding today’s freestyle. The holdings of the KHM might compete with the largest museums in the world: “The collections of the KHM represent the best of human creativity and help us to better understand humanity.” From them you can tell the decisive stories for society in the time of great uncertainty.
At the same time, his goal is clear: “The expansion of international and national awareness of these museums.” The current structure of the association is a good basis, Fine threw himself into the breach for the existing structure: “As many already know, my approach as an art historian is interdisciplinary.” This also includes the implementation of special exhibition rooms in the KHM.
The 54-year-old announced that he would remain in office as World Museum Director until the end of 2024 and then switch to the head of the association. A joint decision will then be made in good time regarding his successor in the World Museum.
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