New Chief Curator for the Hospitaalmuseum of Bruges

Ruud Priem (1969, Netherlands) is the new Chief Curator of the Hospitaalmuseum in Bruges. The City of Bruges selected Priem to lead the Hospitaalmuseum as of 1 September.

Priem studied at the universities of Padova and Utrecht, graduating with honors. He worked for the Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History in Utrecht, the research institute of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and as guest curator of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. From 2001-2010 he was responsible for a series of exhibitions on the Rijksmuseum's collections of Dutch 17th-century art, which traveled to museums worldwide and attracted a total of 1,7 million visitors. From 2011-2014, Priem was Director and Chief Curator of Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, and worked as an independent museum professional. He is occasionally active as a policy advisor and guest curator of international exhibition projects, while serving as board member of the Rembrandt Society and chairman of two advisory committees of the Mondriaan Fund in The Netherlands.

The Hospital Museum consists of two historical hospitals-the Saint John's Hospital and Our Lady of the Pottery-and belongs to the collective Musea Brugge. Vital to the image for the collection of the Saint John's Hospital is the unique ensemble of six masterpieces by Hans Memling. Four of which were ordered by the cloister's community and are still found in situ, which is exceptional.

Musea Brugge is the umbrella organisation of 15 museum locations spread out over the city. Musea Brugge is also responsible for Raakvlak, Erfgoedcel Brugge and the Flemish Research Centre for Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands.

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(News item June 18, 2015)