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Founder Director

PETRA HART

Entrepreneur and connector of art and the Zuiderzee

Petra Hart, founder of Art Zuiderzee, combines her passion for art, experience as a creative entrepreneur, and deep connection to the Zuiderzee region. Born in Hoorn and raised in the historic triangle of Hoorn, Medemblik, and Enkhuizen, she grew up surrounded by the rich heritage of the former Zuiderzee. Monumental buildings, windmills, castles, and picturesque harbours formed the backdrop of her childhood, shaping her vision and mission. After living in Paris, London, and Amsterdam, Petra now resides in Naarden, a city with its own strong ties to the Zuiderzee’s history.

With Art Zuiderzee, Petra brings together her personal history, creative vision, and organisational expertise. Her mission is to connect the region’s rich past with contemporary art, inspiring and strengthening communities in the process. By uniting artists, institutions, and visitors, she forges new connections within the cultural sector and contributes to the region’s cultural identity.

Petra builds on more than twenty years of experience as an artist, entrepreneur, and organizer. Following a successful career as an art director at international advertising agencies, she shifted her focus entirely to art and entrepreneurship. She organised innovative art dinners in her studio for many years and launched projects such as Heart-World: Making a Better World and the AiR Spaander residency program. These initiatives fostered artistic collaboration and made art more accessible to diverse audiences.

My roots lie in the Zuiderzee region, and with Art Zuiderzee, I aim to show how art can inspire while also connecting and strengthening communities.

By using water, land, and air as natural carriers, Petra connects the past with the future, bringing old stories to life with new perspectives.

Read more about Petra’s personal story in Story.

Education

• Orientation Year, Gerrit Rietveld Academy

• Communication Arts (international portfolio program, VU)

• Graphic Design Amsterdam

• Event & Tourism Management

Founder and organiser
• Artist petrahart.com

• Heart-World Making a Better World (2001 - present)

• Art dinners 1-30 pax/3x p.w. (2003 - Covid-19)

• 5-in-1 Tunics Your Ultimate Travel Partner (2016 - present)

• AMFAD Architecture, Media, Fashion, Art, Design (2014/2021 completed project)

• AiR Spaander Volendam Artist in Residence Program (2021 completed project)

• Foundation Art Zuiderzee Route Art Route around the Zuiderzee (2016 - present)

ANNA KUZNETSOVA

Anna Kuznetsova holds 4 degrees:

- LLB Law > summa cum laude

- BA in Art History > summa cum laude

- MA in International Relations > summa cum laude

- MA in Art Business from Manchester University Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, UK > summa cum laude

• A board member of the US Government Contracting Small Business company alagant.com

• Managing Director of a Dutch Investment Fund - a Conscious tech B.V. aconscioustech.com

• An international serial entrepreneur, a polymath, and a cross-cultural negotiations expert

• In the role of Vice President led the international affairs of a non-profit art organisation with 15,000+ members - Creative Union of Artists of RF

• Facilitated projects in a number of countries, including The Netherlands, Singapore, and the US

• With the team of financial and economy experts invented a formula to predict the market attitude of art as an investment – a highly sought-after solution for this asset class.

• Created business model/mission/vision for numerous projects worldwide

• Guest lecturer at Webster University Geneva, Switzerland and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, UK

ROEL VAN RIJSEWIJK

Roel was born in Brabant and went to study Art and Culture Sciences at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. After his studies, he started his career at Deloitte and then moved to Amsterdam. Now the father of 5 children, he lives with Samantha in Etersheim on the former Zuiderzee, now the Markermeer.

Roel has an obsession with the great digital transformation of society; the information revolution. At Deloitte, Roel led the Cyber ​​Risk team of 150 professionals, ranging from consultants to ethical hackers. After leading and growing the Cyber ​​team, he has decided to leave the status and career that comes with a partnership at Deloitte to become a senior fellow of Deloitte's Center for the Edge.

In that role he was able to conduct research to bring back what I discovered with vision and inspiration. Cyber ​​promises a world that the industrial age would never allow: freedom without anarchy, trust without authority and consensus without power. He published his book 'Cyber ​​risk as opportunity'.

Today, Roel is Director of Cyber ​​Solutions at Thales Netherlands and helps National Critical Infrastructure survive and grow in a digital world.

Roel tries to bring the artistic into the business and the business into the artistic.

Board Secretary

JANIEK DAM

Photographer, portrait photography and photography of events commissioned by, among others, Holland Festival, Akzo Art Foundation, De Nieuwe Kerk, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Fonds21, Topvrouwen/SER, Eye Film Museum, Muziekgebouw aan het IJ, municipality of Amstelveen, Grote Zangers, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam , Reading Foundation, Boekenbond. Janiek is also a board member of Nieuw Dakota.

Board General

IVO WEYEL

Ivo Weyel is a writer and a freelance journalist. He is specialized in design, art and architecture and writes for several newspapers and magazines (among others NRC, De Tijd, Het Parool, National Geographic, Residence Traveller, Wall Street Journal). During corona in 2021, he initiated and organized the Artists in Residence @ The Grand project. Due to covid the Sofitel Legend The Grand hotel hotel was closed and 52 artists (painters, musicians, sculptors, writers, photographers) were each invited to stay for a week in the hotel, in exchange for one work. These works were sold at the end of the year during a festive vernissage, opened by the Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema. The proceeds went to a special foundation to support local artists. He published two books, Oorlogszoon en Het verleden ruist voorbij, both about his mother’s family who started a fashion, design and parfum imperium in the early nineteenth century. Currently he is writing a script about it for a major streaming service.

Curator

BAS KUIPER

In addition to his work as an advisor to the Board of Directors of Arkin (GGZ), Bas is internationally active as an art collector baskuiper.com and in that capacity is included in the Apollo Top 40 under 40 Europe list and Top100 list of most important living Dutch art collectors. In addition, Bas is co-founder of three art initiatives: AiR Spaander, AMFAD and Rembrandt’s Dog.

In the past ten years, Bas Kuiper has curated a variety of exhibitions. From a solo exhibition by the British-American painter Ben Young to a large group exhibition (AMFAD) in which a crossover between art, fashion and design has been realized. He was one of the first to make multiple exhibitions with Raquel van Haver since her graduation from HKU in 2012.

Education

- Master Klinische Psychologie, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, afgerond (judicium ‘met veel genoegen’) 09/06-03/08

- Bachelor Klinische Psychologie, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, afgerond 09/02-09/06

Courses

- Management development traject, AVOP, afgerond

2019-2020

- Klinisch leiderschap in 1 dag, Nyenrode Business Universiteit, afgerond 2019

- PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner, ICM, afgerond

2013-2014

MAARTEN BERTHEUX

Maarten Bertheux (1947) is a former curator of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1989 – 2006). Since 2006 he has worked as an independent curator for various museums and biennials, including Sao Paulo (2008), Seoul (2008) and Moscow (2013).

MARK GROL

Mark Grol is director of PAN Amsterdam, the largest national art fair in the Netherlands. Before that, he was Managing Director of auction house Sotheby's in Amsterdam, Paris and London. He has also been a director of galleries in Paris and Hong Kong. Mark studied art history at the University of Groningen.

• Director PAN Amsterdam

• Managing Director of auction house Sotheby's in Amsterdam, Paris and London.

• Director of galleries in Paris and Hong Kong

Education

- Art History University of Groningen

ELS VAN ODIJK † 30 august 2023

Els van Odijk is an independent professional in the contemporary art arena focused on process, strategy, development and innovation and was General Director of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten between 2010 and 2018, Member of the Advisory Committee on Mint (Ministry of Finance), Chairman of the Awards Ceremony of Science Innovation Jury of the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Sciences, Board member of Not Normal Int. Foundation, Member of the Advisory Board of the Jacqueline van Tongeren Fund Foundation, Board member of the Bijlevelt Foundation, Board member of De Gijselaar - Hintzenfonds, Visiting Professor of the Royal Academy of Art.

Education

- Doctoral student Art History Utrecht University

- The New Commissioner Certificate Governance

ERNST VEEN

Ernst Veen was director of the Nieuwe Kerk (1981-2011) and director (and founder) of the Hermitage in Amsterdam (2004-2011). Owner and advisor of the company Meedenker b.v., Cultural Entrepreneurship and projects. In 2016 Ernst published a book: Wonder Gardens in combination with Visual Art. He presented six episodes entitled Tuinen van Verwondering on the NPO.

- IJ Prize

- Cross of Honor of the House Order of Orange (2019)

- Order of Friendship

- Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau (2011)

FRITS PALMBOOM

Urban planner; founder of the Palmbout Urban Landscapes office in Rotterdam.

- Co-designer of, among other things, the Masterplan IJburg (Amsterdam 1995) and of the settlement on the Markerwadden (2018).

- Em. Professor van Eesteren Chair (2014-2019) at Delft University of Technology.

- Author of the book "IJsselmeer area - spatial perspective", 2018.

RONALD NIJBOER

Ronald Nijboer is an author and researcher. He wrote 'Wereldzee in de polder', in which he followed the iconic journey of the French art historian Henry Havard in 1873 around the Zuiderzee. He sailed around the IJsselmeer in a 19th-century tjalk and investigated how we have dealt with the landscape and our culture. He previously published 'Tabé Java, Tabé Indies'. Ronald is also a senior researcher/advisor in the culture and heritage sector. He has worked for governments, cultural funds, museums and film festivals. Ronald has lived almost all his life around the IJsselmeer. He grew up in the Noordoostpolder, lived in Amsterdam for many years and has now returned to the bottom of the former Zuiderzee.

Education

Masters in Sociology

Bachelors Commercial Economics and Sports Management

CAROLIEN GEHRELS

Carolien Gehrels was born in 1967 on the bottom of the Zuiderzee, on School Farm De Drieslag in Dronten. This school farm was part of the Christelijke Agrarische Hogeschool, which was founded by Henk van Harten and her father Johan Gehrels in Ede and came to Eastern Flevoland in the early 1960s to create an agricultural knowledge center in Dronten. Carolien went to Groningen in 1986 to study Dutch language and literature and came to Amsterdam in 1992. From 2006 to 2014 she was alderman for the PvdA in Amsterdam, with art and culture, economic affairs, monuments and public companies in her portfolio, among other things. She has been working for Arcadis since 2014, first as European city director and from 2021 as global director energy transition. She is also active in the cultural sector, including as chairman of the Holland Festival and the More Music in the Classroom Foundation.

Education

Dutch language and literature

University of Groningen

2006-2014 Alderman of Amsterdam

Portfolios art and culture, economic affairs, monuments and public companies

ADRIANA GONZALEZ HULSHOF

Managing director Museum Kranenburgh

Manager Parnerships & Sponsoring Nationale Opera & Ballet

Founding director Amsterdam Art

Head of Department International Network Partners Prince Clause Fund

NINA FOLKERSMA

Nina Folkersma is an independent curator of modern and contemporary art. In recent decades she has organized a wide range of exhibitions, symposia and projects, including for the S.M.A.K. (Ghent), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), Centraal Museum (Utrecht), WEST (The Hague) and the Oude Kerk (Amsterdam). In addition, she regularly writes for artists' catalogs and magazines such as Metropolis M. Her interest is in particular in performance, interdisciplinary projects, female artists and surrealism. From January 2021 to January 2023, Nina Folkersma was director of Amsterdam Art, the organization that organizes the annual Amsterdam Art Week. Since then she has been working as an independent curator again.

Education:

Art History, MA (summa cum laude), University of Amsterdam, 1988-1995

Curatorial Programme, De Appel, Amsterdam, 1995-1996

Current functions:

- Interim Senior Curator, The Noordbrabants Museum

- Interim Curator Contemporary Art, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

- Advisor BIS application West, The Hague

- Board member Stichting Rover, interdisciplinary dance company Amsterdam

- Board member Stichting Eva Bartels, cross-over art/theatre projects, Amsterdam

YVETTE VAN CALDENBORGH

From an early age, Yvette's father took her to galleries, museums and artists' studios. These visits always felt like true adventures. After high school she studied art history and obtained her master's degree at Leiden University. She studied Post War and Contemporary Art at Sotheby's Educational Center in London. There, the teachers took them to the London Art Scene and experienced the emergence of young British artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin up close.

After completing her studies, she became curator of the Caldic Collection. Her father is the founder of this collection and of museum Voorlinden. After years of curating, art consultancy and touring with art lovers, she realized the power of storytelling in art and started Art Fix the online storytelling platform that makes contemporary art accessible.

She is now on the board of Museum Voorlinden. The collection is diverse and varies from modern to contemporary art with sub-collections for sculptures, self-portraits and Zero art.

Education

- Leiden University 1986-1992

Masters, Art History

- Sotheby's Institute of Art, London 1991

Post war and contemporary art

Co- Founder

- Art Fix Discover inside stories and secrets of the contemporary art world

Board member

- Museum Voorlinden

- Outset Netherlands

- Sculpture Club

Curator

- Caldic Collection 1992-1996

JIMMY BOELENS

Half-blood Frisian

- Secondary school in Bussum

• Tennis and hockey

• In 2022 Jimmy cycled the small Zuiderzee round and in 2023 he will cycle the big round

ART ZUIDERZEE

ART ROUTE AROUND THE ZUIDERZEE