Leen Beyers
Leen Beyers is Head of Research and the Curatorial Department at the Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp (MAS). The MAS uses the traces left behind by these exchanges to present new stories about the city, the river and the port; about the world in all its diversity and about the connection between Antwerp and the world. The MAS is providing home to a wide range of collections ranging from ethnographic art, maritime history, applied arts to urban history and folklore. This colourful collection is displayed in an open storage and through four themes, each of which take their cue from the connection between Antwerp and the world: Display of Power, Metropolis, World Port and Life and Death. The first temporary exhibition of the MAS is entitled Masterworks in the MAS, and deals with five centuries of visual art in and around Antwerp, from the Flemish Primitives then to Luc Tuymans and others nowadays.
Leen Beyers was a participant of the panel discussion for book launches of Changing Perspectives & UNFIXED on 24 May 2012, debating the current debate about globalization and diversity in contemporary art. Beyers holds a Ph.D. in History from KU Leuven and has a background in both history and anthropology. She is also a published writer on her main areas of expertise: urban history, anthropology of memory, migration history and project management with regard to heritage and diversity.