Meta Knol. Photo: Jan Banning Meta Knol
Meta Knol is a co-founder and former board member of Framer Framed. Until 2020, she was director of Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, and she currently leads Leiden European City of Science 2022. Recently, Meta founded the Ministery of the Future, together with Klaas Sietse Spoelstra and other active citizens interested in intergenerational justice and long-termism.
She studied art history at Utrecht University. After having received her MA, Knol has realized exhibitions, written on the visual arts and has been involved in several cultural projects, such as the artist residency Het vijfde seizoen (The Fifth Season) on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital in Den Dolder, the mobile exhibition pavilion Pleinmuseum as well as the Madness & Art Festival in Haarlem (2010). Additionally, Meta Knol holds a number of board positions in the cultural sector, including being a former member of Framer Framed‘s supervisory board.
From 1997, Knol was tied to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as a curator. She researched and published a full catalog of the modern art collections (Modern Art, 2004) and finished the first intermuseal collection catalog of The Netherlands: US in NL – American Art in Dutch Museums, 1945-2001 (2005). In 2006 she curated the exhibition This is America. Visions of the American Dream (2006). Her last exhibition for the Centraal Museum was Beyond the Dutch – Indonesia, the Netherlands and the Visual Arts since 1900 (2009), which she co-curated with Enin Supriyanto. In Leiden, she initiated and co-curated the exhibition Global Imaginations (2015) in collaboration with Leiden University and the National Museum of World Cultures.
Meta Knol has always been an advocate of renewal in the museum sector. In 2007, she drafted the manifesto Towards an Enfranchised Museum with Edwin Jacobs and Stijn Huijts, which caused a lot of stir in the Dutch museum world. In the article The distinction between western and non-western art is outdated, Knol makes a plea for museum cooperation to break through historical colonial divisions – which also characterize the museum world. Recently Knolpublished the article Stop the Blockbus Addiction in NRC Handelsblad, in which she calls for an end to a system in which Dutch museums compete against each other with large, money-consuming crowd pullers.Meta Knol is a co-founder and former board member of Framer Framed. Until 2020, she was director of Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, and she currently leads Leiden European City of Science 2022. Recently, Meta founded the Ministery of the Future, together with Klaas Sietse Spoelstra and other active citizens interested in intergenerational justice and long-termism.
She studied art history at Utrecht University. After having received her MA, Knol has realized exhibitions, written on the visual arts and has been involved in several cultural projects, such as the artist residency Het vijfde seizoen (The Fifth Season) on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital in Den Dolder, the mobile exhibition pavilion Pleinmuseum as well as the Madness & Art Festival in Haarlem (2010). Additionally, Meta Knol holds a number of board positions in the cultural sector, including being a former member of Framer Framed‘s supervisory board.
From 1997, Knol was tied to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as a curator. She researched and published a full catalog of the modern art collections (Modern Art, 2004) and finished the first intermuseal collection catalog of The Netherlands: US in NL – American Art in Dutch Museums, 1945-2001 (2005). In 2006 she curated the exhibition This is America. Visions of the American Dream (2006). Her last exhibition for the Centraal Museum was Beyond the Dutch – Indonesia, the Netherlands and the Visual Arts since 1900 (2009), which she co-curated with Enin Supriyanto. In Leiden, she initiated and co-curated the exhibition Global Imaginations (2015) in collaboration with Leiden University and the National Museum of World Cultures.
Meta Knol has always been an advocate of renewal in the museum sector. In 2007, she drafted the manifesto Towards an Enfranchised Museum with Edwin Jacobs and Stijn Huijts, which caused a lot of stir in the Dutch museum world. In the article The distinction between western and non-western art is outdated, Knol makes a plea for museum cooperation to break through historical colonial divisions – which also characterize the museum world. Recently Knolpublished the article Stop the Blockbus Addiction in NRC Handelsblad, in which she calls for an end to a system in which Dutch museums compete against each other with large, money-consuming crowd pullers.
- De Groene Amsterdammer - Een museum is een zwaar lichaam
- NRC - Stop de blockbusterverslaving, door Meta Knol
- Museum de Lakenhal - Leiden
Links
Exhibitions
Exhibition: HOME
With work by Marjan Teeuwen, Ezz Al Zanoon and Rawan Mahady, curated by Meta Knol
Agenda
Lecture: The Colonisation of the Future by David van Reybrouck at Framer Framed
On the colonisation of the future, and living on the brink of the climate catastrophe
Live conversation HOME #4: The politics of autonomous art
A panel discussion in the context of the exhibition 'HOME' about the supposed neutrality of autonomous art
Live conversation HOME #3: The political construction of HOME
An event in the context of the exhibition 'Home' on the construction of home in a context of violence and destruction.
Live conversation HOME #2: The Nakba, Heritage and Cultural Memory
Event in the context of the exhibition 'HOME'.
Live conversation HOME #1: Imaginations of HOME
An event in the context of exhibition HOME.
Symposium: Contested History
A symposium on the (re)presentation of Dutch-Indonesian colonial history in museums.
The Colonial Gaze
On the historical preconceptions that determine our view of art.
Collecting without Borders
Ethnographic, historical and art museums in dialogue on collecting and presenting global art.
Magazine
Global Art History /
Museology / Collection development / Global Art History /
Publication: Changing Perspective
Indonesia / Global Art History / Colonial history /
Exhibition: Beyond the Dutch
Contested Heritage / Middle East / Palestine /
Report: Live Conversation HOME #4: The Politics of autonomous art
Contested Heritage / Middle East / Migration / Palestine /
Verslag: Live Conversation HOME #3: Constructing home
Palestine / Middle East / Contested Heritage /
Report: Live Conversation HOME #2: The Nakba, Heritage and Cultural Memory in Palestine
Palestine / Curatorial Text /
Opening speech HOME, by curator Meta Knol
Collection development / Museology /
Report: Collecting without Borders (2/5)
Museology / Global Art History /
The distinction between western and non-western art is outdated
Colonial history / Museology / Contested Heritage /
Article: The Exotic View
Museology /