Center for Netherlandish Art

Integrated within the MFA, the CNA draws on the expertise of the Museum’s staff in paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, libraries and archives, conservation and scientific research, exhibitions and design, education and public programs, community engagement, publications, and visitor experience.

Staff

• Christopher D. M. Atkins, PhD, Van Otterloo-Weatherbie Director
• Nicole Elizabeth Cook, senior program manager
• Alyssa Trejo, coordinator

Affiliated Staff

• Marietta Cambareri, senior curator of European Sculpture and Jetskalina H. Phillips Curator of Judaica
• Courtney Harris, assistant curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of Europe
• Katherine Harper, curatorial research associate, Department of Prints and Drawings
• Frederick Ilchman, Chair and Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe
• Antien Knaap, assistant curator of Paintings, Art of Europe
• Rhona MacBeth, Director of Conservation and Scientific Research, Head of Paintings Conservation, and Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo Conservator of Paintings
• Benjamin Weiss, Leonard A. Lauder Senior Curator of Visual Culture, Department of Prints and Drawings

Advisory Council

• Marisa Bass, professor of the History of Art, Yale University
• Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School and director, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University
• Jeffrey Muller, professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University
• Pieter Roelofs, head of Paintings and Sculpture, Rijksmuseum
• Peter Sutton, former executive director, Bruce Museum
• Martha Tedeschi, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director, Harvard Art Museums
• Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, CNA founders
• Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, CNA founders

In 2017, two families came together to present a transformative gift to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo joined Susan and Matthew Weatherbie to donate 114 Dutch and Flemish paintings, the extensive library of late scholar Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, and initial endowment funds for the Center for Netherlandish Art, the first of its kind in the US.

2019 marked several key milestones for the CNA. In the spring, the Kingdom of the Netherlands appointed the Center’s four founders Knights in the Order of Orange-Nassau in recognition of their generous support of Dutch culture in the United States. The decoration ceremony was preceded by the CNA’s inaugural lecture, given by Professor Eric Jan Sluijter. That summer, during a diplomatic trade mission attended by Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, the Dutch government established the Kingdom of the Netherlands Fund for Emerging Scholars, which enables Dutch students and young professionals to participate in CNA activities. Later in the year, an exhibition of highlights of the combined collections of Dutch paintings from the MFA, Van Otterloos, and Weatherbies traveled to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Ahead of its launch, the CNA hosted several in-person and virtual programs that brought together speakers from partnering institutions in the Boston area and abroad, including Harvard University, Harvard Art Museums, Providence College, the Netherlands Innovation Network, the University of Leiden, and the Rijksmuseum.

The CNA officially debuted in November 2021 with the opening of its physical space. This coincided with the MFA’s unveiling of newly renovated galleries of Dutch and Flemish art, which include a rotating space dedicated to presenting research developed at the CNA through collaborations with academic partners. The first installation in the CNA Innovation Gallery, on view now, features data visualizations created in collaboration with faculty and students from the Experience Design Lab and the Co-Lab for Data Impact at Northeastern University.

Also in November 2021, the Government of Flanders established the Flanders State of the Art Fellowship at the CNA to enable one pre- or postdoctoral fellow a year to be in residence at the CNA to conduct independent research.