WARM WELCOME
Julia Reich appointed as new artistic director of Dortmunder Kunstvereins
Julia Reich Appointed as New Artistic Director of Dortmunder Kunstverein
The Dortmunder Kunstverein is pleased to announce Julia Reich as the new Artistic Director of the institution. She will assume the position on December 1, 2026, and present her program from spring 2027.
"Julia Reich assumes responsibility for a Kunstverein that has developed an independent and internationally recognized profile over many years. With Julia Reich, the Dortmunder Kunstverein gains a perspective that honors and reflects upon the past in shaping the future. Together with the team and the board, a new chapter is being written with curatorial-artistic courage and strategic vision. We are very much looking forward to working together" , says chairwoman Marion Edelhoff.
"It is an exceptional pleasure for me to build upon the open and experimental attitude of the Dortmunder Kunstverein and further strengthen the international connections that have been cultivated over many years. I understand the history and diverse everyday realities of Dortmund as starting points for developing diversity-conscious and media-reflexive approaches that point beyond their local anchoring into broader societal and international contexts. Central to this work is the connection between the ways in which contemporary art reflects on the present, interdisciplinary exchange, and vibrant dialogue", outlines Julia Reich.
Julia Reich (*1987) studied art history, with a focus on media and cultural studies, as well as philosophy at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. From 2016 to 2019, she was a research associate at the university’s Institute of Art History, where she taught contemporary art with a focus on performance art. She subsequently worked on her doctoral dissertation on the relationship between long-duration performances and their documentation as part of the DFG Research Training Group The Documentary: Excess and Privation. From 2022 to 2024, she was a research associate in the Virtual Art project at Ruhr University Bochum’s Collaborative Research Centre, where she focused on questions surrounding the body in virtual environments.
Her professional career is closely connected to museum and institutional exhibition contexts. Her experience includes positions at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Dortmund, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf / KIT – Kunst im Tunnel and the Kunstmuseen Krefeld. She has also worked in various curatorial and academic contexts on projects with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, SK Stiftung Kultur / Die Photographische Sammlung, Museum unter Tage in Bochum and Skulpturenmuseum Marl.
As an independent curator, she has (co-)initiated exhibitions and off-space projects, including the group exhibition das vorphotographische at AURA Kunstraum as part of düsseldorf photo+, the off-space die Wohnung and the exhibition series 191°S at Salon des Amateurs in cooperation with Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
As part of her voluntary engagement, Julia Reich has served since 2024 as an art-historical member of the Düsseldorf Kunstkommission and, since 2026, as a jury member of the Kunstverein Commission of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture. In her most recent professional position at *WESTSTERN, a foundation and platform supporting Kunstvereine in North Rhine-Westphalia, she has gained valuable insights into the structures and challenges of working within Kunstvereine.
During the transition, Julia Reich will work closely with Linda Schröer, who currently serves as interim director of the Kunstverein and will pursue new professional opportunities at the end of the year. Over the past 14 years, Linda Schröer has shaped and substantially supported the Kunstverein with great personal commitment. As a curatorial assistant, she has co- developed numerous exhibitions for the Kunstverein and realized her own exhibitions, —including solo exhibitions featuring artists such as Mary Audrey Ramirez (2020) and group exhibitions like DISPLAY. Staging Identities (2019) and Schlaraffenland (2024)—thereby playing a decisive role in shaping the Kunstverein’s experimental and socially open programming.
