Amsterdam's Hermitage Museum to change its name to H'ART in September

The Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam will change its name to H’ART Museum on September 1, director Anabelle Birnie announced on Monday. She also announced new partnerships with the British Museum, Center Pompidou, and Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), bringing “world-famous art collections” to Amsterdam.

“It is an exciting new step, this contemporary and future-proof collaboration formula. We build on our experience in the international field and spread our wings,” Birnie said. “We will present programming that is polyphonic and current. From major art exhibitions to intimate presentations.”

According to the museum, Center Pompidou has one of Europe's most important collections of modern and contemporary art. The British Museum’s collection “spans continents and oceans.” And the SAAM is “the premier museum of American arts and crafts.”

The H’ART Museum’s first big exhibit will be a Kandinsky exhibition with Center Pompidou in mid-2024. Then it will team up with the British Museum for the exhibition Feminine Power in 2025.

The new name will apply from Friday, September 1. “Until that date, the name Hermitage will remain linked to the current exhibitions and activities,” the museum said.

The Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam has been looking for a new way forward since breaking ties with its counterpart in Saint Petersburg in Russia in March 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.