Hans Looijen

Hans Looijen started as an entrepreneur in culture, organizer and concept creator. He is since 2008 the director of Het Dolhuys | museum of the mind in the Netherlands. In the permanent exhibition of this museum visitors can see how psychiatry and the position of the patient changed through the years. With the temporary exhibitions Het Dolhuys focuses on special minds: artists, writers and scientists, sometimes with a disability or mental illness. Hans Looijen made it his priority to make the museum act as an agent of change and reflection, further expand the museums network through lasting relations and partnerships, and creating an impact through museum activities. Since March 2016 Looijen is director of the Outsider Art Museum (OAM) in Amsterdam. Looijen is responsible for the artistic and business management of the new Outsider Art Museum, opened by Royal Highness Queen Maxima, March 2016. The Outsider Art Museum is the only museum in the Netherlands that shows leading art works by national and international Outsider Artists. Experience the extraordinary art made by individuals who, for the most part, are not formally trained as artists. Their work is authentic, unconventional and goes against the grain. People will tell you Looijen is a passionate person, socially involved, an art-lover and can tell you a lot about 20th century architecture. And as the treasurer of heritage foundation of the city of Haarlem he is strongly involved in preserving the cultural heritage of one of the oldest cities in Holland, among which striking national monuments like Het Dolhuys.