Recruitment profile
One member of the Supervisory Board of De Appel

De Appel offers time and space for contemporary art and culture, with exhibitions, a world-renowned Curatorial Programme, the Archive and the library. We are looking for one member of the Supervisory Board with an artistic, communication and/or academic profile.

About de Appel
De Appel is a presentation institution for contemporary art and culture,
founded in 1975. De Appel has since proven itself as an experimental space for contemporary art, with a public exhibition programme, a world-renowned Curatorial Programme – founded in 1994, an Archive and a library. De Appel creates time and space for artists and supporters to ask essential questions.

Our diverse public programming serves people from different backgrounds and perspectives in an atmosphere of open hospitality, collaboration and experimentation. Together, we shape art and culture in Amsterdam.

What we do
De Appel was founded 48 years ago and has since built up a solid international network. De Appel is a house where art and critical reflection meet, but also where new ideas in the curatorial field develop. In addition, unique archival material has been collected over decades when it comes to performance art.

De Appel programmes, responds, initiates and listens. Since its foundation, we have done this from various locations around the city. Since 2017 de Appel is located in Amsterdam Nieuw-West and will move to a new location as of January 2024. . De Appel believes in the indispensability of the voice of art in the contemporary debate, in daring to take a stand, offering time and space for reflection and long-term commitment. De Appel asks artists and designers to think along with the organisation and preferably commissions them to develop new work in order to contribute to local anchoring and (inter)national resonance.

The pillars
The three pillars of De Appel - the public and exhibition programme, the Archive and the Curatorial Programme - live and are developed in relation to each other and the director creates a vision for their future and substantive focus.

De Appel is a non-profit institution with a staff of 6.4 FTE, an extensive network of freelancers and an annual budget of around EUR 1 million. The foundation is financed by the Municipality of Amsterdam, the Mondriaan Fund and various (private) funds.

The control and supervision philosophy
As of early 2022, De Appel operates with a Supervisory Board model. The Board of Directors of the foundation is composed of the artistic director and the business director. The Supervisory Board has three roles: a supervisory, advisory and employer role (of the Board of Directors) and fulfils these in a professional and independent manner.

The Supervisory Board ensures that the management performed by the Board of Directors of the foundation is done according to the mission and programme of the foundation, delivering an excellent performance. The Supervisory Board focuses on strategically essential topics, the main lines of policy, the realization of objectives, finances and performance agreements.

The Supervisory Board shows a visible involvement in the organisation for employees, the Board and the outside world. It does this, among other things, by contacting the stakeholders, actively collecting information and being transparent to the outside world.

The Supervisory Board determines its agenda and priorities, in consultation with the Board of Directors. The Supervisory Board is responsible for its own functioning and conducts critical (self)evaluation. The Supervisory Board discusses its own functioning annually. The Supervisory Board meets according to an established schedule, at least four times a year. The Supervisory Board is unpaid, travel expenses are reimbursed.

Existing regulations define working methods, tasks and responsibilities, and Board liability insurance is subscribed.

Desired composition of the Supervisory Board
The composition of the Supervisory Board guarantees that the tasks assigned to the Board of Directors by law, the Governance Code for Culture and other regulations and codes of conduct are performed responsibly. There is a balance in age, experience, gender and background of the individual members and sufficient complementarity with the other members in terms of knowledge, experience and networks.

There is sufficient knowledge of, experience and/or affinity with the mission and activities of the foundation and with supervisory tasks, and there is a good view and understanding of stakeholder interests.

The size of the Supervisory Board is such that the Supervisory Board can fulfil its tasks effectively and responsibly and that each individual member of the Supervisory Board has the opportunity to contribute to it from his/her specific qualities.

General requirements for individual members
The members can contribute critically and independently to decision-making within the Supervisory Board and have no conflict of interest or undesirable conflicts of interest. They have a broad social interest and affinity with de Appel's mission, ambition and fields of activity. They have a good mix of distance and involvement and possess the following personal qualities: collegial, alert and, if necessary, critical.

Members possess a good understanding of social and political relations, have relevant knowledge and experience and have a broad network, including in the business and funding worlds, as well as in the cultural sectors.

They are able, also in terms of available time, to perform their duties and to attend and prepare for Supervisory Board meetings. Essentially, they are able to free up time and take measures to provide leadership in the absence of the Board of Directors.

We are looking for a profile composed of/or combining knowledge and experience related to the following fields of expertise:

Artistic: aprominent artist.

Communication:knowledge of communication and marketing to a broad audience with possible backgrounds in politics, journalism and social activism.

Academic: with a background in arts,humanities,or social sciences. Preferably with experience in leading a department within a Dutch University.

Experienced manager:with experience in managing public institutions,active in community organizing and grassroots advocacy.

Recruitment
You can express your interest by submitting your letter and CV to vacature [​at​] deappel.nl no later than Friday 8 September, 2023.

Interviews with the current Supervisory Board members are expected to take place in the week of 2 October, 2023.