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A YEAR
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CELEBRATIONS
Kunstinstituut Melly turns 35!
This year marks an important milestone: It’s our 35th anniversary! Since our founding in 1990, Kunstinstituut Melly has been a site where artists, audiences, and ideas converge to question, inspire, and reimagine the world around us. Over the decades, we have evolved into a space that embodies collective learning and social transformation—principles that remain at the heart of our program.
As we reflect on our journey, we recognize the significant transformations that have brought us to where we are today. In 2021, our renaming from Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art to Kunstinstituut Melly symbolized a renewed commitment to fostering inclusivity and responding to the cultural and societal shifts of our time. Inspired by Ken Lum’s Melly Shum Hates Her Job, a work that has smiled on our façade since our inception in 1990, we embraced a new identity rooted in dialogue, community, and the evolving nature of contemporary art.
Throughout 2025, we will celebrate this anniversary with a year of programs and exhibitions that highlight both the history of the institution and the ways art continues to shape our understanding of the present, in Rotterdam and beyond.