Former name | Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art |
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Established | 1990[1] |
Location | 50 Witte de Withstraat, 3012 BR Rotterdam the Netherlands |
Type | Contemporary art gallery |
Director | Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy[2] |
Curator | Jessy Koeiman, Rosa De Graff |
Website | www |
Kunstinstituut Melly[3][4][5] is a contemporary art gallery located in a former school building on Witte de Withstraat, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1990 and originally named after the street it was located on. It presents curated exhibitions, symposiums, live events, educational programs, and has a separate art literature publishing arm.
In 2017, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, as it was known, announced it would change its name in order to distance itself from its de facto namesake, the Dutch naval admiral Witte de With, and recognise the negative impacts of colonialism. Its new name, Kunstinstituut Melly, was announced in 2020,[6][7] and references a sculpture by Canadian artist Ken Lum displayed on the exterior wall of the building entitled Melly Shum Hates Her Job (1989).