Annette Bhagwati joined the Museum Rietberg in Zurich as the new director in 2019. Soon after, the coronavirus pandemic reached Switzerland – and changed everything, from one day to the next. The Museum had to entirely re-think its approach and practice, the most pressing questions being – how to connect and stay in touch with visitors, even when they cannot be present  physically? And: how to stay relevant, even when all doors are closed?

Join us for an exclusive conversation over lunch with Annette Bhagwati and hear from her about how the Museum Rietberg responded to 2020, what it means to lead one of the leading houses for non-European art in Zurich, and what the future holds for the museum world.

This event is for Passport Members of Asia Society only. How to become a Passport member?

Annette Bhagwati took up the position as director of the Museum Rietberg – an internationally renowned art museum with collections from Asia, Africa, America and Oceania – in November 2019. She studied Anthropology, African Art and Literature, Art History, and Geography in Freiburg im Breisgau, Berlin, and London and received her PhD at the School of African and Oriental Studies London. From 2012 to autumn 2019 she worked at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin where she headed various curatorial, long-term research projects. At the same institution, she realized a number of exhibition projects at the interface of art and science. Before that, Annette Bhagwati taught Anthropology of Art, Museology, and History of Exhibiting Non-Western Art at the Department of Art History at Concordia University, Montreal.
Foto: Fotostudio-Ludwig