The American Ann Goldstein has been appointed as the new artistic director of the Stedelijk Museum of contemporary art in Amsterdam. She will lead the museum's reopening, which is planned for the spring of 2010.

Ms Goldstein (1957) is the first foreigner and the first woman to head the museum in its 114 year history. More than half of those who applied for the position came from abroad, the museum said. Out of the final five candidates only one was male and there was just one Dutch person.
 

The museum's board of trustees announced Ms Goldstein's appointment at the opening of its new depot on Tuesday. The museum itself has been closed for reconstruction and expansion since 2003 and is expected to be reopened by its new artistic director in March or April next year.
 

Ms Goldstein is currently the senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCa) in Los Angeles, where she has worked for 25 years. She told the Los Angeles Times: "This is a wonderful opportunity to work with an institution that has an extraordinary collection, a remarkable history of exhibitions and is poised after a period of renovation to reposition itself as one of the world's great museums."
 

Alexander Ribbink of the board of the Stedelijk said Ms Goldstein is "a highly appreciated curator. Her publications are recognised around the world and she has great knowledge of art from the 20th and 21st centuries."
 

Gys van Tuyl, the current artistic director, will continue to work alongside Ms Goldstein from October until the end of the year to facilitate the transition. Mr Van Tuyl praised Goldstein's expertise in conceptual, minimal and appropriation art. "She has put together excellent one-man shows, about Lawrence Weiner and Martin Kippenberger to name a few. The MoCa is a model institute that feels closer to the Stedelijk than the MoMA."
 

Van Tuyl also pointed out that the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) has shown many of Goldstein's touring exhibitions. "That says a lot, because the MoMA basically doesn't take shows from others."
 

He had just one minor point of criticism: "She has yet to learn how to ride a bike".