Miren Arzalluz takes the head of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

He is a personality closely linked to the world and history of fashion who will soon direct the Guggenheim Bilbao . Since 2018, Miren Arzalluz has directed the Palais Galleria, the Fashion Museum of the City of Paris. For five years, between 2006 and 2013, she was also chief curator of the Foundation and Museo Cristóbal Balenciaga, in charge of exhibitions and the collection, in the Spanish Basque Country.
She will succeed the current general director, Juan Ignacio Vidarte, on April 1, 2025. In May, the latter, at the head of the institution since its opening in 1996, announced that he wanted to give up his position, in order to open the management of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to the new generation. The board of directors then called on the Berlin firm Antonia Josten to pre-select the numerous applications coming from, among others, Spain, and in particular the Basque Country, and even France. The new director was then chosen by the museum's selection committee from 79 candidates.
Graduated in history, Art history (Courtauld Institute of Art in London) but also in comparative politics (at the London School of Economics in London), this professional born in 1978 in Bilbao has more recently distinguished herself through her work within the Palais Galliera. She has “ promoted a new interdisciplinary approach, establishing dialogues and collaborations between the Palais Galliera and other international art and design museums, producing thematic exhibitions highly appreciated by the public and critics », Says the Guggenheim Bilbao.
Before taking the reins of the Basque museum, Miren Arzalluz will spend four weeks immersed alongside the current director in this establishment as well as at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.