Merike Kurisoo appointed Director of the Niguliste Museum and Adamson-Eric Museum

The art historian Merike Kurisoo (PhD) has been appointed Director of the Niguliste Museum and Adamson-Eric Museum, branches of the Art Museum of Estonia. She previously served as Programme Manager and Curator at the Niguliste Museum. She assumed her new role on 1 September 2024. Tarmo Saaret, who served as Director of the Niguliste Museum for 25 years, will continue to work as Curator at Niguliste.

Merike Kurisoo’s main field of research is Medieval and Early Modern ecclesiastical art. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2001 with a BA degree in art history and completed her master’s degree at the University of Tartu in 2006. In 2019, she defended her doctoral thesis, Indifferent Things and Indifferent Times: Transformation of the Ecclesiastical Space and Visual Culture from Catholic to Lutheran in Early Modern Estonia, at Tallinn University.

Merike Kurisoo has served as Chair of the Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators since 2020 and is also Chair of the Research Board of the Art Museum of Estonia. She has received several professional awards and scholarships, including the Villem Raam Award of the Estonian National Culture Foundation.

“Our branches have always benefited from strong and dynamic leadership, and I am pleased to see that this legacy will continue,” said Sirje Helme, Director-General of the Art Museum of Estonia.