Mariët Westermann was appointed Director of the Institute of Fine Arts in May 2002.
Westermann is a specialist in northern European Renaissance and Baroque art, especially that of her native country, the Netherlands. Previously, she was associate director of research and academic programs at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, having been appointed in 2001. She was an associate professor at Rutgers University, having joined the faculty in 1995. Prior to that, she had been a lecturer at the University of London's Goldsmiths' College, and adjunct instructor in art history at NYU, as well as a research assistant at the Institute of Fine Arts. Her professional background includes significance experience as a curator, working with the National Gallery, the Newark Museum, the Denver Museum, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
She is a member of American Association of Netherlandic Studies and is on the board of the Historians of Netherlandish Art. Westermann is the author of numerous books, articles, and reviews, and among her most recent publications are: Art and Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt (The Newark Museum/The Denver Art Museum/Zwolle, the Netherlands: Waanders 2001); Rembrandt: Art and Ideas (Phaidon Press, 2000); and The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century (Zwolle, the Netherlands: Waanders, 1997).
Westermann received her B.A magna cum laude in history from Williams College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.