Maria Arusoo to lead Tallinn Art Hall from 2027

Maria Arusoo will become director and board member of Tallinn Art Hall, an art institution, on January 1, 2027, ERR reported. She has led the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art since 2013 and will succeed Paul Aguraiuja.

Arusoo was selected by Tallinn Art Hall’s council following a public competition that drew 10 applicants. The council comprised Bianka Soe, Tanel Veenre, Tarmo Tallermaa, Eve Kask and Tüü​ne-Kristin Vaikla.

“The next leader of Tallinn Art Hall must understand the needs of the art field, develop the organisation further and see Estonian art in a broader international context,” said Bianka Soe, chair of the council. She said Arusoo combined these qualities convincingly and praised her strategic thinking, vision for the institution’s future and ability to bring different stakeholders together.

Arusoo said she was pleased to be entrusted with leading the institution into a new chapter. She highlighted the possibilities offered by its newly renovated building at Freedom Square, including exhibition spaces, a black box performance and video programme, a residency, a public-space artwork, food culture, club activities and nightlife.

She also said the building’s diverse opportunities and the continued youth focus of the Lasnamäe pavilion offered strong potential. Her aim, she said, was to expand the organisation’s scope, introduce new approaches to art and culture, build the programme around substantive cooperation and participation, and increase its cross-disciplinary character.

Arusoo is a curator, dramaturge and cultural manager. In addition to leading the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, she has served as commissioner of Estonia’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She has previously worked as a freelance artist and curator, as a curator at the centre and as project manager at artist Martin Creed’s studio in London.

She has also collaborated with the media on a documentary series about artists and as the author of articles and interviews.

Arusoo holds a master’s degree in contemporary art theory and audio-visual culture from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a bachelor’s degree in painting from the University of Tartu. She has also studied for a master’s degree in fine arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

She has curated exhibitions and performance projects, worked as a guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and co-founded the art magazine A Shade Colder.

Her term as director of Tallinn Art Hall will last five years. Aguraiuja will become Estonia’s cultural attaché in Germany at the beginning of next year.