De Appel is an internationally focused contemporary art

Contemporary art

Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...

s centre, located in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. Since it was founded, the goal of de Appel is to function as a stage for research and presentation of visual arts

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

. Exhibitions, publications and discursive events are the main activities of de Appel. In 1994 Saskia Bos established an intensive course, called 'The Curatorial Programme'. Over a period of eight months a selective group of five to six people are trained to become a curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

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Wies Smals established de Appel in 1975. Today the director of de Appel is Ann Demeester.