Michelle Cotton appointed director of Kunsthalle Wien

This summer, Kunsthalle Wien will welcome British curator Michelle Cotton as its new director, stepping in for the WHW collective (Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić, Sabina Sabolović), who led the institution since 2019 but were let go. Cotton, hailing from Preston, UK, was born in 1977 and is currently the program director at MUDAM in Luxembourg. She holds a degree in English Literature from King’s College London and a postgraduate qualification in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Arts. Cotton's curatorial career began at Norwich Gallery and included stints at S1 Artspace and Cubitt. She was the chief curator at Firstsite from 2010 to 2015 and led Bonner Kunstverein from 2015 to 2019. She was chosen from 37 candidates after the initial submissions didn't meet the City of Vienna's criteria, and the WHW collective opted not to reapply.