About us
OpenArtExchange connects art lovers and collectors with a large and varied collection of unique contemporary artworks, mainly from African artists. These certified high-quality artworks may enrich any collection or beautify a home. We are more than happy to advise you on that great piece of art you are looking for.
Enriching worlds through art
OpenArtExchange is an international contemporary art gallery located in the historic museum district of Schiedam (Rotterdam) in the Netherlands. We are firmly committed to enrich the Western dominated international art market by promoting diversity and inclusion of non-Western artistic ideas and expressions on arts, culture and society.
As such, OpenArtExchange actively builds international careers of promising and established non-Western plastic artists, notably from Africa and its diaspora, and provides them commercial access to the global art market. We realize this through leveraging our robust online platform linked to third party provider Artsy, our active participation in international art fairs and festivals across Europe, our strategic collaborations and an array of residential exchange programs and exhibitions at our art gallery in Schiedam. Since 2022 we are also exploring and experimenting with collaborations in the domestic markets on the African continent.
Meet our team
Founder and director Joke Bakker-Jansen had a 25+year international business career with executive positions in auditing, management consulting and corporate financial institutions, before turning her love for arts and cultures into practice by starting a parttime master's in Arts, Culture & Society study program at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam simultaneous with the OpenArtExchange initiative in 2018. In 2021 she paused her studies to dedicate her time to fast growing OpenArtExchange, the renovation development of the OpenArtExchange building and her supervisory board roles at financial institution CCV, cultural sector organization Cultuur+Ondernemen and the related fund Fonds Cultuur & Financiering.
Luna de Schepper holds a bachelor's in modern & contemporary art history. After working as a cultural event and art photographer, a one-year internship at OpenArtExhange followed by an internship at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, she returned to OpenArtExchange to work as a junior gallery manager since August 2023 alongside her research for her master thesis on contemporary art from Africa.
If you want to join our team, check out our vacancies page.
From left to right: Elvira van Bronckhorst (gallery assistant/art student), Joke Bakker-Jansen (director), Luna de Schepper (junior gallery manager/photographer), and Arthur Reijmer (gallery host/photographer).
Cultural dialogue
Our initiative is rooted in the firm belief that art from non-Western artists, from Africa or elsewhere, deserves a representative place alongside Western creations, encouraging an exchange of ideas, a dialogue leading to cross-cultural understanding, appreciation and connection. This belief is carried with an attitude of openness and curiosity with professional excellence at its base: No matter art's origin, it needs to excel, to elevate its viewers.
While we focus on plastic arts, to enrich this cultural exchange, at events we occasionally stage other visual art forms, such as performances, dance, or music.
Engaging communities
At the heart of OpenArtExchange's mission is the desire to create spaces where people can deeply engage with art's transformative power, be it in Schiedam, in domestic markets, at international art fairs or online. The desire to inspire contemplation and appreciation of diverse artistic expressions and views on arts, culture and society.
Our activities are designed to bridge the gap between different cultures, inviting audiences from varied backgrounds to share in the universal joy and enchantment of art and the creation of new meanings, new insights, some form of change.
Our Values
Our values shape the culture at OpenArtExchange, setting the stage for the way we work, how we collaborate with our partners, how we run our international residencies. They guide our efforts how to grow with our artists and engage with contemporary art as a catalyst for change. Our values are our DNA, cultivating a more inclusive, rich and humane environment.
Our partners
We are in good company.
