About us

Kunstinstituut Melly was conceived as an art house in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, with a mission to present and discuss the work created by visual artists from here and afar. We commission art, organize exhibitions, publish, and develop educational and collaborative initiatives. A non-profit institution, we have especially worked with artists and engaged audiences who are interested in posing challenging inquiries and articulations of our present.

Founded in 1990, our institution is formerly known as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. The institution's current name, Kunstinstituut Melly, came into effect on 27 January 2021. To learn about our name change initiative, we invite you to visit this website: change.wdw.nl. Starting this date, the contemporary arts programming offer of Kunstinstituut Melly will progressively populate and be archived in this website: kunstinstituutmelly.nl. The institution's activities from 1990 to 2020 will be kept in the original website, as an online archive: fkawdw.nl.

Kunstinstituut Melly’s four-floor building is located on Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam's Cool District. Our building was originally built in the 1870s as a school. We consider it's still a site of learning. Our gallery spaces occupy two floors upstairs. Our offices and an unoccupied space, we call Auditorium, is located on the first floor. On the ground floor, we have a multi-use gallery used for events, a cantina and bookshop, simply called MELLY.

Kunstinstituut Melly is supported by the city of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in The Netherlands. Our activities are also supported through foundation grants, project sponsorships, individual donations, and income from admission tickets, sales, and events. We invite you to sign up for our newsletter and encourage you to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.