Anu Liivak, director of Kumu Art Museum, dies at 62
The Art Museum of Estonia announced that Anu Liivak, director since 2009, died as a result of serious illness yesterday.
The museum stated that it lost "a dear colleague, friend, and professional director", the last role of which she had filled at Tallinn's Kumu Art Museum, one of the Art Museum of Estonia's five main branches, since early 2009.
Liivak graduated Tallinn School No. 21 in 1972, and the Ilja Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting in current-day Saint Petersburg in 1977. In 1996, she received her Master’s degree in Art History from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn.
From 1977 to 1991, Anu Liivak worked at the Art Museum of Estonia in various roles, including junior researcher, scientific secretary, and research director. Beginning in 1991, she worked as intendant at Tallinn Art Hall, and from 2002-2008 as director of Retretti Art Centre in Punkanharju, Finland, about 350 kilometers northeast of Helsinki.
From 2009 until her death in March 2016, Anu Liivak was the director of the Art Museum of Estonia. She was awarded the Estonian State Cultural Award in 1995, and bestowed with the Estonian Order of the White Cross, 4th Class in 2006.
Editor: Editor: Aili Sarapik