Michaela Hanssen
Responsible for Cultural Heritage
Michaela Hanssen is an architectural historian and cultural heritage specialist based in the Netherlands. Her expertise in heritage preservation and cultural policy supports House of Alpha’s work in safeguarding and sharing the legacy of AlphaArt.
She graduated in 1989 in the History of Architecture. For fifteen years she worked in various roles in public housing and community participation, and in the Amsterdam borough of Oud-Zuid she was Head of Urban Space and Economy.
In 2009 she joined what is now the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, where she led the departments of Collections, Restoration and Conservation, and Monuments and Collections, and was involved in the conception of the CCNL art storage facility in Amersfoort. For the last six years before retiring in 2024 she was Director of the Faro Convention Programme, focused on the value of cultural heritage to society.
Internationally she served ICCROM, the intergovernmental organization promoting the conservation of cultural heritage worldwide, as a Council Member from 2015 and as Vice-President for her final four years.
Michaela has always been interested in ethical questions such as contested histories and intervention ethics in heritage. She loves art and literature for the deeper understanding they bring of the world around us.