Birgit Donker (1965, Willemstad/Curaçao) has been director of the Nederlands Fotomuseum since November 2018, the national museum for photography located on the Wilhelminakade in Rotterdam. From 2012 to 2018 she was director of the Mondriaan Fund, the public fund for visual arts and cultural heritage.
From 1991 to 2012 she was employed by NRC Handelsblad, where she worked as an art reporter and as the first female editor-in-chief of a national newspaper.
She studied New & Theoretical History at the University of Amsterdam, with Art History as a minor subject. She then followed a journalism course at the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme in Paris and the postgraduate study 'Analyse du monde actuel' at the Sorbonne.
She wrote several books, including 'From grandmother's cupboard. Heritage, a matter of choices and nurturing' (2014) and (under pseudonym) 'Sophie perseveres' (2004), a satirical novel.
Her additional positions include: Chairman of the Board of the Lux & Libertas Foundation, to protect the editorial values of NRC Handelsblad and Board member of Kunsten92, the interest group of the cultural sector. She is also active within Platform Photography Netherlands.