MAJA HOFFMAN is a Swiss-born contemporary art collector and a supporter and producer of a diverse range of projects, which include art, publications, films and environmental initiatives.
She is the founder of the LUMA Foundation (2004) whose aim is to launch and produce cultural and art projects worldwide. The LUMA Foundation supports initiatives in Switzerland and around the world, including the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC. It also supports a number of art-based international initiatives and institutional projects, such as Kunsthalle Basel and Kunst-Werke Berlin, the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Venice Biennale and Artangel and the Serpentine Gallery. The LUMA Foundation began the master planning that will bring forward one of the major cultural sites in Europe, the Parc des Ateliers in Arles. This project was imagined and developed in cooperation with Frank Gehry and a core group of artists, curators, academics, art historians, scientists and business leaders. It will be a multi-purpose cultural park within the cityscape, creating a campus and public garden in the city centre and providing infrastructure for activities varying from exhibitions and festivals to educational and archival facilities and artists' residencies.
President of the Kunsthalle Zurich, Maja is also working on the creation of Bau West, a new wing within the Löwenbräu complex which is also housing the Kunsthalle, private institutions and commercial art galleries. Completion is expected by 2012.