Ido Bruno, Director of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Photography © Ofrit Rosenberg
1.What is your museum about and what is your work there?
The Israel Museum is the largest and foremost cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the world’s leading universal museums, with a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects representing the full scope of world material culture. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopaedic collections in its three curatorial wings – Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Jewish Art and Life – with objects ranging from prehistory to the present day. Our Archaeology Wing, for example, features the world’s most extensive holdings of biblical and Holy Land archaeology.
I have served as the Israel Museum’s Director Since 2017. In this capacity, I oversee the overall day-to-day running of the museum, as well as implementing new knowledge systems; introducing deeper cross-disciplinary approaches; creating collaborations with other leading museums and cultural organizations in Israel and worldwide; and cultivating excellence in the development of our collections and exhibition programming.
My professional engagement with the museum in fact goes back much further than my present position, since I worked as an exhibition designer and curator since 1995 – including, for example, the 2013 exhibition Herod the Great: The King’s Final Journey. I was also part of the design team for the Museum’s three-year renewal project, completed in 2010, and was responsible for the placement of sculptures throughout the museum, and especially in its renowned Billy Rose Art Garden.
