Barbara Plankensteiner is director of the Museum am Rothenbaum – World Cultures and Arts (MARKK) since April 2017. Under her leadership, the museum initiated a repositioning and decolonization process that also lead to a change of name. From 2015 she was Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation Senior Curator of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Before she served as deputy director, chief curator and curator of the Africa collections at the Weltmuseum Wien where she had a decisive impact in the repositioning of the museum and the conceptualization of the new permanent collection.
Barbara is a co-founder of the Benin Dialogue and organized its first meeting in Vienna in 2010. Together with HRH Prince Aghatise Erediauwa and Abba Tijani, Director General of the NCMM, she is now the co-chair of the Benin Dialogue Group steering committee.