Rebeccah Blum

Rebeccah Blum, talented Berlin-based art director and curator, passed away on July 22, 2020. Rebeccah was the American-born daughter of Susan A. Bockius, Philadelphia, and Mark E. Blum, Louisville KY. She was a 28-year resident of Germany who played many and varied roles in the German and International art scene. Her career included the founding of several innovative enterprises including Base e.V. in 1995, an open art studio in Berlin’s Old East; Blum Fine Arts Management, begun in 2012, which provided career management and support services to artists; and Satellite Berlin, a Berlin-based gallery co-founded with Kit Schulte, 2013-2017, for presentation of art in dialogue with the sciences. Rebeccah was Berlin representative for the David Nolan Gallery, New York for over ten years. She was also the director of the Scheibler Mitte gallery from 2006-2011, an extension of the Gallery Aurel Scheibler Berlin.

Rebeccah had highly developed linguistic skills as writer, editor and translator which she employed in her curatorial function. She maintained an independent practice in editing and translating, lately under the web address The-Wordsmith.net.

Rebeccah was loving mother to 22-year-old Emma Blum, still a Berlin resident. In addition to her daughter and parents, Rebeccah is survived by her brother, Adam Blum of Santa Cruz CA and her former husband, Roland Patzelt. In celebrating her life, Rebeccah’s many Berlin-based friends referred to her as “our warm bright star.”

Rebeccah was born in 1967 in San Francisco CA, then relocated with family to Philadelphia in 1968 where she attended Philadelphia’s Henry H. Houston and Julia R. Masterman Public Schools. After re-locating to Severna Park MD in 1979, she graduated from Severna Park High School in 1985. She studied Art History at The American University in Washington DC. Her work toward a Bachelor of Arts degree included a semester in Rome, Italy, for which she was awarded an “outstanding visiting student” award and placement on the Dean’s List. Her internship with the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC during her American University tenure proved excellent preparation for her later gallery work, including her first position at San Francisco-based Wolf Schulz Gallery in 1990. This year, she received the certificate of completion for her Master’s Degree in Management of Non-Profit Institutions from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. She was about to embark upon a new chapter of her intercultural, arts vocation.

Rebeccah’s ashes have been interred in Berlin at Domfriedhof der St.-Hedwigs-Gemeinde. She will also have a celebration of life in Philadelphia and interment of ashes at a family plot in Friedens Union Cemetery in Sumneytown, PA in mid-September. Those who wish to honor her life and memory may contribute to “The Rebeccah M. M. Blum Memorial Fund” at Allens Lane Art Center (https://allenslane.org/).