FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ARTWAY

RESEARCHER | TRANSLATOR | WRITER | EDITOR

Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

Marleen is editor-in-chief of ArtWay, a bilingual, ecumenical, and international website about art and faith she started in 2010. She studied at the University of Amsterdam and the Free University of Amsterdam, culminating in a Master’s degree (doctoraal in Dutch), cum laude, in musicology with minors in art history, philosophy and liturgical studies.


For many years, Marleen worked as a freelance editor, translator, researcher, and writer. For 10 years, she edited Lev, the journal of Dutch L’Abri.* She edited the Complete Works of her father, art historian Hans Rookmaaker, and has written about popular music, church music, and the visual arts. She was the writer, editor, and co-editor of four books in Dutch, one about popular music, one with discussions of artworks, a handbook for art in the church, and one about the Kuyperian or Calvinist tradition in the arts. She has contributed to approximately twenty-five books and published many articles. In 2019, Marleen co-curated the Art Stations of the Cross in Amsterdam.


She is married to Albert, and she is a proud mother of three and grateful grandmother of two. She lives in Langbroek in the Netherlands.



* L’Abri is French for “shelter.” The L’Abri communities are study centers where people seek answers to honest questions about God and the significance of human life. The first L’Abri was founded in Switzerland in 1955 by Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Dr. Schaeffer was a Christian theologian and philosopher who also authored a number of books on theology, philosophy, culture, and the arts. The Dutch L’Abri was founded by Hans and Anky Rookmaaker, Marleen’s parents. Hans Rookmaaker was an art history professor.