Jean Leering (IJsselstein, March 11, 1934 - Amsterdam, April 4, 2005) was a Dutch museum director and professor of art history. After studying architecture in Delft, he became director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 1964. During his directorship, he managed to acquire important masterpieces for the museum. He tried to make art less elitist and more socially engaged. He tried to interest young people in contemporary art by inviting high school students to vernissages (the festive opening of an exhibition) and then entering into a substantive discussion with them about recent acquisitions, for example a blue monochrome canvas by Yves Klein. From 1973 he was Leering one of the two directors of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. Two years later he joined the Rijksgebouwendienst. In 1976, he began lecturing in art history at the Faculty of Architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), which appointed him a professor in 1992. On Nov. 12, 1999, Jean Leering retired from the TUE. He died in 2005 at the age of 71 after a long illness. Throughout his life he managed to maintain an infectious optimism.