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Comforting the community – Art as solace during the lockdown (Schiedam, the Netherlands)
As the lockdown started in The Netherlands, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam wanted to offer comfort to the inhabitants of the city Schiedam. By commissioning local artists to make their interpretation of comfort into a work of art and making their work into posters and postcards they spread the message of consolation throughout the city. Advertisement space was bought or donated and posters were offered to shops and other businesses to display. Volunteers delivered posters to the inhabitants who wanted them, and soon the city was full of expressions of solace from Schiedam, to Schiedam. Background Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (SMS) was founded in 1899 and is a museum for modern art, history,…
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Being there – virtually: Robots in the Zeeuws museum (Middelburg, the Netherlands)
In order to enhance access to the museum for audiences with physical impairments – and more general for access in times of restrictions, the Zeeuws Museum experimented with a distantly operated robot tour guide. Apart from technical and digital issues that could be dealt with by innovation of the robot and its control, participants were happy with this form of contact. They did remark on the pleasure of always having a real person available in this way of visiting the museum. The experiment was also a positive experience for the museum itself as it provided for continuity during the lockdown phases of the pandemic. Background The Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg…
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Let’s get digital! Digital Transformation Conference (Den Haag, the Netherlands)
When all cultural institutions in The Netherlands had to close their doors to the public, there seemed to be only one solution: going digital. While some bigger museums, theaters and concert halls already had an extensive online presence or the money to outsource their creation, a big part of the cultural sector was suddenly faced with the preexisting but now urging challenge to translate their vision from tangible to digital. This increase in demand for education, inspiration and tools on the topic led even more cultural institutions to DEN, the Dutch knowledge institute on culture & digital transformation. Background DEN (Dutch knowledge institute on culture & digital transformation) is a…
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Culture for the elderly – Beyond Crossword Puzzles Vitamines voor de geest (Eindhoven, the Netherlands)
To help fight loneliness and negative consequences on mental health, Van Abbemuseum worked together with Vitalis (an organisation that provides housing and care for elderly people) and De Nieuwe Oost – Wintertuin (a literary production agency) to create a cultural ‘To Do-Book’. Van Abbemuseum provided images of artworks and corresponding assignments, as well as the opportunity to connect with staff and volunteers from the museum to talk about art via phone and/or letters. Even though the successes of these contributions varied widely, the museum looks back at the project fondly. Background The Van Abbemuseum is a municipal art museum based on the collection of the successful cigar manufacturer Henri van…
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Rijksmuseum from Home / #RijksmuseumFromHome (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
As an alternative for visiting the museum during the pandemic, employees of the Dutch Rijksmuseum for art and Dutch history created a series of short videos at home, highlighting a cherished object from the museum collection through a personal story. In a total of 24 videos (January 2022) in the ‘Rijksmuseum from Home’ series, museum specialists shared their personal fascinations for one object, while incidentally also referring to the pandemic and its impact on society. The movies were posted on the website of the museum, as well as social media, such as YouTube and Instagram. Background The Rijksmuseum is a well-known Dutch national museum for art and Dutch history. It…
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Singer TV: Art and the museum, up close and personal (Laren, the Netherlands)
In reaction to the lockdown, museum and theatre Singer Laren started to produce their own videos on pieces from their museum collection, giving in depth information on the history and composition of the piece and linking it to contemporary circumstances. With this initiative, the museum has been able to remain in contact with their audience and possibly reaching a new one. This not only impacted the public, but also the staff members and volunteers by offering messages of support and keeping everyone in the loop. Background Singer Laren is a museum and a theatre in one. It grew from the initiative of an American couple, Anna and William Singer, who…
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View the Mauritshuis at Home. Another way to experience art – listen to paintings at home (Den Haag, Netherlands)
The Mauritshuis had a goal in mind: to attract a younger audience to the museum and bring them in contact with Dutch heritage. To make this possible they created the project ‘View the Mauritshuis with your ears’: an initiative that asks artists to draw inspiration from an artwork from the collection of the museum and to make a song about it. The format that was first created and used was remodeled when the planned concert at the end wasn’t an option anymore due to the measures to counter the Corona virus. The changing of the format to fit these times made the project even better and it became a huge…
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From occupied to contaminated – a centenary view on a world in crisis (Antwerpen, Belgium)
In reaction to the first measures against the spread of the coronavirus in Belgium, the Flemish-Dutch house for culture and debate deBuren set up an online platform, where reactions of artists to Paul van Ostaijen’s poetry collection Bezette Stad (‘Occupied City’) and the situation around the corona crisis were combined and posted. The digital city was aptly named Besmette Stad (‘Infected City’) and grew into a project that is still being developed, making it difficult, but exciting, to predict its impact on its employees, artists, audiences, and the future. Background The Flemish-Dutch house for culture and debate deBuren is an organisation established in 2004 by the Dutch and Flemish governments,…
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Whatever’s possible – A growing museum against the odds (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
In order to combat the cultural exclusion the lockdown created, Museum Het Schipcame up with a highly intimate way of keeping their public close to them. After two years of hard work, the just-opened exhibition ‘Bruno Taut – Beyond Fantasy’ could only be visited for six days before the museum had to close its doors. Instead of moving their exhibition online they offered guided digital tours for one or two people at the time, keeping up with their tradition of dialogue while presenting what the museum had to offer. Though small, the museum proved to house creative and involved staff members who did everything they could with what they had,…
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Land Art Weekend 2020 (Flevopolder, the Netherlands)
The limitations of the corona pandemic urged Landscape Art Flevoland to develop a more individual form of the Land Art Weekend, a festival that annually highlights nine land artworks in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands. In order to organize the Land Art Weekend in 2020, Land art Flevoland developed a series of ten educational podcasts and nine atmospheric playlists to enable individual visits to the artworks. As the Land Art Weekend was one of the few art productions accessible to audiences in the summer of 2020, it received a generous amount of coverage in the local and national media. The program was broadcasted in the Land Art Weekend during…
