Having a party at the museum

Telling someone you go to the museum in Rotterdam these days, might mean you ‘just’ want to go and check out some paintings or an exposition, but in the same time, you could go to a great late night party, have diner in a fancy restaurant, go for some wine-tasting or sit in the sun on a nice terrace.

 

The museums in Rotterdam have changed. The main reason for these changes: money (of course)! But the results are good for the city. From old-fashioned institutes, museums now turn more and more into modern easy-going ‘places to be’. Mainly not by changing their collection, because they were already worth watching. It’s more the extra’s that change the museum, trying to attract more (young) people and therefor earning more money.

 

It started with the World Museum. A museum that shows the lifestyle of different kind of tribes all over the world. The museum is well known, beautifully situated next to the river Maas in a majestic building that used to be home of the Royal Dutch Yacht club in the 19th century. So the museum had it all, but didn’t use it.

That’s why three years ago they decided to close the doors for almost a year and give the museum an extreme make-over. The result is a fresh new museum, where you can visit parts of the collection for free and that stays open from 10 am ‘till 8 pm.

But the most revolutionary part is that the World Museum decided to give up a part of the exhibition space to build a fancy restaurant and a wine-bar. With the money from the restaurant and the bar, they’re sponsoring their own museum. To make sure the restaurant would become talk of the town, they asked a Rotterdam master chef to help set up the place. And it works. The restaurant is still highly rewarded by its visitors.

 

Focus on cross-overs

 

And then there was the NAi which opened its doors a couple of months ago. The Dutch Architecture Institute wanted to be less like an institute and more like a place where people would love to come. How do you do that? By showing people you’re there!

 

First of all the building got a make-over which makes it easier for people to walk in and out. But already before this make-over started, the NAi used another tactic: they started renting out some of their spaces for public parties. In that way the museum would attract a different kind of visitors, who might come back for a real visit.

By now, even after the make-over, the museum still focuses on cross-overs: showing movies, organising plays and not only organising tours in the museum, but also through the city by bike. It seems that as long as they attract new people and it has to do a little bit with architecture, it’s fine.

 

What counts are the extras
     
Meanwhile other museum also make some little changes. The former historical museum is still waiting for its change. They’re waiting for a new accommodation, but in the meantime changed their name from ‘historical museum’ to the younger sounding ‘Museum Rotterdam’.

 

The museum of nature arranged some extra attention by making a funny and educational television series about nature in the city on the local network (see trailer down below). The same thing did Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. They even worked together with the local theatre company RO Theatre, so they could both show Rotterdam what they were capable of.

   

These recent examples show the nearby future of most Rotterdam Museums: Once you have a great collection and great exhibitions, it’s the extra’s that start counting. And that is nice, because in this way, the museum claims a big role in the development of culture in Rotterdam.