Bumpy rides and dead-end streets
Posted: July 5th, 2011 | Author: Jasper Visser | Filed under: Thoughts about museums | Tags: end, evaluation, funding, personal, projects | 17 Comments »Tweet
Photo by Auntie G on Flickr.com
Those of you, who know a bit about the history of the museum I work for, know it has always been a topic of national debate. Ever since the project started, it has known times of fierce debate between opposing parties in the government. It has been a bumpy ride.
Has been, indeed, as over the past weeks the secretary of state responsible for culture decided to stop funding for a considerable number of arts and culture institutions. Almost every organisation that dared to be different, to educate future generations or discover the future of arts and culture suffers, greatly. There’s also a VAT increase on tickets and other cultural products, making arts and culture less accessible to the general audience.
My employer, the Museum of National History, is one of the institutions that will not get funding anymore. January 1st of 2012 the museum will cease to exist. It’s a pity, and a loss, but there’s nothing more we can do about it. The adventure is over.
The museum had been my home for over two years and I do believe we were still only at the beginning. Projects like xwashier, 100m2NL and our INNL network showed our thoughts about the future of museums, but in themselves were only steps towards the realisation of our vision. We could have done so much more. Read the rest of this entry »
