A solution was eventually found and after being closed for a few months, the doors opened again. “It was all over, or it would have been the end of the exercise,” says Van Ittersum. “That would be a shame. The graphic cultural heritage belongs to Meppel.”
There was a study into how the museum can become future-proof. The main conclusion is that there needs to be more interaction. So some old printing machines have disappeared to make room for new parts. Instead of a collection of machines, visitors can now make prints themselves and, for example, videos are shown of how the machines used to work.
“It is no longer just about machines and printers, but also about what printing work you can do yourself,” says his successor Van der Niet. “We show a lot of children around here. We tell them about the history, but they can also do a lot themselves. It has become a craft museum, not an art museum.”
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