The Printing Museum in Meppel can remain open this year. It will again receive the annual subsidy of 26,000 euros.
Because the museum temporarily closed its doors two years ago due to financial problems, the municipality stopped the subsidy completely. That has been reversed for this year, just like last year.
The Printing Museum was closed for a short time in 2023 due to the financial situation. The museum requested extra money from the municipality because it could no longer make ends meet due to, among other things, increasing maintenance costs. However, the municipality did not want to just give that money. The museum then decided to close its doors.
A study was conducted into how the museum can become future-proof. Both the province and the municipality paid for that research, leaving the Printing Museum with enough money to open in the meantime. That investigation has now been completed. It concludes that “structural solutions are needed” to address the financial problems, otherwise closure would be inevitable. The research also suggests continuing the museum as a social activity. This may mean that the collection is moved to another location, where it can, for example, be set up as a historical graphic workshop. The museum is now in a national monument.
“We would like to continue with the advice contained in the report,” says Stein van Ittersum, chairman of the museum. “We are now going to work this out further, for example in terms of finances. Because at the moment they are still advice.”
As soon as the museum comes up with a concrete plan for the future, the municipality wants to look again at a fixed subsidy.