The future alternating exhibitions are compiled in collaboration with Museum Allard Pierson from Amsterdam. Around 4,000 drawings and pages from Jan Kruis are stored here.
The paintings that now hang in the museum are just not in the possession of Allard Pierson. “This is actually the only possession of Jan Kruis that is not ours,” says Jos van Waterschoot, curator of the Amsterdam institution. “We can’t put paintings very well at Allard Pierson. I would really like to have them, but then we have to adjust a few things with us.”
A few years ago it received the collection of the Jan Kruis collection foundation. “In return, we give the drawings to the museum with pleasure on loan.”
Van Waterschoot himself helped with the creation of the Jan Kruis Museum. “I was friends with Jan and we had been working for years to find a place where a museum could be located. We have viewed Orvelte, Westerbork and Weide surroundings various places here. In the end, this building was released in Orvelte. An ideal place. It’s just a pity that he never saw it himself.”
Jan Kruis died in 2017 at the age of 83. The museum opened its doors in 2019 and nowadays attracts around 6,000 visitors annually.