Several museums are seeing an upturn in the number of visitors after the ‘corona years’. Yet the flag does not go out. Museums remain cautious due to higher personnel costs and energy prices.
With around 180,000 visitors in a year, the Drents Museum is ‘super satisfied’, says director Harry Tupan. “That is about the same as the year before, but keep in mind that we were not able to use the large exhibition hall in a period of three months due to leakage. Otherwise we would have easily exceeded 200,000 visitors last year.”
The exhibition ‘On a trip with Vincent’, which will stop after next weekend, is a particular hit, says Tupan. “There are now easily 1,500 visitors per day. Yesterday was a great day, with 2,000 visitors.” According to Tupan, the museum’s success is mainly due to good programming. “Our exhibitions meet people’s expectations well. It is not just about the objects we show, but also about the story around it and the staging.”
Due to the good visitor numbers, the museum is still in the black, but its finger remains on the pulse. “We continue to closely monitor the areas in which we can save, for example when it comes to energy costs and business operations. Because we also see that all kinds of fixed costs are currently increasing.”
Tupan does not want the museum to compromise on quality. “This means that we want to continue to offer an average of 2.5 major exhibitions per year with good programming. This also means that we want to maintain free admission for everyone up to the age of eighteen. We will maintain that because we want as many people as possible to have access. keep bidding.”