Despite the declining visitor numbers, the Drents Museum looks back on a ‘memorable year’. The museum welcomed approximately 145,000 visitors to Assen in 2024, compared to approximately 180,000 a year earlier.
Director Harry Tupan says he is ‘very pleased’ with the figures. The museum was renovated for much of the year. After completion, the collection presentation opened Labyrinthia, which allowed the museum to once again present a ‘complete offering’.
Other highlights according to Tupan are the exhibition about the Spanish draftsman, painter and sculptor Antonio Lopéz and the archeology exhibition Dacia – Empire of gold and silver. He further mentions the purchase of the watercolor Landscape with a farm by Vincent van Gogh that he made in 1883 during his stay in Drenthe.
Looking ahead to 2025, the program will be ‘diverse in every respect and not obvious’. The Drents Museum will start in mid-February with an extensive overview of 75 years of figurative art in the exhibition Gen F.
Other eye-catchers are People of the Ventweg – Travelers in Drenthe about caravan residents in Drenthe from different times and Thunder’s big plates – Pirate culture in Drenthe. The latter exhibition gives the visitor an idea of pirate music and its rise in the Northeast Netherlands.
Since the beginning of this year, Museum De Buitenplaats has been a full part of the Drents Museum. After renovations, the Eelder museum reopened in October. Throughout the year, 25,000 visitors came to Drenthe Museum De Buitenplaats, which specifically focused on art around 1900 from the Art Nouveau era.
