The Amsterdam Museum is temporarily housed on the Amstel. Their own house, the Burgerweeshuis, is in need of a thorough renovation. But even without its permanent location, the museum continues to tell the stories of the city. In this extra-long episode we look back on the past year. Because although the Burgerweeshuis is closed during the renovation, the Amsterdam Museum is making great progress.
Citizen orphanage
Margriet Schavemaker, artistic director of the Amsterdam Museum, takes us on a tour of the now empty Burgerweeshuis. The renovation of the age-old complex is clearly not an unnecessary luxury: there is a lack of basically everything. Lack of suitable spaces, poor accessibility and climate control and there are still major steps to be taken in the field of sustainability.
To get anywhere, we have to go up and down a lot of stairs. It’s hard work for a museum visitor. If you have difficulty walking, you may even miss an important part of the museum. Of course that cannot be the intention.
It should be clear: the twenty-six contiguous buildings that once formed the Burgerweeshuis are no longer suitable for housing a contemporary museum.
Text continues below the photo.
“The city museum naturally belongs in the center of the city”
Away from the city center?
There were once plans to leave the Burgerweeshuis and move into a new building elsewhere, outside the center, that the museum could completely customize to its own needs.
“But fortunately,” says general manager Judikje Kiers, “it never got to that point. That would have been a real shame. The city museum naturally belongs in the center of the city. We have investigated whether it is possible, whether it will be possible for the coming decades. can again be suitable as a museum for hundreds of thousands of visitors. And that is possible,”
Open towards the city
We are on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal with architect Annette van Baren. The only place where the complex can be seen in its full length. The other buildings are encapsulated in the buildings. We see people passing by without thinking. This is partly because you cannot look inside. Due to a lack of museum space, there are partitions in front of the windows to create more of a museum wall. But that’s going to change.
Van Baren: “What we really want is for this facade, and the building as a whole, to open up and show its face to the city and enter into conversation with everyone in Amsterdam and the visitors to the city.”
Text continues below the image.
Grown structure
The renovation is not an easy job. It took Van Baren and her team at least two months to gain a good insight: “It is a grown structure of houses. There are many different houses around those courtyards, all of which have their own access. And they all have their own floor level. If you runs through it, it is almost unbelievable.”
But now there is a plan that will allow the museum to continue in the coming decades. A large city hall is central to the upcoming renovation. A large city hall that can also transform into a theater setup for major events. Above the city hall there will be a large hall, which the museum has been in great need of for a long time.
“That will be a big spectacle in a few years,” says Margriet Schavemaker. “Especially that succession of small, intimate rooms and larger rooms, that fits very well with today’s museum. In fact, you can’t do without more.”
Text continues below the image.
Puzzling
“It is a long process,” says general manager Judikje Kiers, “of designing, thinking, puzzling and adjusting to optimally balance the monument and museum use. It took a few years before we achieved that balance. But now there is also a plan that is really good for the monument and very good for the museum and the visitors. I am very much looking forward to implementing it.”
Text continues below the image.
Perspective
Fortunately, loyal visitors do not have to miss their museum. While the renovation lasts, the Amsterdam Museum has found shelter in the Museum aan de Amstel, the former Hermitage. A selection from the collection can be found here. The theme of Perspective is central to the arrangement. Within the exhibition, all kinds of connections are made between objects. Curator Tom van der Molen shows us the painting as an example View of Amsterdam see Cornelis Antonisz, the first painted map of Amsterdam from 1538.
“We use the painting as a welcome,” says Van der Molen. “With this painting we also explain what we are doing here, that we are talking about perspective on history.”
The painting was commissioned by the city’s administrators. And it shows: a prominent place has been reserved for the port. This is where an important part of the money comes from to run the city. Something for the mayors to be proud of.
“But,” Vander Molen explains, “if you were a poor slob in one of those alleys, you would of course have a completely different perspective on that city. That is also what we want to convey to visitors to the exhibition: it depends who you are, how you look at Amsterdam’s past and how you look at a specific painting or a specific story.”
Text continues below the photo.
New stories
In addition to the stories of the past, the museum also wants to tell the stories of today. The current exhibition focuses on the theme of War and conflict.
“In this exhibition we show work by twenty artists,” says curator Imara Limon. “That is the result of creators who signed up after a open call. War and conflict is the second theme of Refresh Amsterdam, an art event where every two years we pay attention to an urgent theme in the city.”
One of those artists is Vika Mitrichenko. She has regular contact with her family in Ukraine. Because of their situation there, the artist often felt helpless. Fortunately, she had the art of expressing herself. This is reflected in the exhibition in large ceramic pots containing drawings and notes from her diary.
“A war or conflict can be very abstract,” says Limon, “with lots of figures and many unpleasant images on the news. But here you are really taken into the personal world of the artists. That may not make it any less difficult, but it does closer.”
It will take a few more years before the museum can return to the renovated Burgerweeshuis. Until then, visitors can visit the Museum aan de Amstel.
Look here to more episodes of A Museum for Amsterdam.
