“I did my best ever, but it didn’t work out,” Friso Visser laughs when asked if he has ever been in jail. “I once thought we should protest cruise missiles and was so unwise to sit on the street, but even then I didn’t end up in jail.”
The new director-administrator of the prison museum has never even seen a real court from the inside. Yet he says he has an affinity with the subject. “I think everyone has that, if all goes well. It is something that society largely determines. The rules that we agree on with each other and are important for everyone.”
Today is officially his first working day, but Visser has already taken plenty of time before that to view his new museums. “I think it’s two museums that are interesting, important and fun for the general public. The combination of authentic experience, objects but also a story that is told. And ultimately it should also be fun and these are two museums that amply meet that .”
A new director brings new energy that may also bring about changes, but Visser tempers expectations. “There are always things that you want to get started with right away, but I want to see how everything goes first.” According to him, a number of things are already underway that he wants to continue. “The intention is to partly renew the exhibition in the prison museum and partly take it apart, so that the story of the prison and of Veenhuizen can both be given more emphasis.”
“The Pilot Colony was, of course, recently built, but there may also be things that could be done a little differently,” the new director begins. But he prefers to look for change outside the walls of his museums.
“The collaboration can still take shape in Drenthe. That has already started, of course. I think that if people start spending more free time in their own country, and it seems like that after the corona period, then you have to connect with what others have to say. to do in the area. To make a total offer that is interesting from a touristic point of view. That is a great opportunity, but also an assignment to do that.”