Disturbing messages from the museum association. Yesterday the body announced that half of Dutch museums made a loss last year. Reason for the museums in Roden to do more and more together.
This summer the public could visit all the museums in Roden with the horse tram. It was the first collaboration between Museum Havezate Mensinge, the Toy Museum, the Scheepstra Kabinet and the Catharina Church. The four bodies have united as a heritage umbrella organization. “The umbrella organization has been around for a few years,” says Ed Scherbeyn, interim director of Havezate Mensinge. “But we revived it this year.”
Cultural institutions want to join forces, especially behind the scenes. “We are going to set up the back office together,” Jantina van der Broek explains. As director of the Roden Toy Museum, she sees the benefits. “For example, we want to hire someone together in the field of education. That person can offer an educational package to schools for all four museums.” The toy museum hopes to save money for renovation of the museum.
Scherbeyn sees that medium-sized museums in particular are having a hard time. “They’re too big for the napkin and too small for the tablecloth,” he explains. “We all have activities that are not part of the core activities, but that do need to be carried out. For example, administration, maintenance, marketing and social media. If we finance this together, it can lead to greater revenue and ultimately lower costs.”
“It is an emergency measure,” says Van der Broek. “Ideally, you all want to have someone you can deploy. We now have one and a half FTEs, divided over three people. That’s not much. If someone is sick, we scrub the toilets together.”
The collaboration will hopefully ensure that the future plans for the museums can continue. “We want to become a beautiful interactive museum,” says Van der Broek. “That is not cheap. But we are fully committed to being a fantastic pearl for Roden and the surrounding area. A real crowd puller. So that is what we are going for.”