“The corona time has cut it down a lot,” says Schoorlaar and cabinet holder of curiosities Hans Peter Corbee to NH News. The same applies to the Polder Museum in Heerhugowaard and the Historical Museum Heiloo. But all three are optimistic about the future, especially now that the museum season has started again. Corbee: “Fortunately, everything is possible again.”
Shortly after the corona virus turned our lives upside down in March 2020, Corbee opened an exhibition with his Stichting Verwondering 1601 in the Oude Raadhuisje in Schoorl. In this historic building, Corbee’s collection of special objects from all over the world is exhibited.
Corbee collected all the strange stuff in more than 40 years. But anyone who thinks Corbee is a world traveler is wrong. “I already feel Spanish when I drive to Schiphol. I prefer to make those discoveries at markets, auctions and sometimes I just find it in the garbage,” he said. earlier to NH News.
“I hope that people will come to admire us in a positive way”
Now he says that he has ‘a lot to catch up on’. “We are not yet a well-known player in museum land and as a result, more than other museums, we have to start again by increasing our brand awareness.”
He hopes that visitors to his museum can lose themselves completely in the special objects. “We’re not called ‘wonder’ for nothing,” says Corbee. “As people, we have been able to marvel enough in a negative way about misery in the world during this period. I hope they will come to marvel at us in a positive way.”
When people go home in amazement, Corbee is satisfied: “Then our mission has been accomplished.”
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The past two years have also been ‘very annoying’ for the Poldermuseum Het Oude Gemaal in Heerhugowaard – where visitors can learn everything about the draining of the land and the origin of the city. “It is a museum that runs on volunteers and certainly in the beginning people were a bit afraid because of corona. That is why we were closed for quite a while.”
Last weekend the museum ‘started again’ with a more interactive concept. “We have redecorated the museum room and it was opened on Friday by aldermen Annette Groot and John Does. It was a festive farewell to corona and an optimistic start to the future,” said Bootsma.
“We still get people who have lived in Heerhugowaard for decades and have never been to us”
He notices that there is a lot of interest in the museum from schools: “In the coming month, 150 school children will visit us. That is really a lot.”
According to Bootsma, the exhibition is ‘ideal for young people’ because it is interactive. “Pupils can search our collection themselves, for example for old maps. In this way, a geography or history lesson suddenly becomes a lot more visual.”
To people who have never been to the museum, Bootsma says: “Be surprised by a small museum that is incredibly informative. We still get people who have lived in Heerhugowaard for decades and have never been to our place. While you learn a lot about the origin of Heerhugowaard.”
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Historical Museum Heiloo has ‘survived the corona time fairly well’, thanks to income from books and small expenses. That is what Joop Tulp, secretary of the Heiloo Historical Association, tells us. “It is a pity that due to the measures we had to cancel the tours, but most of the people who come to us are over 65 years old. They probably would have come by a lot less on their own.”
According to Tulp, why mainly older visitors come to the museum is because it is about history. “The older you are, the more past you have and the greater the interest in history.”
“History is necessary to look to the future, because how do you know where to go if you don’t know where you come from?”
Yet Tulp also thinks it is important that more young people come to the museum: “How do you know where to go if you don’t know where you come from? History is necessary to look to the future”, he thinks.
This is one of the reasons why the exhibition at Historisch Museum Heiloo has been made more interactive. “We have recently started working with QR codes and, for example, hidden drawers,” says Tulp. “Young people should do much more research on their own.”
He has ‘all confidence’ in the future of the museum: “Now that we are open again, the visitor numbers are going quite well. People know where to find us again.”
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