Mastwijk: “People sometimes have tears in their eyes after a visit to that room.” According to Stoel-Snater, it is great that this accommodation can soon be reached via the old tap room. “Visitors will soon no longer have to pass the toilets in a back hallway to get there. That was not exactly ideal either.”
Whatever the new structure will look like, according to both board members it is important that a historically well-founded story is told. Stoel-Snater: “We have always strived for that ourselves. And we succeeded thanks to the 23 extraordinarily detailed letters that Vincent wrote to his brother Theo from here.” Mastwijk: “We don’t want a slick or romanticized story. It must be based on what we actually know. And we know that thanks to those letters.”
In addition to the innovations in the Van Gogh House, the organization itself is also undergoing renewal. So far it has been volunteers, currently thirty people, who kept the heritage attraction going. Mastwijk: “They are extremely important to us, but for some tasks a professional is more desirable.”
Think of accounting, PR, but also management. For example, it is the intention that a part-time director will be recruited this year. These paid employees must also contribute to realizing more visitors. In previous years, the Van Gogh House attracted an average of 4000 people per year. That should soon be 10,000, says Mastwijk.
In the coming months, therefore, a lot of work will be done on a ‘new’ Van Gogh House, the work for which, if all goes well, will be completed by 16 June. Mastwijk: “Whoever enters later will walk through Van Gogh’s story in Drenthe literally in an hour.”