Museum Policy Memorandum

Museum Policy Memorandum

Strength through cooperation

Letter to Parliament by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, 10 June 2013

1 Introduction

The reopening of the Rijksmuseum on April 13 illustrated the importance of our cultural heritage once again. Thousands of people waited in line for their Rijksmuseum: to revisit the works of art that show us where we came from and tell us who we are, both as individuals and as a society.

In this memorandum, I lay out my vision for the Dutch museum sector and the various measures I have envisioned to achieve this. My predecessor in office promised to present this memorandum to the House of Representatives. Concurrently, I am submitting a separate memorandum to the House which describes my general thoughts on cultural policy. There are more than a thousand museums in the Netherlands:some small, some large, with a general or specific scope and located across the country. Some are small museums that survive thanks to the enthusiasm of private parties; others house prestigious collections of worldwide renown. Forty-nine of these museums are state-funded institutions; of these, 31 are part of the Basic Infrastructure subsidised by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and 18 are funded by other ministries.1 Together, these museums welcome 20 million visitors a year, including 4.5 million children under the age of 18. Nine hundred thousand Dutch people have a National Museum Pass [Museumkaart]. Some ten million foreign tourists visit the Netherlands every year, 40% of whom visit one or more museums during their stay. Our collections and museums score high marks abroad as well; in 2012, the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery organised an exhibition of its masterpieces in Japan that now ranks as the most successful exhibition in the world. Our museums are a dynamic part of the Dutch arts and culture sector. They make an enormous contribution to knowledge generation, to historical awareness, and to shaping our identity. For this reason I consider it important museums operate as effectively and efficiently as possible. Nevertheless, despite their dynamic nature and their successes, I detect several problems that have led me to write this memorandum.  There is still too little cooperation among museums and among museums and other institutions (heritage or otherwise) with respect to either their collections or their business operations.  A major part of the collections is kept in storage, with public access being limited.  Fifty-nine per cent of Dutch people take little or no interest in our cultural heritage; they seldom, if ever, go to a museum.2  Museums are not yet making the most of the digital revolution.  The public budgets available to our museums are under pressure; at the same time, the economic crisis has led to a drop in sponsorship. As competition in the leisure market increases, museums will have to do everything possible to maintain their position in the decades ahead.  Collections are not protected sufficiently, which became clear in recent discussions concerning the World Museum [Wereldmuseum] and the Gouda Museum.

It is important that museums can respond adequately to these issues to retain and increase the value they have to society. My policy is aimed at supporting museums in achieving this goal. I have based my policy in part on the recommendations of the Council for Culture [Raad voor Cultuur], the Asscher-Vonk Committee and on the input I received from many other parties during my working visits and round table meetings this spring.

The primary measures of my policy are: 1. The budgets furnished to state-funded museums will be more result-dependant, with cooperation, education and outreach to new groups of visitors being the key determinants. As I announce in my cultural policy memorandum, I will submit another memorandum to the House of Representatives after the summer recess concerning the structure of the arts and culture sector in

1 Appendix 1 contains a list of state-funded museums. 2 CBS, Statline. 2 the 2017-2020 funding period. 2. To stimulate talent development and academic research, I will award a number of grants to PhD candidates every year based on a common research agenda for museums. 3. I will create an annual budget of € 2 million to stimulate cooperation between the museums in such areas as education, visibility of collections, public outreach, research, and the use of digital tools. 4. I will draft a Heritage Act intended to protect collections of national significance. I will also consider how to offer museums more financial security with respect to their maintenance and management tasks.

I am introducing these measures because I want to ensure our museums continue to flourish. Dutch museums are, with their diverse collections and different displaying methods, a valuable asset to the arts and culture sector. Some museums tell the story of our country, others show us how other cultures live and have lived, and still others focus on the here and now. Collections do not exist in a vacuum but are at the very core of the stories that museums tell. Museums are the liaisons between their collections and the public; their job is to interest the public in the stories they tell through their collections. Those stories clarify the past and explain what is happening in society today. In that respect, museums play a vital role in shaping our identity.

Recommendations concerning the future of the museum sector My predecessor asked the Council for Culture to advise her about the Dutch museum sector. The Council presented its advisory report to me in late January 2013. Prior to this, in September 2012, the Asscher-Vonk Committee (set up by the museums acting collectively) issued a set of recommendations for improving the museum sector. Both reports indicate that museums would gain in strength by cooperating and finding new ways to reach out to new and different groups of visitors. In its report, the Council considers at length how collections of national significance can be kept available to the public. In general, I concur with the analyses of both reports and the importance that they attach to strengthening the museum sector. With respect to the recommendations on how to proceedI choose to deviate from some of the Council’s recommendations in order to encourage cooperation and protect the collections. I will identify overall targets that I would like to achieve in cooperation with the museums, but will give them freedom to decide how they will cooperate and with which partners. In other words, they will be obliged to attain certain results, but the state will not issue specific instructions or rules on how to do so. I have discussed my policy proposals at length with the museum sector. I was inspired by the conversations I had with museum directors, their staff, representatives of heritage organisations and of the two museum associations, university staff and primary and secondary school teachers, public and private funds, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). I feel confident that the vision I lay out in this memorandum has their support, in part because it is based on the points that they themselves raised during our conversations. My policy is based on two principles that will serve to reinforce the connection between museum collections and the public: broad cooperation (among museums and among museums and other partners), and lasting quality and accessibility of collections.

Cooperation as the key to success The core of my policy is to encourage more and broader cooperation among museums and among museums and other institutions. Museums generally perform well independently, but they could achieve much more if they were to join forces. We can draw inspiration from recent successes, such as the Gelderland Heritage cooperative and the Atelier Building in Amsterdam. I want to stimulate cooperation specifically in the areas of education, collection visibility, public outreach, research, and digital tools.

Maintaining the quality and accessibility of collections

3 Museums are responsible for maintaining and managing their collections.3 Those collections constitute the very heart of the stories that the museums tell. This is why it is important to give museums all the support they need to maintain and manage their collections optimally, and to ensure that the public has access to collections of national significance.

Responsibility Achieving the policy targets I have identified will require everyone who works for or on behalf of the museums to take on their responsibility. In the memorandum I sent to the House on 28 March 2013 I expressly stated the importance I adhere to museums and other public authorities taking on their own responsibility and I think the cooperation between both museum associations is a fitting example. The Asscher-Vonk Committee has emphasised the same point in its recommendations. I trust that the relevant supervisory and management boards will do their utmost to achieve its broadly supported targets.

1. Cooperation During my round table meetings it became clear that cooperation need not be restricted to museums alone to be fruitful. Archives, monuments, archaeological findings, folklore and collections can all be combined to tell the story of our past and to connect that past to our present. A good example of this can be found in the Province of Gelderland, home to the Gelderland Heritage cooperative, which now has more than 100 member organisations (museums, castles, and historical associations). As a formal structure, a cooperative offers exciting advantages: the overhead expenses of the participating organisations have dropped and organisations that would not likely have found each other otherwise, have found themselves forming unexpected alliances. Another example is the Atelier Building in Amsterdam, in which the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam and the Cultural Heritage Agency [Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed] have joined forces. By bringing expertise and education together, the Atelier Building offers students an excellent environment for learning. Both Dutch museums and museumsabroad are benefitting from the knowledge generated by this partnership. My final example is the joint study into a shared sustainable repository carried out by the Cultural Heritage Agency, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Netherlands Open Air Museum [Nederlands Openluchtmuseum]. The study shows that it is possible to create a good quality repository while keeping development and operational costs low. The National Sustainable Repository partnership promotes closer cooperation between the participants by having them make use of a single building. Other collection management organisations can join this partnership in the future.

Both the Council for Culture and the Asscher-Vonk Committee have pointed out that cooperation can and must be improved. A considerable number of local and regional organisations are working towards closer cooperation and state-funded museums will join in where possible. There is a demand to stimulate such cooperation. Effective cooperation among museums and among museums and other institutions cannot, however, be decided top-down, as the Council suggested.. This would only lead to rigid partnerships.Cooperation has to be organised bottom–up. This will ensure both more support for the resulting partnerships and stimulate more creativety. A good example is Loevestein Castle, which has joined forces with the Netherlands Society for the Preservation of Nature [Natuurmonumenten], the Biesbosch Water Board, the National Glass Museum [Nationaal Glasmuseum] and the provincial authorities to present cultural heritage within a much broader context. Because it is up to the museums to initiate cooperation, my policy envisions an important role for the two museum sector organisations, the Netherlands Museums Association [Nederlandse Museumvereniging] (NMV) and the Association of State-funded Museums [Vereniging van Rijksmusea] (VRM). Together they can act as a powerful representative for museums. The two

3 Appendix 2: Total number of objects and collections 4 have announced their intention to merge, a positive development that will make the sector stronger. The two associations have installed a follow-up to the Asscher-Vonk Committee whose task is to encourage cooperation between museums. I value this initiative and will support it. I will base the budgets reserved for the state-funded museums more on the results that they achieve with respect to cooperation. In addition, I am developing an incentive scheme that will provide funding for successful partnership projects, specifically in the areas of education, visibility of collections, public outreach, research, and the use of digital tools. Examples include initiatives undertaken by museums working together and/or with other institutions that produce long-term or lasting advantages in that they  encourage museum visits and/or increase the number of visitors;  cut down on expenses and/or generate extra income;  produce more quality for the same amount of money or less. These criteria will be further operationalised in consultation with the NMV/VRM. I also believe these organisations can play a role in evaluating such projects, sharing the knowledge generated by the projects and disseminating best-practice examples. I will support this scheme with a €2 million budget annually until 2017. Thereafter, the scheme will be funded by means of a general reallocation of the museum budget by 2.5%. It is also important for the state-funded museums to work with one another and with museums funded by other authorities. I will therefore invite local and regional governments to participate in this scheme in order for municipal and provincial museums to be able to draw funds from it.

Education and museums

Victor de Stuers, a famous Dutch late 19th century government official and politician, once said: ‘museums are one of the most indispensable and powerful levers to educate the people’.

Education deserves permanent attention as educational goals, such as transferring knowledge, teaching creative skills and fostering joy for artistic beauty are part of a museum’s core business. It can also help create more historical awareness and show the past’s continuing relevance. In this part of the letter I am focussing on the educational role for museums.

Collaboration between museums and schools should be strengthened even more. In the first place I want to stimulate this by developing a continuous teaching method for primary school children. Museums can and should facilitate schools in the execution of this teaching method as their knowledge keeps on growing. By focussing on education, museums are creating their own audience. Teachers too play a crucial role in cultural education. I will introduce an award for the best cooperative project between schools and museums and have asked the NMV and the National Expertise Institute for Cultural Education and Amateur Arts [Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst] to develop the relevant plans. I believe it is important not only for schools to take their pupils to museums, but for museums to take objects from their collections to schools and to tell their stories there. Museum objects can play a significant role in education. When pupils see an object with their own eyes, listen to the story behind it, and work with it, for example by touching or smelling it, the object functions as a teaching aid and stimulates learning. There is no reason to limit this approach to the subjects of art or history; museum objects can also be used as teaching aids in language, social studies, physics, biology or geography lessons. This way the wider context of school subjects can be made evident to school children.

Attracting new visitors

5 The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven have been working together successfully on a special programme for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers since April 2013. The programme was inspired by ‘Meet Me at MoMA’ at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The programme offers art as ‘medicine’. By using art, patients can exchange thoughts without being dependent on their short-term memory. Instead it can help them access their long-term memory and personal experiences.

The collections in the public domain belong to everyone and are there for everyone. I expect museums will continue to do their utmost in reaching the largest and broadest group of visitors possible. This means they must be fully integrated into society and appeal to new groups of people who are unfamiliar with museums due to, for example,social circumstances or physical limitations. Museums can also proactively approach residents in particular neighbourhoods or seek out target groups that are less likely to visit museums by cooperating with relevant partners or by deploying different channels of communication. The Municipal Museum of The Hague [Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag], for example, is cooperating with ADO Den Haag football club and systematically invites each neighbourhood to visit the museum. To encourage the elderly to participate actively in the arts and culture, I will work with the State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport on concluding an agreement with the various funds that invest in projects for the elderly, as well as with other organisations.4 It takes considerable effort for museums to attract new groups of visitors, and the related activities have less of an impact on visitor numbers than a blockbuster exhibition, for example. For this reason, I intend basing the budgets extended to state-funded museums not only on performance agreements concerning visitor numbers and museum-generated income but also on the results that they have actually achieved with their outreach activities.

Visibility of collections

The Main Church in Emmen hosted an exceptional project in which local residents selected art objects from the State Art Collection for an exhibition in the church building. The project organisers invited various local clubs – including a carnival group and a chamber choir – to participate in the project. They were actively involved in the entire process, from selecting the artwork to giving guided tours of the exhibition.

The public still has too little access to museum collections, whether physical or digital. Museums often borrow from each other by swapping objects. However, while some museums have highly coveted works in their collections, others do not, leaving no basis for such an exchange. Other impediments to lending include the competition between museums, unsatisfactory maintenance conditions at the borrowing museum, and the costs involved. The work involved in arranging all the insurance work, transport and – for the lending museum – preparing the object for loan is labour- intensive and expensive. Nevertheless, some museums have a very generous loan policy. One of these is the Amsterdam Museum, which believes it has a duty to lend objects from its large repository to other institutions in Amsterdam. The Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht is also eager to lend objects held in storage and even organises viewings at its repository for other museums. This gives curators from guest museums the chance to tour the repository and familiarise themselves with objects that may be of interest to them. These examples show us the direction we need to go in. Museums should make their collections available to one another and to other partners as much as possible. Combining parts of different collections will also allow museums to tell new stories. To encourage this, I will require museums that receive funding to cooperate in a generous loan policy. I will monitor their cooperation through their annual reports. Physical presentation is just one of the ways that museums can connect the public to their

4 The agreement was initiated by the elderly funds RCOAK Foundation and the Sluyterman van Loo Fund, the VSBfonds Fund, the National Expertise Institute for Cultural Education and Amateur Arts, the Cultural Participation Fund and the Association of Dutch Volunteer Organisations (VON). 6 collections. By making those collections available digitally, through websites, social media and phone applications, museums can reach out to a larger public. They can attract digital and actual visitors in the Netherlands and abroad this way. The Province of Gelderland saw a leap in visitor numbers at museums that had collectively made images of their collection available on a website, along with the ‘stories’ behind the collections. This is a good example of how better provision of information can generate more public interest in collections. Another key reason to make collections available digitally, is to allow researchers and creative industry professionals to make use of our cultural heritage. That is why I consider it important for museums to provide digital access to their collections through the Digital Museum Collection of the Netherlands (DiMCoN). I have instructed the Cultural Heritage Agency to cooperate and coordinate with museums and Digital Heritage Netherlands (DEN) to extend the digital infrastructure. Exhibitions that feature objects borrowed from abroad require a foolproof government indemnity scheme. At the request of the House of Representatives5, I am investigating how best to improve the present scheme. I am looking both at the guarantee ceiling and at aspects of implementation. The €300 million guarantee ceiling has proved to be inadequate in a growing number of cases in recent years. Although the present Government’s policy is to exercise reserve when it comes to government guarantees, I am exploring ways of raising the guarantee ceiling. Next spring, I will let the House know which adjustments will be made to the indemnity scheme.

Research The Rembrandt Database is the result of close cooperation between the Netherlands Institute for Art History [Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie] and the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery. It contains material contributed by twenty major museums and research institutes in Europe and the United States. It provides digital access to an enormous amount of information and documentation on Rembrandt’s paintings, the result of many years of research. Much of the material had never been published before.

Academic research can function as the source of new stories that can be told with the collections. Research is also important because it shows us how to maintain and manage collections, because it gives us new educational methods, and because it allows museums to explore modern technologies such as digitisation. Both the Council for Culture and the Asscher-Vonk Committee believe that research involving the collections can produce much better results than we have seen so far. Museums do not always coordinate their research activities properly with other museums or universities, and the results of their research efforts are not always visible. They could also do more to study how new information technologies can be used for public outreach, to make heritage sources available to the creative industry, and to develop effective educational methods. Cooperation between museums, higher educational institutions, the Karel van Mander Institute and the Cultural Heritage Agency would allow museums to play a bigger role in research and bring coherence to the sector’s overall research programme. I will ask the Karel van Mander Institute, the Cultural Heritage Agency and NWO to work with the museum sector on developing a common research agenda that covers the aforementioned topics.6 It may be possible to coordinate this agenda with relevant activities at the NWO and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In early June 2013, the Royal Academy published an exploratory study on the quality of art history research.7 The report also noted the absence of a common research agenda. Academic and museum research could be more mutually enhancing, according to the Academy. I intend to encourage talent development within the context of museum research by collaborating with NWO on an annual series of grants for museum staff that wish to take a PhD in such areas as heritage education, heritage and the creative industry, and digitisation. The relevant graduate projects should naturally complement the research agenda.

5 Parliamentary Document 2010/2011, 32 820 no.39. Amended motion by Representatives Van der Werf and De Liefde. 6 The Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History can also play a role in this. 7

2. Maintaining quality and access to collections

At the heart of the Dutch museum sector is a public collection that embraces 65 million objects. Portraits by Frans Hals, the DAF Variomatic, Van Leeuwenhoek’s 17th-century microscope, a screen-print by pop artist Herman Brood, a mirror from HMS Royal Charles, and a manuscript by nineteenth-century novelist and poet Louis Couperus: all these objects belong to a national collection that tells the story of our past – our cultural landmarks, our scientific discoveries, our military history, and how we lived our everyday lives.

I aim to protect these collections and ensure that the present and future generations have maximum access to them. The Cultural Heritage Agency will further operationalise the ‘Secured Heritage’ [Veilig Erfgoed] programme for this reason, and I will do my share by offering collections of national significance protection under public law, by developing a set of rules governing the deaccessioning of objects, by embedding the necessary supervisory procedures, and by offering museums long-term financial guarantees for their maintenance and management tasks. I will provide for the foregoing in a Heritage Act.

Protecting collections and objects of national significance By dealing scrupulously with collections, the government is acting as a good owner, museums can fine-tune their reputations, and – above all else – the public has access to a broad and varied range of collections. If a museum is considering the sale of a valuable collection or of an item that is popular with visitors, the general tenor of public debate is that we should all have access to the gems of our cultural heritage. I too believe that government-owned collections of national significance – whether they belong to the state or to a municipal or provincial authority – should remain in the public domain. At present, the museum sector exercises self-regulation regarding the deaccessioning of objects and collections. Museums have undertaken to follow a set of guidelines in such cases. These have proven sufficient most of the time, but they will not prevent the sale of objects and collections of national significance in certain instances. The Council for Culture agrees that the self-regulatory guidelines are not enough to prevent the disappearance of significant works of art from the public domain. The two museum associations concur with the Council’s views. In order to ensure that collections of national significance remain in the public domain, I intend to make public-law arrangements above and beyond the current system of self-regulation by the museum sector. These will require authorities that intend to deaccession objects and collections to submit their plans to an expert for advice. As part of these arrangements, I will also establish a streamlined procedure for disposing of objects of less cultural and historical value. The museums have indicated that the procedure for disposing of such objects under the current guidelines is too complex. I will ask the sector, the Association of Netherlands Provinces (IPO), and the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) to assist in developing these arrangements. I have asked the Cultural Heritage Agency to work with the museum sector on a valuation methodology that would provide an operational basis for such advice. In other words, I wish discussion of a collection's or an object's value to take place when there is an intention to deaccession it, and not to analyse all the collections in advance and designate a core collection, as the Council recommends. My approach is less complex than the method recommended by the Council and offers guarantees when there is an actual intention to sell an object or collection. In addition to the deaccessioning arrangements, I also plan to establish a statutory basis for the relationship between the state as the owner of the collections and the museum as their manager. That relationship is currently defined in private-law management agreements between the state and the individual museums. My predecessor in office has cancelled these agreements as from 1 January 2017. Replacing these agreements by creating a public-law basis for the relationship between the state and the museums also makes it possible to offer long-term funding for the museum’s management tasks. This will create a lasting guarantee of their ability to manage their collections.

7 Verschilzicht. Beweging in het kunsthistorisch onderzoek in Nederland. KNAW, 10 June 2013. 8

Heritage Act The rules for disposing of objects or collections and the management agreements can be arranged in a separate museums act, but other heritage laws are also under review. For example, much of the Monuments and Historic Buildings Act [Monumentenwet] will be incorporated into the Environment and Planning Act [Omgevingswet], which will also introduce changes in archaeology legislation. To avoid confusion and issue comprehensible regulations, the most advisable route is not to have multiple sector-specific laws but a single Heritage Act. This act will stipulate how to deal with heritage of national significance, designate the responsible parties, and specify supervision arrangements. The Council has specifically recommended introducing a Heritage Act, and its importance was emphasised several times during my conversations with the sector’s representatives. I will incorporate the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act [Wet tot behoud van cultuurbezit] into the new act.

Security Dutch museums suffered a number of thefts in late 2012 and early 2013. A monstrance was stolen from Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht; seven valuable paintings – including works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse – disappeared from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam; and the Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo lost three works by Jan Schoonhoven and one by Tomas Rajlich to burglars.

Besides being sold off, collections can also suffer the threat of fire, theft or vandalism. Security is a constant worry, as demonstrated by the recent fire at the Armando Museum and break-ins at various other museums. The policy principles defined in the memorandum Veiligheid voor Collecties8 [Security for Collections] are still relevant and we should try to learn from incidents when they occur. The Cultural Heritage Agency will continue to develop the ‘Secured Heritage’ [Veilig Erfgoed] programme for this reason, in collaboration with such parties as the Cultural Heritage Inspectorate [Erfgoedinspectie], the National Library [Koninklijke Bibliotheek], the National Archives of the Netherlands [Nationaal Archief], fire brigades, safety regions and the police. The Cultural Heritage Agency also maintains a database of cultural heritage incidents (DICE) that can be used to analyse the frequency, the resulting damage, the causes and the costs of incidents. I will monitor the effectiveness of the Heritage Act and how risks to collections are managed through the Digital Heritage Survey [Erfgoedmonitor] and the Heritage Report [Erfgoedbalans]. These instruments will allow us to track trends, assess the current state of repair of heritage items, evaluate the system’s performance, and assess the impact of the policy.

3. Museum housing

Much of the state’s museums budget goes to cover the rent that seventeen state-funded museums have to pay the Government Buildings Agency [Rijksgebouwendienst]. Although this money is earmarked for culture, it plays little or no role in overall museum operations or in the tasks that they have been assigned. The rents charged are high. It is difficult to coordinate museums’ primary process with any work that must be carried out on the buildings, particularly since museums are increasingly drawing on private funds to refurbish or renovate the buildings. The buildings that house museums are crucial to their efforts to maintain and manage their collections and keep them accessible to the public. Museum buildings are also a major component in museum financial policy. Some museums own their buildings (e.g. the Teylers Museum), some rent them from the municipal authorities or private owners (e.g. the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics [Keramiekmuseum Princessehof]), and seventeen state-funded museums rent their buildings from the Government Buildings Agency (e.g. Het Loo Palace). In the latter case, the museum’s operations and its building are two separate matters and the Government Buildings Agency retains control of the real property. Decision-making concerning museum buildings should enable museums to receive as much

9 support as they need to execute their tasks properly and to operate efficiently. This is not the case for all of the state-funded museums because they have no authority over the buildings in which they are housed. The Association of State-funded Museums has indicated that ‘the money available for building maintenance and refurbishment would be better spent if the museums were able to decide themselves when and how the work is carried out’. We must take these signs seriously. I intend to base allocation of the museum buildings budget on the individual building’s value (repayment of purchase price and interest), and on a standard sum for maintaining the buildings in a good technical state of repair. I am exploring three scenarios with the Minister for Housing and the Central Government Sector, which will give the museums more control over their own buildings. All three scenarios will safeguard public interests associated with proper maintenance of museum buildings. 1. Transfer of ownership from the state to the museums. In this scenario, the museums purchase the buildings from the state and receive funds from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to pay off the purchase price and interest and to maintain the buildings. They are wholly responsible for their overall operations. They are allocated the funds on the proviso that they treat the buildings with due care. The state will monitor the quality of maintenance, as it currently does with respect to maintenance and management of the collections. 2. The buildings remain the property of the state, but the museums are responsible for their upkeep. In this scenario, the museums receive funds to keep the buildings in a good state of repair and can decide themselves which work needs to be done, when, by whom, and at what price. Like the first scenario, this model allows the museums to integrate building upkeep into their primary process and to select the most cost-effective maintenance model for themselves. The state once again monitors the maintenance quality. 3. The museums become part of the new government buildings system as private foundations. The buildings remain the property of the state, as in scenario 2, but in this case the state is also responsible for their maintenance. The museums are obliged to use the services provided by the Government Buildings Agency, which will consult them on what maintenance work needs to be done, when, and at what price. I will decide between these three scenarios and submit my choice to the House immediately after the summer recess.

4. Financial measures

2013-2016 funding period I will create an annual budget of €10 million available to the museums for the coming three years (until the end of 2016). Out of this sum, €2 million will be available to support cooperative initiatives. I consider it important for the incentive scheme to be available to all museums, whether funded by the state or by other authorities. I therefore invite other authorities to participate voluntarily, resulting in an increased annual budget from which more institutions can benefit.

After 2017 In the new funding period (i.e. starting in 2017), I will introduce changes to museum funding scheme. Museums have a long-term duty to house, maintain and manage the State Art Collection. I will consider how to offer museums more financial security with respect to their maintenance and management tasks. Funding for all other museum tasks will follow the pattern established for all institutions that make up the Basic Infrastructure. The budgets reserved for the state-funded museums will be based more specifically on the results that they attain. The incentive scheme will become a fixed part of the budget starting in 2017. I will do this by reallocating the existing museum budget (excluding the funds earmarked for buildings). I intend to reallocate 2.5 per cent of the budget for museums, amounting to an annual sum of approximately € 2.5 million. If other authorities wish their museums to have access to the incentive scheme starting in 2017, then I believe they too should contribute to the budget.

8 Parliamentary Document 2005, 29 314, no.12. 10 Closing remarks

The measures that I am proposing will enable our museums to take even better care of their collections and to play a more effective role in the community, in particular given the changes that are taking place in society. Museums will gain greater certainty and clarity when it comes to maintaining and managing their collections. Regarding their role in the community, they must look beyond the walls of their institutions, reach out to the public, make use of digital tools, and focus more specifically on education and research. In this way, they will have a better chance of operating as healthy businesses in the culture sector.

Appendices

1. List of state-funded museums 2. Total number of objects and collections

11 Appendix 1: List of state-funded museums

Museums that receive funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science as part of the Basic Infrastructure for Culture: x Afrika Museum x Museum Volkenkunde x Rijksmuseum van Oudheden x Teylers Museum xPaleis Het Loo x Museum Catharijneconvent x Geld- en Bankmuseum x Rijksmuseum Twenthe x Mauritshuis x Van Gogh Museum x Het Scheepvaartmuseum x Museum Boerhaave x Kröller-Müller Museum x Joods Historisch Museum x Nederlands Openluchtmuseum x Rijksmuseum x Huis Doorn x Zuiderzeemuseum x Keramiekmuseum Princessehof xMuiderslot x Museum De Gevangenpoort x Museum Slot Loevestein x Letterkundig Museum x NCB Naturalis x Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum x Persmuseum x Nederlands Fotomuseum x Nationaal Glasmuseum Leerdam x Stichting Amstel 218 x Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie x Eye Filmmuseum Museums funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science that are not part of the Basic Infrastructure for Culture: x NEMO (through Ministry of Education, Culture and Science-Department of Research and Science Policy) x Het Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid x Onderwijsmuseum Museums that are funded by ministries other than Education, Culture and Science: x Indisch Herinneringscentrum Bronbeek (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport) x Nationaal monument Vught (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport) x Herinneringskamp Westerbork (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport) x Kamp Amersfoort (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport) x Stichting Nationaal Veiligheidsinstituut (Ministry of Security and Justice) x Nationaal Gevangenismuseum (Ministry of Security and Justice) x SieboldHuis (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) x Tropenmuseum (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) x ProDemos (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) x Nationale Collectie Bescherming Bevolking (Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations) x Kasteel Groeneveld (Ministry of Economic Affairs) x Belasting- en douanemuseum (Ministry of Finance) x Geld- en bankmuseum (Ministry of Finance)

12 x Legermuseum (Ministry of Defence) x Marechausseemuseum (Ministry of Defence) x Luchtvaartmuseum (Ministry of Defence) x Marine Museum (Ministry of Defence) x Mariniersmuseum (Ministry of Defence) x Museum Bronbeek (Ministry of Defence)

13 Appendix 2: Total number of objects and collections

The Netherlands Collection: All publicly accessible, registered collections and restricted- access, private collections for which government is responsible (e.g. under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act). State Art Collection: All collections owned by the state and all collections whose care has been entrusted to the state.

Figure 1: Distribution of The Netherlands Collection in the public domain9

Collection Number of objects Percentage of total collection State Art Collection 52 million 79.9% of which: Education, Culture and Science - Naturalis 37 m (71%) Education, Culture and Science - Other 14 m (26%) Other ministries 1.2 m (2.4%)

Cultural Heritage 70,000 0.1 % Preservation Act Provincial, Municipal Authorities 13 million 20%

Total no. of visitors 65,000,000 100 Netherlands Collection

9 RCE (2013). Erfgoedmonitor 2009 + actualisatie cijfers 14