The Collections Building
The Netherlands and other countries are witnessing a boom in private collecting. This is a positive development because it is creating a new market for art collections and collectors. Museums have always been collectors that depend on private donations and bequests.
In the 1930s, director Hannema of Museum Boymans was one of the first museum people to recognise the importance of good relations with private collectors - collectors with whom Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has since maintained close contact. Because of the developments in the market, museums are encountering more and more private collectors who manage to build up a high-quality collection. This means that museums have to tighten up their collection policy and strengthen their ties with private collectors.
Collectors often become closely associated with a museum. The Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht recently acquired the first-rate, contemporary collection of Flemish architect Charles Vandenhove, who also donated a building. There are countless collectors in the Netherlands and abroad who could do the same. However, the possibilities of housing these collections are limited. When developing a new museum depot, only taking account of a museum’s own future acquisitions is certainly not enough. And there is more. People seem to be keen on collecting again, but generally speaking, the practical and technical consequences of having and maintaining an art collection are heavily underestimated. To keep a work of art in good condition and to have it move around (by lending it out for exhibitions, for example), requires an organisation, a depot and sometimes even a small museum staff. Logically enough, this puts many private collectors off.
Public-private partnerships
While considering and drawing conclusions about the present situation, the museum came up with the idea of making a new depot that facilitates private collections in any field imaginable. Organising transport, drawing up a loan contract, writing a good catalogue, taking out insurance, packing a transport case, compiling a condition report, checking the security of another museum or depot? Sooner or later, every private collector confronted by this plethora of procedures wishes that someone else would take over the work. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen plans to start providing this kind of service. It will be able to apply its expertise and, thanks to the increase in scale and the recruitment of highly trained professionals, it will also take the museum’s own collection to a higher level. And there is another major advantage, in that the museum can work with third-party collections for longer or shorter periods. This will strengthen the museum’s position on the international loan market while at the same time, important works of art from private collections can regularly be put on display at the museum and elsewhere.
Exhibition, research and restoration
The new depot will give the museum the room to really spread its wings. Taking efficiency into consideration and given its museum-like character, the museum would prefer to have this new building in close proximity. The museum’s facilities and expertise will be available to private parties on a rental basis. There is also room for private collectors who wish to put on small-scale exhibitions and to ask expert restorers to conserve or restore works from the collection. This makes a depot a Collections Building, where collections are treated with propriety and expanded. With this in mind, the Collections Building will fulfil a representative function and be open to the public. Furthermore, the Collections Building will be a true architectural eye catcher, a building that underscores the image of Rotterdam as a city of innovative architecture. This is why a programme of requirements has been submitted to the architecture firm MVRDV as part of a commission for the production of an initial sketch and the performance of a series of volume studies. Fifteen per cent of the surface area in the new Collections Building will be open to the public. A restaurant and sculpture garden are planned for the roof, resulting in a raised museum park covering an area of sixty by one hundred metres which will eventually grow to become a popular attraction in the city.
Collections Building and the Museum Park The Collections Building is situated in the Museum Park. With a gross floor area of almost 14,000 square metres, the building floats more than thirty metres above the Museum Park and consists of two floors, both of which can be reached by lifts in the building’s legs. In the middle of each floor, there is space for depots for private collectors and the museum’s own collection. The edge of the tabletop houses the restoration studios, laboratories for scientific research, workrooms and galleries for the museum and private collectors. The roof terrace, where the restaurant and sculpture garden are located, provides a panoramic view of Rotterdam. An additional advantage is that the events section of the Museum Park can still he used and will be covered by the new building.
State of affairs, May 2008
Rotterdam council is currently studying the feasibility of the model presented here, including the location next to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, above the parking garage presently under construction, and the possibilities for establishing a public-private partnership. The Collections Building will cost fifty million euros and can be finished in 2012. Over thirty per cent of the Collections Building will be available for private collectors.
