The innovative Van Gogh Village Museum in Nuenen has reopened. The story of the famous painter during the period he lived in Nuenen has a new look. The former Vincentre has been expanded with an exhibition space and a new wing.
The museum was closed for six months because of the renovation. Next Thursday the first visitors can come and take a look. “It has taken a long time, but we are happy that we can open again. The museum has grown 2.5 times in size and because of this we have also been able to expand the collection”, Frank van den Eijnden, director of the Van Gogh Brabant Foundation, explains.
“It’s great to be open again and explain to everyone the Nuenen period of Vincent van Gogh. You actually get to know him as a person and why he made all those paintings”, Simone van der Heiden, director of the Van Gogh Village Museum, explains.
Potato eaters
The renovation is immediately apparent when you enter. It looks like you’re stepping into the old town hall, but according to Van den Eijnden, it’s really the Van Gogh Village Museum. “The museum can be divided into a number of sections. For example, you first enter his studio in Nuenen where he painted his first works. Then you move on to his masterpiece the ‘Aardappeleters (potato eaters)’. We have arranged it so that you can actually take a seat at the table at which the aardappeleters also sat”.
“Then I haven’t mentioned the light lab we created together with chip machine manufacturer ASML. In the lab, we show visitors how Vincent van Gogh dealt with colours in his work so you can apply this yourself”.
Brainport
Through international cooperation in a brand new museum, the Van Gogh Village Museum aims to attract not only people from Nuenen, but from the entire region. “ASML has contacts all over the world and can share the story of Van Gogh globally. This also contributes to familiarity”, Van den Eijnden said.
Van der Heiden: “Vincent van Gogh is an icon in the region and is known throughout the world. There is no place on earth where you can see so much of him. In that we are truly unique. The cooperation with ASML shows that we can strengthen each other here in the region in order to add something to this region that we can be proud of”.
Queen Máxima will festively open the museum in a month’s time.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
