Last week it was all over the news; VVD, CDA, D66 and the ChristenUnie want all children in the Netherlands to visit the Rijksmuseum at least once whilst in school. In their government formation talks the parties talked about making it mandatory for schools to arrange these trips to the museum. The compulsory visits are […]
Author: Public History Student
Harnessing the power of history
‘How can the past be of practical value in the present?’ It’s a question we historians hear very often. Well, I could argue ‘of very practical value’, but it’s easier to show that significance by introducing you to the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. Ruth J. Abram, the president and founder of the […]
Gazing at the Rijksmuseum
I think I had to read Decoding the Visitor’s Gaze at least four times before starting to get a sense of what the chapter by Gordon Fyfe and Max Ross is actually about. And even now, I’m not sure whether I understand what their findings truly entail. But I’ll give it a go anyways. In […]
The value of living art
After reading Multicultural Art and self-representation: An Interview with Artist James Luna written by Klare Scarborough, I became very curious about this artist and his work. James Luna is an American Indian contemporary artist, who developed several exhibitions in museums and cultural centers over the last four decades. His work became famous all over […]
Lesbian, bisexual and gay objects in museums
Although I am a bisexual and an historian, I have never written the words ‘bisexual’ and ‘museum’ in the same sentence. Museums, many of them being temples of heteronormative patriarchy, never seemed to me like places where bisexuality is very relevant or even existing. The reason that I ended up mentioning them in the same […]
Museum-, LGBTQ-, and toilet-matters
The question of what does it mean for a museum to be a welcoming space for everyone is pretty wide and can be answered in many ways. In the past years, however, institutions are being challenged to rethink one of the most basic uses of public space – public restrooms. Everybody recognises these two anonymous […]
Famous gay men rediscovered?
Last week a painting by Rubens was rediscovered. The subject of this portrait was one of ‘the “most famous gay men in history”’, as the Independent titled their article about the subject. Having just read Joshua’s Adairs ‘House museums or walk-in closets? The (non) representation of gay men in the museums they called home’ I […]
Women in the Dutch canon
Today, it’s been 100 years since Dutch women gained the right to vote. A simple constitutional amendment, since the only word that had to be replaced was ‘men’. Yet, gaining this right was way less self-evident. For this reason, Eddy Habben Jansen, director of ProDemos, the foundation that exhibits the important document, asked himself why […]
Anti-labeling-campaign gone bad
‘Oh my god, are they really kissing?!’ my roommate was pointing at her phone whilst excitingly dangling the image in front of my eyes. I recognized two famous Dutch vloggers, Monica Geuze and Anna Nooshin, who were intimately posing on the cover of the magazine LINDA.meiden (a magazine for teenage girls). Only a few minutes […]
Just a golf ball?
To research the history of immigrants Erica Rand studies sexuality on Ellis Island, the gateway for many immigrants into the US. Rand studies sexuality, because the values about sex in our society influenced the history of immigration and immigrants. I think this is a very interesting approach, but in this blog I want to discuss […]