ARTIS-Groote Museum | OPENING

ARTIS opens one of the oldest museum buildings in Amsterdam on Artisplein on Thursday 12 May.

After being closed to the public for 75 years, the monumental heritage has been sustainably restored, renovated and a completely new concept has been created: Het Groote Museum.

After furnishing the award-winning ARTIS-Micropia, we were also asked to work on the second museum at ARTIS. With care for the monumental building, Bruns developed, produced and realized a completely new interior according to a design by Kossmanndejong. During the restoration, the old museum spaces have remained miraculously intact. Even the original paint is still present on the 19th-century display cabinets. In combination with the new furniture, fully integrated with AV hardware by Ata Tech, a visit to the new museum is a special experience.

The exhibition
In Het Groote Museum, besides the differences and similarities, visitors will above all discover the connection between everything that lives: man, animal, plant and microbe. "After a visit, you will look at everything that lives in ARTIS with a different perspective: with more wonder and a greater sense of connection. This is how we inspire visitors to make a difference in the challenges of today and tomorrow" says Rembrandt Sutorius, ARTIS director.

You go on a personal expedition, with your body as the starting point. You look into a mirror and discover similarities with the world around you and even start to see cross-references. For example, roots of a tree do the same as your intestines. You will also see that when you were a baby, you moved in the same way as a crocodile. By discovering these similarities, you start to look at yourself and the world around you differently. You will discover that you appear to be connected to everything that lives, right down to your smallest fibres.

The new museum consists of fourteen zones. Each zone runs into the other and depicts a part of your body. By means of installations, interactions, stories, films, collection items and photos, each zone comes to life. The museum combines several specialisms and is interdisciplinary. Artists and scientists have also contributed their expertise to the story of Het Groote Museum. This helps visitors to see the bigger picture. After all, a biologist has a different perspective than a philosopher or artist.

In the ARTIS-Groote Museum there is always something new, always something surprising.

ARTIS-Groote Museum will be open to the public from Thursday 12 May. The whole week until Sunday 15 May, the opening will be festively celebrated!
Discover the new museum: https://www.grootemuseum.nl/nl/ontdek

Photo: Maarten van der Wal