PRESS RELEASE 12 October 2016
Restoration and Expansion of Museum De Lakenhal Ready to Begin
The restoration and expansion project for Museum De Lakenhal is ready to begin. During a Tuesday evening session, Leiden’s municipal council agreed to provide the remainder of the funds necessary to make this project a reality. Construction group Nieuw Laecken, a collaboration of IBB Kondor and Koninklijke Woudenberg Ameide, was selected as construction partner during the tendering process. A celebratory programme has been scheduled for Sunday 16 October, which is also the last day Museum De Lakenhal will be open to the public. Admission will be free all day from 6.30 AM to 5.00 PM, while the museum will host VARA’s Vroege Vogels, lectures, Art Talks and live music. Starting on Monday 17 October, the museum will remain closed until a grand reopening in the spring of 2019.
Robert Strijk, City Council Member for Culture: The restoration and expansion of Museum De Lakenhal can now begin in the very near future. It will give Leiden the museum it deserves, with enough room for an extensive permanent collection and exquisite exhibition halls that reveal the city’s history. I am very happy that the city council decided to make additional funds available for this project. The museum will make an important contribution to Leiden’s identity as a city of culture and museums.”
Meta Knol, director of Museum De Lakenhal: “These plans have been in the making for a very long time, and the moment has finally arrived. Together with architect collaboration Julian Harrap Architects (restoration) and HappelCornelisseVerhoeve (expansion), Museum De Lakenhal will prove that a classical museum with a very long and distinguished history can be perfectly combined with a contemporary and daring style. The renewed museum will again place our fantastic collection of Leiden’s art, artistry and history on a pedestal. The public will discover a restored entry hall featuring all the facilities of a 21rst century, public-oriented museum. We look forward to sharing the result of this beautiful project with everyone in 2019.”
Festive goodbye
On Sunday 16 October, the Museum will celebrate its final open day with a festive programme. The museum will open its doors at 6.30 AM to provide free admission and breakfast to its guests. Starting at 7.00 AM, the radio show Vroege Vogels will broadcast live from Museum De Lakenhal to announce the winner of this year’s Jan Wolkers Award for the best book on nature. More activities will follow throughout the day: Art Talks by curators and museum guides, commentary on the restoration and expansion programme, as well as a spectacular musical performance by saxophone quartet ArtVark. At the end of the afternoon, the museum will be officially closed by director Meta Knol, city council member Robert Strijk and city poet Wouter Ydema. The complete programme can be found at lakenhal.nl.
Schedule
The full restoration and expansion programme is expected to take two and a half years to complete. In the meantime, masterpieces from the collection will be exhibited in other museums, including in the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and soon in the Mauritshuis and the Frans Hals Museum as well, among others. After the Lakenhal is emptied, the contractors will begin their work in January 2017. Museum De Lakenhal will reopen its doors to the public again on 20 June 2019. For the national Year of Rembrandt in 2019, the museum will host the exhibition ‘The Young Rembrandt’ in autumn of that year, in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.