Museum Voorlinden has reached its tenth anniversary on its estate in Wassenaar. Director Suzanne Swarts, who has led the venue since shortly after its launch, recalls the opening day after years of design work, permit applications, and debates over parking.
The museum has staged 65 exhibitions since then, each accompanied by substantial structural adjustments. Walls are regularly shifted, removed, or repainted, and holes are drilled into floors to secure large works before being repaired when an exhibition ends.
Expanding loans and site adjustments
For its anniversary exhibition, the institution secured loans from international collections, including the Danish museum ARoS, which lent the large sculpture Boy by Australian artist Ron Mueck. Installing the piece required internal alterations so it could fit inside the gallery.
Swarts has been involved with the art collection of industrialist Joop van Caldenborgh for more than twenty years. Van Caldenborgh, the owner of Rotterdam chemical company Caldic, bought the Voorlinden estate when his private sculpture garden in Wassenaar proved too small for his expanding holdings.
Swarts stepped into the director role after Wim Pijbes stepped down after two months to return to the museum board, where he remained for a decade.
Repeat visits and travel links
As a private museum, Voorlinden does not release its total visitor numbers and does not accept the national Museumkaart. Swarts notes that more than a third of the people who visit return each year.
Reaching the museum without a car remains a challenge. Travellers using public transport currently take a train to Den Haag Centraal, connect to a local bus, and finish the journey with a walk of at least fifteen minutes across the grounds.
Swarts says the museum hopes for better public transit links to ease pressure on the estate parking lot, which has been the subject of years of local procedures and debates.
