Tropenmuseum

The Tropenmuseum (Dutch, German for " Tropenmuseum ") is an ethnological museum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is one of the largest museums in Amsterdam.

History

1864 Koloniaal Museum ( " colonial museum ") was founded in Haarlem in 1871 and made ​​available to the public. It was built to ( now Indonesia ), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) to inform the Dutch population about life in the former Dutch colonies of the Dutch East Indies and Netherlands Antilles. 1910 merged the Koloniaal Institute and the Koninklijk Instituut voor Koloniaal museum de Tropics ( KIT, "Royal Tropical Institute " ), which operates the museum today. The Institute was initially used to conduct research to increase the profits from the colonies, for example, to improve coffee production. Another precursor of the Tropenmuseum was the Ethnographic Museum Artis in Amsterdam.

In 1926 the present building of the tropical museum was opened in the Linnaeusstraat after eleven years of construction. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945 had, the collection has been extended to objects of other areas of the tropics. In the 1960s and 1970s, attention focused increasingly on development issues such as poverty and hunger. Objective of KIT is to expand the awareness of other cultures and to promote communication with these cultures.

2009 176,000 visitors visited the Tropenmuseum.

Collection and Events

The museum shows in addition to a permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions, which include in addition to ethnographic and historical objects and traditional and contemporary visual art and photographs. Focus of the permanent exhibition are the extensive collections from the former Dutch colonies. The different rooms of the permanent exhibition are allocated to regions Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Tropenmuseum is a junior in the early 1970s specifically set up for children's department with numerous interactive exhibits.

The Tropenteater is also operated by KIT. There appear to theater groups and musicians from many countries.

Location and architecture

The museum is located in Amsterdam Oost district on the Linnaeusstraat. 1926 completed building was designed by John Jacob van Nieukerken and completed by his son Marie Adrianus van Nieukerken. It was the largest building in Amsterdam, and is particularly rich in architectural and figurative allusions to the former colonies. In 2003 it was declared a Rijksmonument.

The central part of the building is a large hall. The exhibition rooms are located on the ground floor and two lying around the hall galleries.