Choose and UseChoose and Use

Over the years, the Nieuwe Instituut has developed various ways of making the collection accessible and visible. As well as physical exhibitions in its own museum galleries, digital access and a generous loan policy, the institute focuses on networking and partnerships. Based on the idea of “collecting centrally, but making the collection accessible decentrally”, an additional scheme has been developed with Choose and Use that allows various regional and local initiatives to make use of material – restored or digital – from the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning.

This scheme was developed during the directorship of Guus Beumer, and is part of the Disclosing Architecture programme, which is made possible by a one-off generous financial injection from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and aims at digitization and restoration. As a result, new forms of visibility can be developed.

To further increase the visibility of the archives that are made available, and to make the best use of public resources, each institution that is part of the Choose and Use network can itself nominate one or more new partners who are interested in taking over (parts of) an archive exhibition. In principle, the archive material is offered free of charge. Any additional wishes with regard to its exhibition are negotiable, but are, in principle, the responsibility of the collaborating partner.

Choose and Use’s first pilot project is taking place from 12 June to 15 August: an exhibition of material from the Luzia Hartsuyker-Curjel archive, which accompanies Bureau Europa’s exhibition and lecture series Love in a Mist, about the historical position of women and the space they can carve for themselves. Based on original drawings, the Choose and Use archive exhibition presents the alternative, often radical, ideas and solutions for living of Luzia and Enrico Hartsuyker, from the post-war reconstruction period to well into the 1990s.

The large-scale restoration and digitization programme Disclosing Architecture (2019-2024) ensures that large parts of the collection, which were previously too fragile to be loaned, can now be shown. Choose and Use therefore also draws from archives that have now been preserved and sometimes restored as part of Disclosing Architecture. Nieuwe Instituut deliberately opts for a multitude of possible interpretations of the collection. Choose and Use was set up in part to further broaden the range of perspectives from which the National Collection can be approached on the basis of partnerships.

If you are interested in a possible partnership, please contact curator and project leader [Eline de Graaf] (mailto:e.degraaf@hetnieuweinstituut.nl)