Nieuwe Instituut Receives Positive Recommendation for Basic Cultural Infrastructure (BIS) 2025-2028Nieuwe Instituut Receives Positive Recommendation for Basic Cultural Infrastructure (BIS) 2025-2028

• The Dutch Council for Culture has given the Nieuwe Instituut a positive recommendation for BIS funding as a ‘Supporting Institution’ for the period 2025-2028.

• The council is positive about the new phase that the Nieuwe Instituut has entered and believes that it is showing increasing visibility and involvement, internationally, nationally and locally.

• The funding will enable the Nieuwe Instituut to continue to promote the cultural, social and economic added value of the Dutch architecture, design and digital culture sectors over the next four years.

• In addition to these tasks, the Nieuwe Instituut also develops various other local, national and international initiatives in the field of architecture, design and digital culture, including within the framework of the Heritage Act.

Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture, is pleased to announce that it has received a positive recommendation from the Council for Culture for funding under the national cultural subsidy scheme (the Basic Cultural Infrastructure, or BIS) for the period 2025-2028.

BIS grants are awarded every four years by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to cultural institutions in various disciplines in the Netherlands. The BIS grant is an important part of the Nieuwe Instituut’s funding, in addition to funding from the Heritage Act, for example.

The recommendation of the Council for Culture is to grant the Nieuwe Instituut the full amount of € 1,937,300 requested for the period 2025-2028 as a Supporting Institution in the field of design. The recommendation underlines the important role that the Nieuwe Instituut plays in promoting the cultural, social and economic added value of the Dutch design sector at home and abroad.

According to the Council for Culture’s report: “In the activity plan for the funding period 2025-2028, the Nieuwe Instituut has clearly separated its BIS activities from the rest of its activities and placed them in the so-called Agency, a separate department within the institution (…) The council is positive about the new phase the institution has entered. Nieuwe Instituut is showing greater visibility and involvement, internationally, nationally and locally.”

Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director, Nieuwe Instituut: “We are delighted with the positive recommendation from the Council for Culture. Combined with our role as a heritage institution under the Heritage Act, the BIS grant will enable us to continue to explore what a cultural institution can be: an outward-looking, multivocal institution where we not only look to the past, but also help contemporary and future makers to tackle and test solutions to our pressing social and environmental challenges.”

The activities of a Supporting Institution include promoting the cultural, social and economic added value of the design sector as a whole, in cooperation with the sector itself and other relevant parties. This also includes identifying developments in the sector, putting them on the agenda, addressing them and circulating knowledge about them.

At the Nieuwe Instituut, this is done, for example, through the Redesigning the Designer series and the experimental pop-up store New Store, as well as other innovative projects in collaboration with various communities in Rotterdam and beyond. Nieuwe Instituut is also the initiator of a new partnership, Architecture Everywhere, which brings together leading Dutch architecture organisations to strengthen the role of architecture in the local and national debate on spatial planning.

Nieuwe Instituut also focuses on strengthening the Dutch architecture, design, digital culture and related sectors abroad, for example as the commissioner of the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale and as curator of the cultural programme of the Dutch Pavilion at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

In addition, the Nieuwe Instituut acts as a network and platform for design and digital culture collections, for example as coordinator of the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD), in which dozens of Dutch organisations work together to link existing design and digital archives and to lobby for the preservation of endangered archives.

As well as the activities based on BIS grants, the Nieuwe Instituut develops various other local, national and international initiatives in the field of architecture, design and digital culture, such as the organisation of exhibitions and events. Nieuwe Instituut also manages and provides access to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, one of the largest architectural collections in the world, and manages the 1933 Sonneveld House, the iconic functionalist house museum.

The positive recommendation of the Council for Culture can be read in full (Dutch only) here. On Budget Day, 17 September 2024, it will be announced whether the advice will be accepted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Contact: Robin van Essel, Press Officer | +31 (0)6 3803 9218 | r.vanessel@nieuweinstituut.nl

Located in the Museumpark in Rotterdam, the Nieuwe Instituut is the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture. Our three disciplines represent the spaces, objects and interactions that shape our world. Through exhibitions, events, research and other national and international initiatives, we show how design ideas make a positive contribution to pressing social challenges. We want not only to imagine a better future, but also to test and enact it. Nieuwe Instituut is a welcoming, vibrant and diverse place where designers, thinkers and the public meet. This multivocality is also the basis of the Zoöp, our organisational model which gives a voice to non-human life. Nieuwe Instituut also manages, preserves and provides access to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, one of the largest architectural collections in the world, and the museum house Sonneveld House, an icon of Dutch functionalist architecture built in 1933.