New perspectives and audiences for the university collections in Amsterdam

Abstract

Major investments and organizational restructuring have led to important changes for the collections and museums of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. These developments, which have resulted in a rather large centralized heritage organization within the university, are presented in this article. It will be argued that by pulling resources and by closer cooperation, smaller university museums and collections could reach better results more efficiently. Introduction In recent times, major investments by the university have led to important changes for the academic collections in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This article will briefly go into the history of these collections, their current situation and the planned developments for the next few years. The recent developments have led to a situation that is radically different from the crisis that most university museums are experiencing. This Dutch example may point to a possible way out of the catch-22 situation that many university collections and museums seem to find themselves in: I will argue at the end of this article that the strong tendency to focus on what sets university museums apart from other museums, and why the specifics of individual collections and museums makes close cooperation impossible, may not be very fruitful. It could be argued that by pulling resources and closer cooperation, better and more efficient results could be reached. I will use the history and context for university museums in Amsterdam and in the Netherlands as a case in point. A short history of the university collections in Amsterdam The origins of the collections in Amsterdam lie in the far past, in the late middle ages, when convents and monasteries built up libraries in the city of Amsterdam. In 1578, Amsterdam became protestant and all book collections from these catholic institutions were confiscated and centralized in the first public library of the city. This library became an important factor in the foundation of what was then called the Athenaeum Illustre, the Famous School in 1632, as Amsterdam did not get the right to officially found a university until 1877. When this was finally allowed, it was first a municipal university for almost a century. Since 1971 it is, as all Dutch universities, financed by national government. The University of Amsterdam is described as a general research university with about 30,000 students and 5,000 employees. At this point in time, the university has buildings all over the city, but a large scale relocation plan is underway. This will concentrate the university on four concentrated areas or campuses in the city: one for medicine, one for the natural sciences, one for the humanities and one for the gamma-disciplines, including law and psychology. The humanities faculty is the only one that will remain downtown Amsterdam. The buildings of UvA Erfgoed (University of Amsterdam Heritage Collections) are on the outside edge of this complex and they will be the most visible university facility in the city for the general public. The first university museum in Amsterdam that can be properly called a museum dates from 1928. It was housed in the attic of the very first building that was used for the Athenaeum Illustre in 1632: the so-called Agnieten chapel that itself dates back to 1470. As a university museum it was closed in 2003 and the collections merged with the Special Collections of the university library. Since 2003, no new presentation on the institutional history of the university has been developed. University history does