Van Gogh, The other story, A culturally diverse Van Gogh Museum

Abstract

The aim of this graduation project is to research the current way youngsters, with a diverse migration background (age 18-30 and living in Amsterdam) experience the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (VGM) and to design an intervention that provides them with a relevant and enriching Van Gogh experience to thereby increase its inclusiveness. Over the last years, the VGM noticed they were not reaching a diverse group of youngsters even though our society is becoming more diverse so, to welcome everyone and be ready for the audience of the future, they felt the need to change their attitude. To create a concept that is successful and supported, the youngsters have been involved in every step of the user centred, loosely applied, Design Thinking framework. Literature shows that to change the museum into a place where inclusion is enhanced Sandell (1995) three cultural dimensions of inclusion are defined; representation (of a person’s cultural heritage), participation (opportunities in cultural production) and access (opportunities to enjoy cultural services). To gain insights on what the users need to find these three dimensions in culture, 6 interviews and 2 museum visits were carried out. It was concluded that in experiencing culture, youngsters find it important to be able to do their own meaning making, feel a personal connection and have a fun and exiting experience. Instead of the VGM feeling distant, not relevant and at times boring, which is currently the case. From these insights a new museum mindset is formulated, to help the VGM to communicate more in the ‘language’ of the youngsters. This means that their communication should focus more on identification, with Van Gogh, then adoration, communicate more evocative that informative, provide more guidance than autonomy and present themselves more boldly than conventional. In the ideation phase it emerged that the personal letters Vincent van Gogh wrote during his life to his friends and family could be a great source of inspiration for youngsters nowadays. This led to the development of the ‘Van Gogh, the other story’ concept, where youngsters with a migration background get acquainted Vincent van Gogh's personal life story in a meaningful way, find connections between his life and their own and create an artwork in cooperation with a professional artist. Based on his original letters, five modern letters have been written, and made into a booklet, with themes that are of interest to young people today. When implemented continuously, multiple exhibitions can be made with the newly made artworks and be presented in neighbourhoods like the Bijlmer or Nieuw-West, making them easy to access for everyone. This way the youngsters can tell their own story through art, something that Van Gogh did too. After testing the concept it became clear that the participants felt more connected with Vincent van Gogh, the letters provided personal insights for them and the creation of an artwork felt like an exciting adventure, showing the potential impact of the ‘Van Gogh, The other story’ concept on the tree cultural dimensions, representation, participation and access.