They think it could be a bit more diverse and inclusive in the Van Gogh Museum. To achieve that diversity, the museum uses ‘image breakers’, a group of young Amsterdammers from all kinds of backgrounds. For example, like Sara Aljic from Noord, she did not feel at home at first. “I was stared at because I looked different.”
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The fact that the image-breakers present themselves today does not mean that they have not done anything before. The first picture-breaker entered the museum in 2017. It is now a group of 18 people between 18 and 30 years old.
They attend meetings and talk with curators, in short: they interfere with the course of events. Not only do they want a more diverse museum behind the scenes, but the visitors are now mainly highly educated and white, and that must change.
Not feeling at home
Image-breaker Sara Aljic from Noord studies art history and paints herself. Yet, like many other Amsterdam youngsters, she does not feel at home in the Van Gogh. And that is a shame, says Sara.
“I think it is important that all young people get a chance to discover culture,” she says NH news. ‘I see that this is happening far too little now. If you get the chance to do this from an early age, the chance that you will do that as an adult is much higher. ‘
If it were up to Sara, the Van Gogh Museum will really do something with the advice of the image-breakers. At the beginning of October there will be a special Image Breaker exhibition with work from the permanent collection of the Van Gogh.
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