In a wooded park on the outskirts of the Dutch city of Arnhem lies a museum without a roof. Well...to be precise: there are several roofs, because here one can visit more than 80 historic farmhouses and mills, and spend a day discovering how ordinary Dutch people have lived over the last 250 years. It has farmhouses, windmills (duh!), a bleachery, depots and, last but not least, HollandRama, which is some kind of innovative combination of time capsule and panorama.
'Meet friendly farmers, the wheelwright, the blacksmith, the fisherman and the miller. As they work, they will paint you a colourful picture of their lives. You may even get the chance to roll up your sleeves yourself!' That's how the Netherlands Open Air Museum advertises itself. And its efforts to take its visitors on a trip back in time have certainly paid off, as this year's Dutch museum prize has been bestowed on the Pride of Arnhem. The museum won almost 30 percent of the more than 50,000 votes sent by text message and earned 100,000 Euros in prize money in the process. That's cultural democracy for you!
Each year a different category of museum is chosen for the competition. This year the prize was for the museum which is best able to make a period of Dutch history accessible to a wide audience. Four other museums were nominated for this prestigious prize: the Railway Museum in Utrecht, the National Museum for Psychiatry in Haarlem, The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum and the Tropical Museum in Amsterdam. The jury report mentions that the awarded Open Air Museum tells 'the story of national history and culture of daily life in an appealing, well cared for way, using examples and with an eye for the individual visitor'.
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