Culture wins the lottery

The BankGiro lottery will give €62.5 million to cultural institutions the Netherlands next year. This is especially felicitous for the Dick Bruna house, as it is the 60th birthday of the celebrated fictional character Miffy, or Nijntje in Dutch. The Centraal Museum in Utrecht will receive €700,000 next year from the lottery, in order to turn the 'Dick Bruna House' into an interactive museum. Half of the total BankGiro lottery earnings goes toward culture. Yearly, millions of euros are given to cultural institutions, and during the Goed Geld Gala (Good Money Gala), it is always revealed who is receiving most support. Besides the Centraal Museum, institutions such as the Rijksmuseum, the Hendrick de Keyer association, the Van Gogh Museum, the Fries (Frisian) Museum and the Dutch institute of Beeld en Geluid (Image and Sound) will receive money this year. The lottery supports a great deal of regional projects for the conservation of monumental heritage. One of the regional projects this year is Slot Zuylen in Oud-Zuilen. The castle museum will receive a donation to restore the recently inhabited coach house. Also Fort Pannerden in Lingewaard and Huis Doorn in Doorn will get financial support for the restoration and rebuild of the monuments. The Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, which has been supported yearly by the lottery since 2007, is planning to make the museum accessible to people with visual and auditory handicaps, people with long-term illnesses or people who stay in nursing homes.

Newcomers to look out for are Het Parademuseum, an initiative from the Dutch Photomuseum. Museum Speelklok — which houses musical instruments like music boxes, musical clocks, pianolas, barrel organs etc.— and the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. These three institutions want to present at the traveling theater festival De Parade in the next three years, because it is attended by theater lovers as well as museum lovers. Thanks to a contribution of  €336,904 for the next three years, it is likely that there will be some very special and surprising acts awaiting at De Parade.