European inventory of
societal values of culture

Peters - Re-thinking the museum from the bottom-up

Peters, J. (2023). Re-thinking the museum from the bottom-up. The case of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen’s project ‘Zuid. Boijmans’. INVENT Case Study.

To obtain a more diverse audience, museums usually try to persuade so-called ‘non-visitors’ to come to their building. This is a case study of a museum that does the opposite by moving towards these non-visitors. Zuid is a project of the Dutch Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. How does Zuid carry out its move to Rotterdam South, an area whose residents seldom visit museums? This question is explored through interviews with Zuid’s management and observations of three of its artistic projects. Zuid relies predominantly on the ‘cultural democracy model’,  a bottom-up approach to inclusion based on residents’ needs and preferences. It does so in a profound way by rethinking what a museum is in the first place for visitors who have little experience with canonised art. By continuously asking this question, the Zuid  project stays tuned into the wants and needs of an audience that is constantly shifting because of globalisation, growing inequalities, and migration.