Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum has launched a new revenue scheme, offering professional services to private collectors, corporations and institutions, in an effort to counter declining visitor numbers.
As museums seek new sources of revenue outside of ticket sales, Van Gogh Museum employees will provide advice, support and services to areas including collection conservation, preservation, installation of climate control systems, museums management and future development of educational programmes.
“We are quite dependent upon people visiting the museum, and 85 percent of those visitors come from other countries,” Said Adriaan Dönszelmann, managing director of the Van Gogh Museum, speaking to
The New York Times. “In this time of potential terrorism and natural disasters, this flow of tourism to Amsterdam is vulnerable.”
To combat this, the new services programme will aim to bring in much-needed revenue, generating a predicted 5 per cent of the museum’s annual €45m budget.
“We’ve made sure that it’s ok for our current staff to spend 5 to 10 per cent of their time on professional services, for people who want to be part of this adventure,” said Dönszelmann who added that if the programme is successful, the museum could hire additional specialists to serve clients.
