The Theatre Museum's entire collection has been saved. The archives of such luminaries as Wim Kan and Louis Davids, as well as 50,000 theatre reviews, 30,000 theatre posters, 146,000 photographs of 22,000 performances, 26,000 portrait photographs of 2,450 theatre-makers and an extensive audio and video collection will be housed at the University of Amsterdam.The move is possible now that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), with the ever-money-hungry State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra, is no longer seizing the reserves of the Theater Instituut Nederland (TIN).
How it happened is unclear, but the few million euros the once glorious TIN had in the bank after the sale of its own building on the Herengracht, the museum, disbanded by Zijlstra's policy, is now allowed to give as dowry to the University of Amsterdam. This also keeps the collection accessible. Steph Scholten, director of heritage at the UvA, is pleased with the acquisition:
"When Freek de Jonge passes away, we immediately have access to a huge container of material, which can be used to keep his memory alive: recordings of performances, interviews, sound recordings, song lyrics, too much to list really."
The total dowry of the TIN is four million euros. a small part of that money will be spent on the cost of the move, but most of it will go into a fund, which will be used to manage the collection, make it accessible and organise exhibitions. The Theatre encyclopaedia, an interactive website with all the details of many generations of theatre-makers remains.
Of the 40 staff the TIN had, four part-timers can move with it to the UvA.
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