Nomination for Dutch Museum Prize Award 2022

The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is one of the three finalists for VriendenLoterij Museum Prize 2022

The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is one of the three finalists for the FriendsLottery Museum Prize 2022 with the theme 'Best Neighbour'. This gives the museum a chance to win a cash prize of €100,000. With the profit, a dream can become reality: The Maritime Museum as the home port of the neighbourhood. The public can vote up to and including 27 November 2022 via museumprijs.nl/scheepvaartmuseum. The other two nominees are Stadsmuseum Harderwijk and the Centraal Museum Utrecht, who we congratulate ofcourse as well! The 2022 winner will be announced on December 1.

General director Michael Huijser has enthusiastically anchored his forever love for The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam: 

Theme 'Best Neighbour'

This year, the theme of the VriendenLoterij Museum Prize 2022 is 'Best Neighbour': a title with which The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, as the home port for a diverse audience and various social organizations, has many similarities.

The museum plays a connecting role in neighborhood networks such as Expeditie Oosterdok and the Plantage network, it promotes sustainable initiatives for the neighborhood and has been working with schools in the area for many years in programming and public activities. This social involvement is also recognized by the jury, who agree that The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is a real meeting place for everyone. On World Clean Up Day, museum staff cleared up waste in the neighborhood and on Neighbors Day the doors opened for free to neighbors. It is the place where you can drink a cup of coffee or read a good book in the public library that is opened by volunteers. More and more people feel at home in Het Scheepvaartmuseum, where maritime stories connect young and old, just like water connects worlds. Education and play go hand in hand: for the little ones, the 'Diver Doris' exhibition is a local play paradise.

Home port

With the money from the VriendenLoterij Museumprijs, the museum wants to further expand its role as a home port through the multi-year program line Thuishaven. In this way, the museum is continuously working on the feeling that The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is a place of and for everyone. The gatherings and activities programmed under this dream all have one thing in common: they bring people together. You can think of neighborhood meals for young and old, studying together in the library with Stichting Studiezalen or going out on the water with our partner the Watersportverbond. This social mission is especially important for those people for whom cultural activities are less obvious or accessible.

General director Michael Huijser:

“We are delighted that The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam is one of the top three nominees for the VriendenLoterij Museumprijs 2022. And especially on this topic Best Neighbour! Because we feel it is our duty as a national museum to be involved in our neighborhood and to give something back. That is why we see this award as recognition and it encourages us to continue with this!”

VriendenLoterij Museum Prize

Every year, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the VriendenLoterij, in collaboration with the Museum Association, award the VriendenLoterij Museum Prize. The museum that excels in that year's category will receive an amount of 100,000 euros. Previous winners of the Museum Prize are Hoensbroek Castle (2021), Naturalis (2020) and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (2019).

About The National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum manages one of the largest and most prominent maritime collections in the world and includes paintings, ship models, navigation instruments and nautical charts. Under the motto 'Water connects worlds', Het Scheepvaartmuseum guarantees 500 years of Dutch maritime history and connects it with society of today and the future, through permanent and temporary exhibitions and a rich range of public programs.

For more information or a high-resolution image: pr@hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl.