Friends' campaign 2016

When transferring an amount of € 100 or more to IBAN: NL33 RABO 0360 777090 - BIC: RABONL2U we ask you to indicate which colour you choose. The easiest way is to refer to the captions of the objects depicted in the newsletter. And of course it is still possible to order the annual premium of 2013, Goedewaagen's Drenthe vase by Sander Alblas, that of 2014, the barrel organ miniature by Joan Seyferth and Antje Ramaker , or that of 2015, one of the yellow lustervases by Anneke Lutz.

Museum status

It cannot be emphasised enough that the museum foundation is legally and financially independent from the Royal Goedewaagen-Gouda BV earthenware factory. The museum does not receive any structural subsidy from any government; nor does the factory sponsor the museum. The exhibition rooms and the depot are rented from the factory.

The board, consisting of chairman Righard Atsma from Baarn, secretary-treasurer Friggo Visser from Vriescheloo and ordinary member Gerard van Doorn from Stadskanaal, receives no remuneration. The museum also does not pay salaries to its employees.

In 2010, when the then chairman of the board, Mr M. Hendrikse from Amersfoort, took up office, a professionalisation process was started that resulted, among other things, in the ANBI status, file 79683, being obtained. Due to the recognition as a charity, the museum received important ceramic donations and legacies in 2011.

Renovation of 2015

On the basis of the income from admissions, guided tours, workshops and donations, we were able to carry out a far-reaching renovation of the museum in 2015. All large display cases taken over from the Groninger Museum and the Drents Museum were given sustainable and environmentally friendly LED lighting last year.

The display cases dating from the 1960s, which were designed by Aldo van Eyck for the Groninger Museum, were given new, more convenient ceilings. The walls of the two central reception rooms were painted by the two housekeepers; the rooms concerned were also provided with atmospheric spot lighting.

In October 2015, a new gallery space for contemporary art and ceramics was moved into after further internal renovation. The museum can now present a quarterly exhibition project to its visitors. In exchange for the new hall, the factory outlet room was very nicely converted by the museum housekeepers as a showroom and discussion room for the Urn Centre Nederland, the newest subsidiary of the Goedewaagen Group.

Thanks to a financial start-up contribution from the Borger-Odoorn municipality, signposts to the museum were also placed last year.

Donations of 2015

As in previous years, the museum was conceived in 2015 on high-quality ceramic donations. As the only museum in the Netherlands, the Keramisch Museum Goedewaagen structurally devotes attention to the art ceramics made in Gouda from the mid 1920s onwards following the example of Japanese, French and Delft earthenware at Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland and at Goedewaagen-Distel. This collection has been replenished in a valuable way.

That faïence was made in Utrecht around 1900 in a prominent manner at Mijnlieff's factory of the 'Holland' can be illustrated by a splendid donation of more than 20 objects. The semi-permanent presentation of Art Nouveau and Art Deco in the museum also highlights the earliest development of Dutch art potters. A donation of more than 20 pieces of early pottery by Hein Andree from Apeldoorn, to which a one-off photobook dating from 1935 has been added, is therefore very welcome.

The important role that designer and potter Bert Nienhuis played for Dutch ceramics is confirmed by the seven-part tile tableau of De Distel from 1903. The museum had already presented the part tableau on loan since 1990, but all the parts have now been donated to the museum.

That Bert Nienhuis, after leaving De Distel in November 1911 in Hagen in the eastern Ruhr, became part of the community of artists sponsored by patron Karl Ernst Osthaus, is evident from the imposing staircase that was built for him in 1912 and that the museum also received as a gift.

Also worth mentioning is the donation of a sculpture that Annemieke Post made in the mid-1960s at the Experimental Department of the Porceleyne Fles.

Of equal importance to the largely behind-the-scenes museum work were the services rendered by external employees as donations to the museum. This was especially true for the maintenance of the acclaimed museum website and for the research into digital sources for numerous pottery projects.

New loans

In 2015, the museum received a large number of very important loans. The tile tableaux presented in the museum, mainly from the Art Nouveau period, were extended with special tableaux and tile plates from the Haagsche Plateelfabriek Rozenburg and with company tableaux from Plateelbakkerij 'Delft' in Hilversum. Monumental pieces that were given on loan by the Meentwijck Collection. Collector Bert-Jan Baas thought the museum up on vases decorated by Henri Breetvelt for De Kroon from Noordwijk and on intriguing earthenware from the 1930s by Royal Goedewaagen.

And it was very gratifying that, when on 7 December 2015 at the Leiden auction house Onder de Boompjes the Goedewaagen-Distel collection came under the hammer in more than 210 lots, museum friends managed to purchase no less than 110 lots for the museum. At the end of December and the beginning of January 2016, the presentation in the hall was thus enriched by a large number of monumental masterpieces. In the spring of 2016, to celebrate the acquisition of the new loans, an exhibition on the art pottery of the Goedewaagen-Distel Art Workshop is planned. The museum board is extremely grateful to these friends.

With your help, we hope to achieve the following in 2016:

• A shortened English and German language website of the museum.
• A purchase and restoration fund.
• New cash register and cash machine on recognition as an official museum.
• Publication of a yearbook to document ongoing museum research.

Your donation is welcome on Rabobank IBAN: NL33 RABO 0360 777090 - BIC: RABONL2U.