In februari 2021 vindt voor het eerst de jaarlijkse Queer Geschiedenismaand in Nederland plaats. Some of the program is available online. During this month, participating cultural institutions collaborate with each other to create a platform that focuses on the celebration and transmission of lhbtiq+ histories and stories. Look here for the full program.
Queer History Month is an initiative of IHLIA LGBTI Heritage.
The Rijksmuseum is one of the institutions participating in Queer History Month. This fits with the ambition to explore and tell new and different perspectives on its own collection in the coming years. The museum has developed a digital program that you can simply follow from home. So during this history month, you can view the collection online from a queer perspective:
1. Video “Free to love.
In five minutes, the Rijksmuseum takes you on a pink tour of the building, via the English-language video.
2. Snapguide tour ‘Being who you are’
In the new Snapguide “Being Who You Are Tour,” discover gender roles through the ages. Snapguide is a web-based tool in which a famous person takes you through the Rijksmuseum using challenges. In deze tour is het Nanoah Struik die je rondleidt. Nanoah is one of the first people in the Netherlands with an X in his passport.
Nanoah Struik (right) with young people from the COC Youth Council who helped develop the Snapguide
3. Queermap in the Rijksstudio at the Rijksmuseum
In June 2017, the Rijksmuseum attended the fascinating symposium “The Art of Queering” at the Reinwardt Academy. The central theme was the importance of visibility of queer aspects in heritage collections. In response to the issues raised, junior curator Niels van Maanen created the “Queering the Rijksmuseum” album in the Rijksstudio, the Rijksmuseum’s online image database. This album has since grown into a still-expanding list of more than 250 works.
Check out the album and read the stories here.
Jupiter, disguised as Diana, seduces the nymph Callisto, Jacob de Wit 1727