March 1st 2010, the Dutch literary museum in The Hague will re-open its doors after an extensive renovation. The museum is devoted to promoting Dutch literary written within the lands territories from 1750 to today. Apart from an impressive literary archive, the museum holds unique manuscripts often donated by the family of deceased authors.
So what is so special about the re-opening of this museum? After all, many museums renovate and re-open their doors. The difference is the journey leading to the opening of the museum. On the 1st of February, Aad Meinderts (MD) started a 30 day journey leading him past the graves of the 100 most notable Dutch authors to pay his respects and leave a white rose. His trip takes him through the Netherlands and Belgium and more international when he searches for the graves of authors such as Jacob Israël de Haan (Jeruzalem, Israel), Vincent van Gogh (Auvers-sur-Oise, France), Erasmus (Bazel, Switserland) and Anne Frank (Bergen Belsen, Germany).
Auvers, Vincent van Gogh
His trip is being documented and can be followed live via twitter and this website. Aad actively asks people to participate and join him for events, shares little insights and reads from forgotten passages. His travels and experiences will be part of the opening exhibition in the museum. This initiative is a good example of using new media to your advantage. His journey truly gives new and exciting information, bits of the trip are shared on the website. However, the consumer is triggered to see the end result. There is a sense of interaction even though the common denominator is literary (perhaps not the most interactive).
The museum of literary shows through this initiative that they are not only going along in time with their location, but also taking the brand to the next level and offer information keeping in mind the receiver. A very interesting initiative that suits them well, but is something different than a big launch party.
The journey from day to day
(Unfortunatly the websites are in Dutch, we recommend Google translate for some basic translations however feel free to contact us for more information and native Dutch translations)
