A small lighted candle

This fall, there are two remarkable exhibitions in the Netherlands that I’d like to recommend. Both feature excellent audio tours: Maritime Masterpieces in Het Maritiem Museum Rotterdam, and Icons in Het Fries Museum. And both are happy to share their experiences with you.

What makes the exhibition in the Maritime Museum stand out is that it brings together maritime history and art history. The exhibition was co-curated by Boijmans van Beuningen as part of their project Boijmans Next Door – exhibiting part of the collection at neighbouring museums during their renovation. A brilliant solution and quite a challenging one at the same time: whereas the Maritime Museum collects works for their maritime value, Boijmans collects them for art-historical value.

Integrating both seamlessly into one coherent exhibition - and thus, in one audio tour - was crucial to the success of this project. “The audience will love this combination of masterpieces,” says Bert Boer, museum director. And it works: the tour on the one hand tells visitors about the details of the Coca, a medieval ship, and on the other hand it explains why Jan Porcellis for instance was much more famous in his days than Jan van Goyen. An art lover’s thirst for beauty is certainly quenched with the masterpieces on display, varying from Mesdag to Monet.

A remarkable aspect of the tour is that a great variety of (art-) historical information is presented in a very accessible way. For the voice-overs of the tour they chose two curators who could convey their enthusiasm and expertise in a natural way. Educator Hanneke Kempen specifically asked them to adapt the written texts and use their own words. That way, it feels like the guide is actually telling you the story on the spot, making you look closer and discover details about historical maritime scenes and artistic characteristics. It really connects the visitor to the object. The result is a natural, easy-to-listen-to audio tour that is appealing to both art lovers and anybody who enjoys such beautiful nautical scenes.

Equally appealing to the art enthusiast is the exhibition Icons: Masterpieces from the National Portrait Gallery in Het Fries Museum. Their aim of the story was to be as inclusive as possible and connect with a wide audience. With more than 100 portraits from the National Portrait Gallery in London, the museum did not intend to highlight the common “icon” of the white male hero, but rather to reveal the story of the often forgotten, and sometimes controversial, apostles and rebels. The audio tour unites tales ranging from the striking and androgyne self-portrait by Gluck (the British artist Hannah Gluckstein) to the remarkable painting of Chévallier d’Éon, an early example of a man openly living as a woman in eighteenth-century France. The purpose of the audio tour was to “reduce the distance between visitor and object, and in doing so, to broaden the horizon of the spectator,” explains Grytsje Klijnstra of the museum.

To add strength to the story, they selected the voice of the Dutch writer and tv-personality Splinter Chabot. Splinter can relate to the struggles that the portrayed people must have dealt with and is able to deliver the message with more relevance, and from the heart.

As Splinter says in the introduction to the audio tour: the overall purpose of the tour and portraits on display is to bring to life these unique stories. “The Portrait was a small lighted candle by which the Biographies could for the first time be read and some human interpretation be made of them,” is a famous quote by Thomas Carlyle. It is through the unique combination of viewing and simultaneously and effortlessly taking in the accompanying information that a portrait really comes to life.

“This audio tour adds so much value to the experience of our visitors - it really makes one look further and deeper. Splinter telling the story is an integral part of the exhibition concept,” says Grytsje Klynstra.

Bring your stories to life. Let the audio tour serve as a small lighted candle to your audience. Creating your own audio guide is easy. Your journey starts by asking yourself these two simple questions: what story do we want to tell, and how do we want to tell it? Then you’re on your way, and I’ll be there to guide it!