Living Traditions
This year’s theme for the VriendenLoterij Museum Prize is Living Traditions: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Museums. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a collective term for all the festivals, rituals, crafts, customs, and traditions cherished in the Netherlands and passed down from generation to generation.
From the VriendenLoterij Jury Report
"The museum managed to impress the jury on all fronts. It presents heritage with and through the communities involved. This includes intangible cultural heritage, crafts, and oral history. The museum provides fresh impulses and plays a guiding but non-directive role. They support the communities without imposing their vision. The museum also demonstrates an awareness that this is not a given and actively seeks the best ways to collaborate with heritage communities. Furthermore, their methods of knowledge transfer are well-grounded in theory."
Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Open Air Museum
The Open Air Museum has long been a gathering place for intangible cultural heritage. Living heritage is seamlessly woven into daily life, past, present, and future—and everyone practises it. Visitors can discover various forms of intangible heritage throughout the museum, contributing to greater visibility and helping a broad audience engage with this rich legacy.
Since 2017, the Open Air Museum has also been home to the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (KIEN), the national expertise centre for living heritage, which coordinates the UNESCO Convention for intangible cultural heritage.
Saskia van Oostveen, Director of KIEN:
"We are incredibly proud of the many votes we received. Thanks to this prize, we can give intangible heritage a bigger stage. Together with heritage communities from across the country, we are working to ensure the Open Air Museum evolves into a place where intangible heritage thrives and comes alive. This prize enables us to turn the Open Air Museum into a central meeting place for heritage practitioners and introduce new groups to these traditions."
An Annual festIEval
The Open Air Museum aims to keep heritage alive for everyone with an annual festIEval, a national event for intangible cultural heritage. It will be a platform for communities to present their heritage through co-creation and a chance for the public to participate in demonstrations and workshops.
Van Oostveen: "We warmly invite all heritage communities and practitioners to showcase their traditions during the festIEval. This invitation of course also extends to the other two winners of the VriendenLoterij Museum Prize: the Ameland Museums and the Silver Museum!"
The VriendenLoterij Museum Prize is an initiative of the Museum Association, the Cultural Fund, and the VriendenLoterij.