ROTTERDAM.- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam will remain fully open until 13 January 2019. After this point there will be a phased closure before the initiation of a complete renovation from May 27 2019.

The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen building is need of urgent renovation. The current plan is to update all museum facilities in order to meet today’s expectations. In order for this to happen both museum wings will close and the collection will be rehoused. Upon completion, the newly renovated museum will sit next to the forthcoming Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen and the other city museums in Rotterdam’s Museumpark.

Museum Director Sjarel Ex: “These changes have been a long time coming: our collection of art and design needs this. Whilst the building is closed, the collection will remain visible, taking on a new life and a different role in Rotterdam’s schools, local museums, national museums and abroad.”

The Van der Steur building - the best known, and most iconic wing of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was built between 1929 and 1935 by Rotterdam’s then city architect Adrianus van der Steur. Until 13 January 2019 this wing will exhibit a selection of the museum’s permanent collection in a display entitled ‘The Collection as Time Machine’. Deinstallation of the permanent collection within the Van der Steur building will begin mid January 2019.

The Bodon wing was constructed between 1963 and 1972 by architect Alexander Bodon; it is an exhibition wing with a second entrance on the corner with Rotterdam’s Westersingel street. The Bodon wing will remain open until 26 May 2019 with three exhibitions: a Bauhaus exhibition, a solo exhibition of works of the Rotterdam artist Co Westerik, and within the Robbrecht and Daem hall a display of top works and new acquisitions from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s permanent collection.

Boijmans In Transit

Whilst the museum building is undergoing renovation the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen collection will infiltrate the city of Rotterdam and top national and international museums. Eight city locations will partner with the museum under the title ‘Boijmans Next Door’. 11 Dutch exhibitions will show top Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen works, as will a series of exhibitions travelling abroad. From the start of the 2019 school year, Rotterdam’s school children will encounter works from the collection in their classroom as part of the ‘Boijmans in the Class’ programme and the museum is currently working hard to realise ‘South’, a temporary location and testing ground for younger audiences. From mid 2019 the 145,000 books in the museum library will relocate to their own publicly accessible room within the Rotterdam city archive. Meanwhile, the construction of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen - the first publicly accessible art depot in the world - will continue and the new building will open end 2020/begin 2021.