ROTTERDAM.- For years the museum has been working hard with and on its collection, which contains around 145,000 objects ranging from old art, prints and drawings, applied art and design to modern and contemporary art. When staging this spring’s exhibitions the museum will be drawing almost entirely on its own collection. The director and the curators have been mining the depots and extracting five hundred or so works for five exhibitions.

In the first five months of 2015 five hundred works of art from the depot will be on display in five different exhibitions, some small, some larger, in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. As director Sjarel Ex explained, ‘The museum is proud of its rich collection and this year has an extra opportunity to show it off to the public. We hope visitors will increasingly relate to the collection; a labyrinth of beauty and knowledge that links centuries and people.’ In 2017/2018 the museum hopes to house the present 70,000 or so depot items in a facility open to the public, where the old and new art treasures belonging to the people of Rotterdam will be on view every day.

La La La Human Steps (7 February - 17 May 2015)
100 objects from the collection show what links people: la condition humaine . The major spring exhibition mixes modern and contemporary collection items. The museum asked four choreographers to take inspiration from the works of art. Four duets will be danced once in the centre of the exhibition space, when they can be seen live. After that they will be available permanently on film.

The Balcony Rooms - Hammershøi Meets the Collection (17 January - 17 May 2015)
The recently purchased painting ‘The Balcony Room at Spurveskjul’ by Vilhelm Hammershøi is the first painting by one of Denmark’s best-known artists to enter a Dutch public collection. In an associative presentation the acquisition will be shown together with work by such artists as Robert Gober, Gerrit Kiljan, Oscar Tuason and Pieter Jansz. Saenredam.

‘Please Write!’ Paul Thek and Franz Deckwitz: An Artists’ Friendship (31 January - 31 May 2015)
An intimate exhibition and ‘a glimpse into a life’ based on the connection that Paul Thek (New York, 1933 - 1988) had with The Netherlands. Put together around a number of objects, work on paper, paintings, wax and bronze sculptures, installations and twenty letters that Thek wrote to his friend and colleague Franz Deckwitz.

Setting the Scene (7 February 2015 - early 2016)
What are the differences between design and fine art? And how far apart are they? The exhibition places post-war design and fine art side by side in an unconventional way. The exhibition features work by such artists as Stephen Prina, Ryan Gander, Walter van Beirendonck and Robert Wilson.

Vedute (7 February - 31 May 2015)
Commissioned by Vedute over the past decades, more than two hundred artists visualized the concept of space in the form of a ‘manuscript’ measuring 44 x 32 x 7 cm. Fifteen unusual manuscripts can be seen, including a number made very recently by art college students.

Collection Building (if politically approved: from 2017 next to the museum)
A depot which, with the exception of the spaces for security and possibly private storage facilities, will be fully accessible to the public. There will be three ways to visit: access by way of the roof terrace, by wandering unaccompanied through the building or overall access assisted by a guide. The Collection Building is a public-private venture by the museum, the city of Rotterdam and Stichting de Verre Bergen. As well as providing a facility for the maintenance and management of the museum’s collection, the Collection Building will also create space that will be available for private individuals to rent. The public will have the chance to see more of private collections. The private collectors themselves will have the opportunity to manage and conserve their collections better. A building providing these facilities is a world first. The design is by the Rotterdam architects MVRDV.