Queering up the Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam. The museum was founded in The Hague in 1800 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808. The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885. On 13 April 2013, after a ten-year renovation which cost € 375 million, the main building was reopened by Queen Beatrix. The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer! What a mouthful! And what a day it was at the Rijksmuseum! 

Today we joined along to queer up the Rijksmuseum, one of the most respected museums considering its history and the artists it houses. We are told that this is one spot you simply cannot miss when coming to visit Amsterdam. So why a queer tour of the Rijksmuseum you might ask? Well, considering the history of oppression gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and many other queer people faced in Amsterdam but also in the rest of Europe, there are at times very little visible in museums such as the Rijksmuseum about queer people. Henk, our tour guide who did this tour especially for us, explained various elements of the Rijksmuseum such as the architecture and the politics thereof, and what it means to the Dutch society back then and today.  As we moved between different artworks, Henk would tell interesting stories about queer symbolism in some of them, tales behind particular artists, speculations and many more! This was very interesting to hear and refreshing as often times we might not get a full story when we simply look at something. One thing we learned today, is that no matter what, queer people are part of history and shaped history. This matters for many of us as it gives us an insight into the battles that needed to be faced before us and how queer people negotiated those battles in creative and often devastating ways. Queering up the Rijksmuseum (although Henk did forget to bring his gay flag with him to lead the tour) was something powerful. It was almost as if the old saying: "We are here, We are Queer, and you better get used to us!" came to life again! 

After painting the rainbow all over the museum, we made our way to the Albert Cuyp market - also a must visit spot in Amsterdam. Here we got to end off the day by walking past all types of food stalls, selling anything from cheese, kibbeling (fried fish), poffertjes, fresh stroopwafels, and many more items. This rounded up everything nicely with the sun being out and reflecting on the informative class we also had earlier today with Katie, our teacher. Let's see what else we might be queering up during our time here! Stay tuned!