My Dutch Reckoning

It’s been ten days since I landed in Amsterdam. I cannot explain how incredible and inspiring the experience has been so far. I’m living in a cool place, I’m working with great people, I’ve seen fascinating things and the weather has been delightful.

Trust a Brit to talk about the weather in a foreign country.

I’m working for the Stedelijk Museum as part of their web team. I’ve been mostly learning the ropes of how their CMS and website and various comms software. I’ve been really happy but how much trust in my ability they have, despite being new. I’m loving the chance to be able to impress.

I’ll be (hopefully) blogging for them. I’ve got a few ideas down and something approaching an editorial. I’ll share some links when they’re up.

I suppose I’ll need to write some kind of disclaimer. This site, newcurator, my twitter or tumblr are by no means the views of the Stedelijk Museum. Anything I write for them will likely go through a vetting/editing process while newcurator will remain my notebook of half-thought ideas and slightly unhinged language.

That being said, I’ve decided to go a slightly different direction whilst I’m in Amsterdam. I’ve tried to cover news, dabbled in being a linkblog, had the most fun with writing longer articles and now I fancy trying travel writing.

I’ve often shied away from “reviewing” exhibitions because… well… I’ve never been comfortable shouting down other people’s work. If I can’t be honest in my opinion, then what’s the point of the criticism? Yet I can’t help feel empathetic towards museum staff who have worked their asses off to make something happen, regardless of my thoughts on quality.

This is why travel writing offers a different approach. I am a foreigner in a different land. This means my experiences can be in terms of Wonders on the New. So, whilst I’m in the Netherlands I plan to get a Museumkaart for about €45. This gives me free access to a bunch of museums. Every week, a new post on newcurator about a Dutch museum. Except the Stedelijk. I’ll write about them on their own website.

First up, I’m going out of town to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Tot zo.