Museum Rotterdam is looking for young scaffolders for its new city museum
Museum Rotterdam is preparing to move to a new location: Het Steiger. That is why it is looking for ‘Steiger Builders’: curious children aged 7 to 12 from all neighbourhoods in Rotterdam who want to help shape the future of the museum. Not as visitors, but as genuine advisers. Their ideas will help shape what the new city museum will look like and what there will be to experience there.
Over the coming years, Museum Rotterdam will be relocating to Het Steiger, a distinctive Rotterdam post-war reconstruction monument designed by Kraaijvanger Architects. This characteristic ensemble of buildings will become a contemporary city museum where history, community and the stories of Rotterdam’s residents come together. The new museum will soon house Museum Rotterdam ‘40–’45 NOW, a historical timeline of the city, interactive installations for families, educational programmes, a heritage collection, temporary exhibitions and a wide range of activities.
Museum Rotterdam is calling on all primary school children in Rotterdam to sign up as ‘Scaffold Builders’. They can do so in a creative way – for example, by writing a letter, drawing a picture, composing a poem or making a short film. Further information is available via this link. To sign up, visit: steigerbouwers@museumrotterdam.nl
Scaffold builders will meet a few times a year for creative workshops. Together, they will examine museum exhibits, come up with activities and contribute ideas for exhibitions, the museum shop, the café and everything else that makes a museum appealing to young visitors. In this way, children not only get a glimpse behind the scenes, but also have a real say in the new museum. Museum Rotterdam aims to involve Rotterdam’s youngest residents and their families in the development of the new city museum right from the start.
Under construction
Over the coming months, Museum Rotterdam will be taking major steps towards the opening of the new city museum at Het Steiger. In November 2026, the museum will bid farewell to its current location on Coolhaven. But that does not mean Museum Rotterdam is disappearing. From mid-December, Het Steiger will already be buzzing with the first pop-up activities, allowing the people of Rotterdam to get to know their new city museum step by step. Meanwhile, work is in full swing on the interior fit-out of the historic building. The first phase of the new museum is expected to open at the end of 2027. At that point, Museum Rotterdam’s ‘40–’45 NU exhibition will have a permanent home in the entrance building, and visitors will be able to experience for the first time how the new city museum is taking shape. The ideas of the ‘Steigerbouwers’ are already being incorporated into this development, so that from day one, the museum will also have been built by the children of Rotterdam.
