Dutch museums had a good year despite the economic crisis and the 'closed for renovation' notices hung outside a number of the most popular temples of culture in the Netherlands. The country's 55 most important museums saw visitor numbers rise again in 2009 to more than 11 million. Although there were fewer foreign tourists, more Dutch people paid a visit to a museum.

Although several important museums are closed, it appears that the other museums provide more than sufficient alternatives.

Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum once again comes out on top of the list of the 55 most popular museums in the Netherlands. The number of visitors is expected to top 1.45 million by the end of 31 December. Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, despite being hidden behind scaffolding and only showing a tiny fraction of its collection, reports about 870,000 visitors. Dutch Masters are still extremely popular with both tourists and Dutch museumgoers.

The recently opened Amsterdam Hermitage Museum, allied with the famous Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, drew 630,000 visitors. The tiny Anne Frank House booked 990,000 visitors. Thanks to Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Anne Frank and Tsar Peter, these four museums put Amsterdam at the top of the list of the most popular museums in the Netherlands.

Ongoing plague
Renovations and building work continued to plague museum visitors, especially those coming from far away. The building cranes and cement mixers have been outside the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk museum on Amsterdam's Museum Square for so long that they feel like semi-permanent fixtures. Both institutions are undergoing significant renovation work and in the case of the Stedelijk, a complete new wing is under construction, however, the building work has been plagued by problems and delays and the re-opening dates have been postponed time and time again. Elsewhere in the Dutch capital, the Maritime Museum is also closed for renovation.

Museums in Den Bosch and Groningen are scheduled for renovation in 2010 and The Hague's Mauritshuis, home to the Royal picture gallery, is also scheduled for building work as the museum expands with a substantial new wing. Museum-lovers sigh, "will it ever end?"

Favourites
The biggest draw of 2009, with 500,000 visitors, was the Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum. Although the museum is still a must-see for many tourists, the number of foreign visitors to the Netherlands fell by between three and five percent in 2009. While the number of visitors from neighbouring countries actually rose, the number of tourists from further afield dropped significantly. The global economic crisis is the likely culprit.

That the total number of visitors rose in 2009, is also due to the global economic downturn; a larger proportion of Dutch people spent their holiday in the Netherlands and a visit to a museum was part of the holiday. An expensive museum is still cheaper than an amusement park or a dinner for the family. Another factor is that museums aren't nearly as boring as they used to be.

Innovation
Dutch museums are constantly reinventing themselves and introducing innovations. Urk's Oude Raadhuis Museum (old council chamber museum) - the vast majority of Dutch people are unaware of its existence - is using mobile telephones equipped with cameras to supply visitors with information. It is one of the many museums in the Netherlands that uses modern, interactive communication devices to attract a younger audience.

Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum is also planning to use a similar technique when the museum, hopefully, reopens in 2011. The Rijksmuseum is also preparing new interactive exhibitions that illustrate the story of the Netherlands using art and historical objects.

Regional museums
Laren's Singer museum had a very successful year, the number of visitors rose from 117,000 in 2008 to more than 140,000 in 2009. The traditional exhibition of work by painter Anton Mauve was extremely popular and Haarlem's Teylers Museum profited as well as it was also exhibiting work by Mauve.

They were fairly traditional exhibitions and both museums were granted additional subsidies to stage them. These are just two examples of regional museums that managed to stage exhibitions that were both crowd pleasers and critically acclaimed.

Subsidies
Many foreign museums have had a difficult time recently. The economic crisis has forced them to dip into their reserves; donations and funding from sponsors have also fallen. However, the majority of Dutch museums receive most of their funding - about 73 percent - through subsidies.

Entry fees account for about 13 percent and the rest of the income comes from museum shops, sponsors and donations, the largest donor being the Bankgiro Lottery. Just a few of the larger museums rely on sponsors and corporations play a relatively minor role in the funding of Dutch museums.

Competition
Will the other 700 museums in the Netherlands notice that the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk and the Maritime Museum have re-opened their doors? Policymakers believe that it will have a positive effect as tourists do not come for just one museum, but to see a whole series of exhibitions. However, it remains to be seen if the small museums will be able to compete with the heavyweights. We'll know once the global economic crisis is over.