King opens first major exhibition on slavery in Dutch history at the Rijksmuseum
Publication date: 18 May 2021 - 14:10
King Willem-Alexander opened the Slavery exhibition in the Rijksmuseum on Tuesday afternoon, 18 May. Due to Covid restrictions, the exhibition can initially be viewed online only. The first visitors in the museum itself will be secondary school pupils studying the subject as part of their regular curriculum. The exhibition will be open to the public, until 29 August 2021.
The King was shown around the exhibition by Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits, the museum’s Head of History Valika Smeulders, and the 14-year-old singer Yosina Roemajauw, who is the narrator of the family audio tour of the exhibition and co-author of the magazine Slavery… and now?, created for school pupils aged 10 to 13. During the tour, they explained various stories in the exhibition in conjunction with the curators involved. At the end of the tour, the King visited the Look at Me Now project, where he talked to students who are working on ten new works of art about slavery under the direction of artists David Bade and Tirzo Marta from Instituto Buena Bista in Curacao.
The opening of the Slavery exhibition by King Willem-Alexander was shown on NPO1 by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
For more information, pictures and the online exhibition, see the press kit.
