Featured in Maastricht Belicht

On 17 March, our director Wim Hupperetz made a guest appearance on the RTV Maastricht television programme Maastricht Belicht (Spotlight on Maastricht). Stephan van Appeven asked him about the changes at Centre Céramique and the arrival of the Maastricht Museum.

‘Centre Céramique’s long-term plan has been adopted by the city council, plotting a new course. The redesign will continue, which means there will be some changes inside the building itself. The bustle of coffee-drinking and meetups will be moved to the ground floor. This will create room on the first floor for a museum space: Maastricht Museum. A place for the stories and collections of Maastricht; after all, this hadn’t really existed up to now.’

Bottom-up organisation

‘After Museum Night Maastricht, we have been letting people know we’re here, and one section has already been set up. This was followed by a trial run with free admission so that we could come in contact with the people who want to contribute stories about Maastricht. We are trying to organise it from the bottom up, which is also a new concept. Museums often originated thanks to an elite class that had collections and wanted to display them in a building. We live in different times now where the city and a variety of groups are all giving meaning to this place where we live, work, study or visit. We want to do justice to the different stories, and will be actively collecting these. After all, there isn’t just one story; there are many different ones. And there are also many stories that are still hidden, so we are trying to uncover these.’