The Nederlands Stripmuseum (; "Netherlands Comic Strip Museum") was a museum dedicated to Dutch language comic strips, with emphasis on native comic creations, and located in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Overview Over a decade in the making, the museum was opened on 21 April 2004, by city mayor Jacques Wallage, with expected visitor numbers in the 40.000 to 100.000 range annually. At the opening, attended by many alumni from the Dutch comic scene, then museum chairman Bert Brink declared that it was justified that the museum was housed in Groningen, as the Dutch comic culture had its origins in the city. Around 1850 the comic Monsieur Cryptogame from Rodolphe Töpffer was translated into Dutch as Mijnheer Prikkebeen by city native, poet and novelist J.J.A. Goeverneur."Comics History: Early Dutch Comics", Lambiek.nl The translation was also published in Groningen. The museum had 19,790 visitors in 2015.
The premises in which the museum is housed is not owned by the museum or the city, but rented from real-estate managing company :nl:Libéma. The collection though, is the legal responsibility of a private foundation, the "Stichting het Nederlands Stripmuseum"."De ANBI status van Het Nederlands Stripmuseum", official site
Conceived as Holland's answer to Brussels' prestigious Belgisch Centrum voor het Beeldverhaal, the Stripmuseum has never come close to the visitor numbers as projected, or to the numbers its Belgian counterpart did achieve (less than 50,000 and dwindling v.s. a steady 200,000 annually). As a result, the Stripmuseum already ran into trouble in 2014, threatened with bankruptcy and closure, date of closure fixed on May 1, 2014. The museum's demise was temporarily averted for three years with eleventh-hour emergency funding from local authorities and sympathetic sponsors, but has been notified by its landlord Libéma to vacate the premises in 2017. Pursuant its averted bankruptcy, the museum had already planned moving to the smaller Groninger Forum premises as early as 2014, which is as of 2017, expected to open its doors in 2019, even if that means having to share the available space with other institutions. Libéma actually already wanted to expel the museum in 2014 in anticipation of the bankruptcy, but was persuaded to rescind by the donors who had saved the museum to await the then projected opening of the Groninger Forum in 2017. A spokesperson of Libéma has indicated that the museum will not get a stay of eviction this time in anticipation of the opening of the Groninger Forum, which has already been delayed by two years.
Visitors Year Visitors Year Visitors 2004 N/A Intermuseaal Extra Februari 2008, Museumhuis Groningen, 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2016. 2010 43,000 2005 45,037 2011 41,000 2006 45,000 2012 40,318 2007 37,000 2013 34,000 2008 39,000 Bezoekcijfers musea aangesloten bij Museumhuis Groningen, Museumhuis Groningen. Retrieved 14 May 2016. 2014 22,000 2009 41,000 2015 19,790
References
External links Het Nederlands Stripmuseum, official website