Museum de Proefkolonie

Experience Museum De Proefkolonie through interactive installations

Challenge

It is 1818. Johannes van den Bosch is a Dutch general with an ambitious plan. To combat poverty, he creates the Colonies of Weldadigheid: a re-education plan for vagrants, orphans and paupers. Museum De Proefkolonie in Drenthe tells the extraordinary story of these 100,000 'paupers' who inhabited the trial colony.

How do we ensure that we can enhance Museum De Proefkolonie's exhibition and provide a total experience through interactive elements?

Solution

For this exhibition, IJsfontein designed an interactive journey through time for the whole family. The visitor's journey through Museum De Proefkolonie is structured as a total experience: a pre-show, a main show and a post-show. In the pre-show, you get a picture of the poverty and stench of the town. Then you are led to the main show: a spectacular 180-degree film in which you follow five families on their way to the pilot colony in Frederiksoord. And you end at the post-show: where visitors experience first-hand what was expected of the inhabitants of the pilot colony.

If people are given good accommodation with clean things, they will start to behave well

Impact

After taking the interactive journey through Museum De Proefkolonie, visitors know exactly how it felt to reside and work in the colony. In essence, what it felt like to live in the colony.