In conversation with: museum director Harry Tupan

Over the past period the Drents Museum and Museum Maluku have been in regular contact. As Museum Maluku we have received and shared a great deal of knowledge and advice with the Drents Museum. This close collaboration and the forthcoming exhibition 'Menyala' at the Drents Museum were reason to talk with museum director Harry Tupan.

You have been managing director of the Drents Museum since 2017. Can you tell us something about your professional background? Did you always have the ambition to become a museum director?

Art was instilled in me from an early age. At home we had works by contemporary artists on the walls and I often went with my parents to galleries. I did two degrees: museology (Leiden) and art history, architectural history and archaeology (Groningen). My dream was to become a curator in a museum. That worked out. Only much later did I become a museum director.

Over the past period the Drents Museum and Museum Maluku have been in regular contact. As Museum Maluku we have received and shared a great deal of knowledge and advice with the Drents Museum. Is sharing this knowledge more obvious because of your Moluccan background combined with the positions you currently hold?

No, my background is separate from the substantive decisions I take. It is important, wherever possible, to share knowledge and be helpful to colleagues. Of course I cannot deny that I find Museum Maluku a very interesting museum.

Museum Maluku is extremely grateful to the Drents Museum for sharing this knowledge and for the pleasant collaborations, both in the field of Moluccan art and culture and on museum matters concerning the treatment of museum objects. What, beyond the exchange of substantive knowledge, is the value of collaboration between museums for you?

A museum is in the service of people (visitors) whom we must serve with good stories told through objects. That is why it is important, wherever possible, to facilitate other museums as well. We employ a regional curator, for instance, who promotes cooperation between the Drents Museum and the other museums in the province of Drenthe. Our collection comprises almost 100,000 objects. I think it is important to show parts of it elsewhere too, in order to strengthen the cultural infrastructure of Drenthe.

On 16 April your exhibition 'Menyala: the extraordinary history of the Moluccans in Drenthe' opens. As the title says, Moluccans and the province of Drenthe share an extraordinary and rich history. Which narratives of Drenthe-Moluccan history do you hope to tell with the exhibition?

Menyala is being made in co-creation with seven young Moluccans whose roots lie in Drenthe. Through a hundred objects, videos, photographs and spoken word, the exhibition tells of the pain and the sorrow, but certainly also of ambitions and ideals. I am very much looking forward to this exhibition, which is accompanied by an extensive book.

In recent years Moluccan art, cultures and histories have more often been part of, or the subject of, museum programming. Often in combination with a revised view of Dutch colonial history as well as reflections on decolonisation from within the Moluccan communities. How do you think 'Menyala' adds to these themes, or casts a new light of its own on them?

Both. I certainly think Menyala will be of added value and will also cast a new light on this subject. A great deal of information was gathered from conversations with different generations of Moluccans.

Finally, without giving away too much about the exhibition, are there particular objects or stories that make it extra worthwhile for everyone to visit Assen?

Yes! But I am not going to give it away. I hope everyone will recognise themselves at the Drents Museum or recall memories through those remarkable objects. I am convinced they will move people.

The exhibition Menyala can be seen at the Drents Museum from 16 April 2023. Menyala – Malay for 'to shine' – tells why almost 3,000 Moluccans ended up in Drenthe, how they gave shape to their dreams and how their descendants look to the future. More information and tickets can be found here.