The TextielMuseum wants to surprise and delight as many people as possible with textiles. We have ambitious renovation plans, to ensure the museum continues to meet the needs of visitors and makers of today and tomorrow. Our aim is to create a place where everyone – young and old, professionals and visitors – can discover, make, learn and meet. We also want to be at the forefront of transforming Tilburg’s Museum Quarter into the creative heart of the city.
At the TextielMuseum, you step into the wonderful world of textiles. With the TextielLab as its beating heart. Here, artists and designers create the most innovative works of art, fashion collections or design objects. And you are right on top of it. This is Tilburg, textile city; then, now and in the future. Then: historic photo of factory hall with looms. Now: the TextielLab, the museum's professional textile workshop. And in the future: the LocHal in Tilburg where a huge curtain hangs (made in the TextielLab) that allows the large industrial space to be divided into several rooms. We keep heritage alive and pass it on to the new generation, with over 22,000 collection pieces, 7 exhibitions, master classes, workshops, and educational programmes for over 10,000 schoolchildren and students. Projects from the TextielLab can be seen all over the world (image of projects in: (1) Doha, (2) Manila, (3) Los Angeles, (4) Paris). In Tilburg, we are proud of our place in the city's top three hotspots (logos Football Club Willem 2, TextielMuseum and Poppodium Tilburg). One in five Tilburgers visit the TextielMuseum, which contributes to their living enjoyment. We are also in the top 3 hotspots for people outside the region, attracting almost 70,000 visitors from outside the city to Tilburg. We create a lot of free publicity (€2,600,000), and provide an economic boost. The current number of museum visitors spends €3 million a year in Tilburg. The museum provides direct and indirect employment. Nice figures. But our gaze is on the future. We want to create a new vibrant 'maker heart' for the city here. A dynamic place where everyone can discover, learn to make, experience and meet. In the TextielLab, we go for state-of-the-art machines, double the capacity for artists and designers to 600, and share our knowledge with makers and companies. The TextielMuseum actively contributes to raising awareness around sustainability, recycling and innovation. We tell stories and ask for your story. Because textiles belong to all times and cultures. We offer visitors a real experience and invite them to make their own. You enter as a visitor and leave as a maker. This is how we create a vibrant meeting place for makers, visitors, companies, pupils, students, enthusiastic families and local residents. We grow from 75,000 to 100,000 visitors, also digitally. But we are looking beyond our own walls. We hope to literally open up the museum grounds to the neighbourhood and create a nice place to stay, by restoring old connections. For instance, by opening up the closed facades with shop windows and vistas, and by creating squares for meetings. A museum site with more greenery that can be a stage for the city. In this way, we can make the heritage and history in the Museum Quarter even more visible. But also innovate together with businesses and education and strengthen the business climate in the Museum Quarter. 20,000 extra adult visitors to the TextielMuseum could already provide an additional economic impulse of €1 million. We work on a fine neighbourhood together with local residents. What do they like to see in their neighbourhood? In this way, after the success of the Spoorzone and Piushaven, together we create the next vibrant cultural district (PARK, De Pont Museum and TextielMuseum) and breathe new life into our identity as a textile city. A city to be proud of. We are ready for it. Are you? City of makers, let's make this happen together!
Video about the impact of the TextielMuseum, now and in the future. Animation: Extrafazant
Tilburg Textile City: then, now, and in the future
Tilburg has been shaped by its textile past. Today, textile still plays an important role in everyone's life. Textile is everywhere around you: you wear it, and it is part of our interior. For centuries, textile has been used to tell stories. Moreover, it provides innovative technical solutions across various domains, from the medical world to the automotive industry. From the unique concept of the TextielMuseum - a museum and workplace combined - we make the transition from Tilburg's textile history to the present and future of textile. Through renovation, we can realize our dreams and make Tilburg a city to experience textile: then, now, and in the future.
Artist Otobong Nkanga and product developer Stef Miero in the TextielLab, the workplace of the TextielMuseum, photo: Willeke Machiels
Museum for the future
We want to accommodate the growing number of visitors and makers, improve the visitor experience, add new family offerings, and enhance the exhibition spaces. We will improve the overall layout and routing within the museum so that the textile story can be told in a clear and engaging way. We aim for 100,000 visitors per year. The renovation and sustainability of the monumental former textile factory - the icon of Tilburg's textile industry - are also part of the plans.
Family game in the exhibition 'Kleurstof' (Colorant), photo: Merel van Dooren
Creative heart of the city
Furthermore, we look beyond our own walls. We want to open up the museum grounds more to the neighborhood and provide a place for like-minded individuals. Together with partners and the municipality, we are exploring the possibility of repurposing the adjacent Drögepand, currently in temporary use. The diversity of parties will make the museum grounds even more attractive and dynamic for makers, companies, visitors, and local residents. This creative heart of makers aligns perfectly with the city of Tilburg's policy as the #cityofmakers, in a way that fits the original function of the textile factory: a place where business, creativity, and craftsmanship come together.
"This neighborhood, which naturally breathes textiles from the past, deserves it."
– Mariette van Dooren, local resident
First explorations of the potential redevelopment of the TextielMuseum and its surroundings in Tilburg, sketch by Mecanoo architects, June 2022
Tilburg chooses Mecanoo architects
In the spring of 2022, a committee consisting of the municipality of Tilburg and the museum selected Mecanoo architects and engineering firm ABT for the design research for the redevelopment of the TextielMuseum and its surroundings (read more here). In the coming period, they will work together with stakeholders, partners, and local residents to further develop the plans. The decision on the actual redevelopment is expected before the summer of 2023.
We have already started!
In the meantime, we have already begun implementing some plans in terms of our programming. For makers, we have expanded our machine park and developed an online platform for knowledge sharing, made possible by the structural contribution of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Visitors can also get involved in the TextielLab: in the Design Studio, they can design their own socks and see them being produced by the machine. This new permanent activity is made possible by the BankGiro Lottery and Fonds21. With the new style of exhibition programming, we focus on current social themes in the world of textiles, such as alternatives for a more sustainable fashion industry with the exhibition 'Long Live Fashion!'. We also experiment with offerings for a younger audience: in the exhibition 'Kleurstof' (Colorant), we developed a special family game where (grand)parents and children can experience colors together through touch, smell, and taste.
More info
Want to stay informed about the Redevelopment of the TextielMuseum and Surroundings?
For more information, visit the website of the municipality of Tilburg: www.tilburg.nl/museumkwartier. For questions, ideas, or initiatives, you can email [email protected]. And subscribe here to the mailing list for local residents and other interested parties.
Want to know more about the future plans of the TextielMuseum?
You can get in touch with:
Yvette Govaart Project Manager Museum of the Future [email protected] +31 (0)6- 417 147 87
Or contact Jochem Otten, Director of the TextielMuseum, via [email protected] or +31 (0)13 5494 502
