Stedelijk Museum Breda is a museum for the heritage and history of the North Brabant city of Breda and for current visual culture. The collection comprises more than 60,000 objects, ranging from paintings, goldsmithing and clothing from bygone times to contemporary visual art.
Breda is known as the Nassau city. Due to its strategic location in an important area with Holland on the one hand and Brabant and Flanders on the other, Breda was a power base for various noble families from Flanders from the early twelfth century. After 1339, Breda came into the hands of Jan I van Polanen and his son Jan II. In 1403, Engelbert I van Nassau-Siegen married the granddaughter of Jan II, with which Breda and many lordships and knightly manors in Holland and Brabant, Hainaut, Utrecht and Zeeland came into the possession of the Nassau family.
By means of a beautifully designed permanent exhibition, Stedelijk Museum Breda introduces the visitor to the different generations of Nassaus of Breda. Their importance for the appearance of the city, life at Breda Castle, development of religious life and the arts and of course the Eighty Years' War are discussed.
The desire to also create a handy museum guide for this exhibition already existed before the start of the exhibition in 2023. In April 2024, I was asked to take on the project management for the production of this museum guide.
The wish of director Dingeman Kuilman and curator Monique Rakhorst was a handy booklet for a maximum sales price of € 10, - so that visitors at home can read the stories of the Nassaus and the city again. In addition, both a Dutch and an English version were desired.
The exhibition's room texts and images served as a basis, supplemented with illustrations from the accompanying educational programme Family trail and tourist information about the remaining traces of the Nassaus in Breda.
The Dutch version should be available in the museum shop on July 1, the English guide at the latest two weeks later.
The project started on May 15. For the production of both guides including design, editing and translation, only 11-13 weeks were available. Thanks to the very pleasant cooperation with the following partners, we have completely succeeded in this plan:
YURR Studio graphic design
NPN Drukkers printing
Sonix Communications translation
Editing of both the Dutch and English versions and the printing checks were carried out by Dingeman Kuilman and Monique Rakhorst (Stedelijk Museum Breda) and Valuable th’Ing.
My role as project manager consisted of quotations, communicating between all parties, monitoring the schedule and budget and checking the proofs.
Thanks to the great involvement and the quick response speed of all parties, it was possible to produce a very attractive museum guide within three months. The sales price is even lower than the original starting point: not €10.- but €7.50, a result to be proud of!
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