About Museum JAN

Museum JAN is a museum of visual arts in Amstelveen with a special focus on glass art. The museum's own collection consists of unique glass objects assembled by founder Jan van der Togt. He collected international top art, based on what fascinated him aesthetically. In addition to this characterful collection, Museum JAN offers a broad and appealing exhibition program.

As of January 2020, Museum Jan van der Togt continues under the name Museum JAN. JAN obviously refers to the museum’s founder Jan van der Togt. But JAN also refers to someone else: Jan Verschoor. He was Van der Togt’s consultant and is the museum’s co-founder and former director. In addition, he is an artist whose works are part of the museum’s permanent collection.

The museum was built around Verschoor’s house on the Dorpsplein (Village Square) in Amstelveen and he still lives there! From the museum, visitors can walk into Verschoor’s living room and admire his art collection.

So, with a fresh and appealing name, we are looking toward the future while we will never ignore our unique origins. Museum JAN exists thanks to Jan and Jan.

Mission & vision

“Museum JAN makes visual art and design accessible to a broad audience in a contemporary way. It is an inspiring meeting place where regional, national and international stories about art, culture and local history play a central role. Museum JAN is also an enterprising museum and aims to place its activities right in the middle of the community and contribute to the creative potential and socio-economic development of Amstelveen and its surroundings.”

In order to fulfil the above mission, the museum has identified the following tasks as its core tasks:

• The conservation and management of the permanent collection, consisting of modern and contemporary art and glass art, and making this collection accessible to as many people as possible.

• Enriching and inspiring a broad audience through exhibitions of visual art, glass art and design.

• The generation of additional sources of income, partly through the professionalization of fund-raising activities and events and the development of new business models.

The museum aims to broaden and deepen its collection of sculptural glass art. The museum focuses primarily on the “tangible heritage of humanity and its environment” and thus meets the definition of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). As of 1 January 2012, the museum has been recognised as an institution of cultural public interest (ANBI) by the Dutch tax authorities.

Jan van der Togt (1905-1995)
The museum owes its original name to Jan van der Togt, industrialist and art collector. Van der Togt was the founder and director of the successful Tomado factory: Van der Togt Massaproducten Dordrecht, which produced all kinds of household appliances. The famous Tomado rack – featuring coloured metal shelves – was part of many a Dutch household and is now part of many museum design collections. Architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) referred to Tomado products as ‘excellent examples of Dutch design’.

The birth of a collector
Jan van der Togt always had an eye for design and art. He for instance commissioned the famous Dutch architect Huig Maaskant (known for the Euromast and Groothandelsgebouw in Rotterdam) to design his industrial buildings in the functionalist style of the Dutch New Objectivity movement. The revolutionary office building – The Tomado House – in Dordrecht (1962) became a household name. Maaskant also introduced Van der Togt to the famous sculptor Ossip Zadkine in his Paris studio. Van der Togt commissioned Zadkine to design a large relief for his factory in the Dutch town of Etten-Leur. The museum’s collection contains a bronze sculpture group of this famous sculptor.

The emergence of a collection
After selling his Tomado factories in 1971, Jan van der Togt started to focus his attention intensively on contemporary art. He visited museums, galleries and art fairs. He collected not only sculptures but also paintings and contemporary glass art. Jan Verschoor, one of the sculptors whose work he collected, became his advisor. Together, they brought together an impressive museum collection. Gradually the idea arose to make the collection accessible to the public and to put it in a museum. The museum foundation was established in 1990. Thanks to the joint efforts of Jan van der Togt and Jan Verschoor the Museum Jan van der Togt opened its doors in the Amstelveen Dorpsstraat in 1991. Jan Verschoor became its director and – even after the death of Jan van der Togt in 1995 – remained the entrepreneurial figurehead of the museum. In addition to managing and showing the unique glass collection, the museum has from the outset organized exhibitions with a broad range of disciplines, ranging from painting to sculpture and glass art. Photography and fashion were featured regularly as well.

Building
Museum JAN is housed in a building designed by Hoogeveen architects. The museum is located at Dorpsstraat 50 in the heart of the old village of Amstelveen, near the town hall. Although from the outside it looks intimate and modest in size, it has an exhibition area of some 1,100 m2. The entrance of the museum is located on the old town square.
The building at Dorpsstraat 40-42 is a municipal monument. The building was fully renovated and added to Museum JAN in 2010-2011, thanks to a grant from the province of North Holland.

Next to the museum is the former public primary school; a characteristic school building that serves as an educational space for the museum and workshop of Jan Verschoor.

Oude Dorp
Amstelveen has developed from a small hamlet for peat workers in the thirteenth century to a town with almost 90,000 inhabitants. The so-called Oude Dorp (old village centre) of Amstelveen has always been the centre of activities and is flourishing like never before! Museum JAN forms the centre of a wide variety of original shops and nice hospitality businesses, ranging from pubs and traditional pizzerias to a wonderful seafood restaurant and a Michelin-star restaurant.
www.oudedorpamstelveen.nl