"Visitors go from observer to participant of the factory processes"
Fokelien Renckens, director Zaans Museum
Comments
"Mmmmm, the Verkade Pavilion is just as delicious and addictive as Verkade itself!"
Helen
"The Verkade Pavilion was great, especially the explanation about making chocolate bars for us chocolate freaks! Will definitely return if only for the chocolate.”
Michael & Marlina
"It was very nice to visit the exhibition. So many memories came to the surface. I will definitely go again."
Ineke Hansmann-Rijks
"Yesterday I was with my father (former Verkade employee) and daughter at the Verkade Pavilion. What a feast of recognition—we enjoyed it."
Paul de Vries
"Last week I visited the Pavilion with children (21, 19, 13, 11 years old). It was a nice set-up, lovely that so many old packagings were still intact. However, one downside was that you didn’t get to taste anything."
Anita
Verkade Pavilion
Museum experience - 2009
Industrial heritage Verkade
For more than 100 years Verkade produced biscuits, chocolates and many other products, but it is not the story of a business, but of people—of the family who headed the company for four generations, of the people who played important roles in its growth and of the ‘Meisjes’, the hundreds of women who worked at the conveyor belts during the company’s history.
Visitors experience all of this—the huge working machines, the films and photographs of the time showing the workers in action, the product artwork and packaging and the beautiful picture cards of the ‘Verkade Albums.’ Furthermore, there are interactive games where visitors can experience what it was like to be a ‘Meisje van Verkade’ or to find out where chocolate came from and how it was made.
The Verkade Pavilion is part of the Zaans Museum and since its opening by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 2009 the annual number of visitors have more than tripled. It is an exhibition popular with young and old alike.
Credits: IJsfontein: Interactive installations; Cor van Hillo: Architect;
Berry Slok: Graphic design; Joost Beij: Light design; Rapenburg: Media control