That Miffy, the creation of graphic designer, Illustrator and children’s author Dick Bruna lives in Utrecht is well known. That the quirky Bunny recently has a new home may be less well-known. In the last six months, a lot of hard work has been put into the dick bruna House, that opened in February 2006 – located on the Agnietenstraat to re-build a new home for Miffy and her friends. On the 6th of February the new Miffy museum opens its doors to the public. This is the most fun children’s museum of Utrecht and the Netherlands. 

The past year was a special year for Miffy. She turned 60 years old and around her birthday, the Centraal Museum opened the well-visited exhibition ‘family party! Miffy 60 years’. The plans for the new museum and the anniversary ran simultaneously and resulted in a beautiful new home. Past 28 January relationships and involved parties got a sneak peek of the new Nijntje museum at the Agnietenstraat in the Utrecht Museum quarter. The opening was accompanied by an adorable Miffy animation on the facade of the new museum, by Mo Assem alias Mr. Beam created by means of video mapping. The animation brings color and life until the end of March in the somewhat dark and quiet Agnietenstraat where the Miffy museum has its entrance across of the new entrance of the Centraal Museum.

The Miffy museum is dedicated to the quirky little rabbit and with it the place for toddlers and preschoolers to join Miffy and playfully explore the world. The merry world of Miffy starts immediately after you enter the museum. From there she takes both young and old visitors on a journey to discovery the world; ramblings, searching, smelling and dancing. All the different areas have a theme, apparent for toddlers and preschoolers. Such as the House of Miffy, to the doctor and the Zoo. At Miffy at home you can bake cake in the kitchen, cut the grass in the backyard and tuck Miffy into bed. Even the facility rooms are themed to make the experience complete: in toilets you can imagine yourself on the beach, you picnic in the forest and in the stairwell you fly through the clouds with Miffy. The original workshop and work of Dick Bruna has a new setup in the Centraal Museum.

In his attic studio in the city center of Utrecht Dick Bruna spend years on his drawings and designs. This workshop space now has a permanent place in the Central Museum. In Atelier Dick Bruna visitors can experience the place and his table where he written texts and written on the typewriter, and where he talked to publishers, Japanese fans, students and the press. But also find inspiration in the form of books and magazines about artists and designers. The workshop also shows that Bruna’s did more then only work on Miffy drawings. His versatility as a graphic designer is shown, among other things in a themed exhibition on the designs such as for black bears or designs for organisations like Amnesty International and the Red Cross. Visiting Atelier Dick Bruna is more than worth the effort and can be easily combined with a visit to the beautiful new Miffy museum.

nijntje museum | Agnietenstraat 2 – Utrecht | T 030-2362339 | E info@nijntjemuseum.nl

Contribution by – Maurice Hengeveld – writer-editor-journalist.

Images from www.nijntjemuseum.nl

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