Over half a million people have visited the forum so far
Director Dirk Nijdam announced the figures at the New Year’s meeting of the Groningen City Club, which was held at the new Forum.
According to Nijdam, the Forum has had an exceptionally good start in recent weeks, and although there were some initial teething problems, few things went really wrong.
According to Nijdam, it was always the hope that the Forum would develop into the “living room (huiskamer) of Groningen”, and that now indeed is the case.
“Some people take the concept of” living room ” rather literally. They wander through all of the corridors, and sometimes even the offices of our employees. If you then say: “You are now in our office”, they will reply: “Yes, but we are just dropping in and having a look”, said a smiling Nijdam.
Other visitors again interpreted the concept of “living room” in a different way. They even bring objects with them from home, and put them in the Forum, such as porcelain chickens or binoculars.
Others had stuck bananas to the wall, following the example of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan at the Art Basel Miami art exhibition.
“In any case, we have had a busy few weeks, and our hospitality outlets have been really successful. Now it looks like the number of visitors is stabilising. Yesterday there were only seven thousand visitors in one day, and again today. We think that may well remain an average level in the coming period, and we can manage that well, ” said Dirk Nijdam.
Images via the Forum Groningen
