Research & Education

The museum houses a research institute called the Sculpture Institute. This institution aims to promote research into modern and contemporary sculpture. To this end, it manages a library with 14,000 titles and an image archive of the collections of Museum Beelden aan Zee. The library is accessible to the public during the museum’s opening hours.

Sculpture Institute

At Museum Beelden aan Zee, scholarly research is conducted in connection with the museum’s collection and exhibitions. The results of this research are published in the Monographs of the Sculpture Institute, in articles (Sculpture Studies), and in the museum’s digital collection database. This research into modern and contemporary sculpture is published under the name Sculptuur Instituut.

A key research tool is the institute’s library, which holds around 14,000 titles. In addition to books, it includes documentation related to the museum’s collection. The library is accessible to the public during museum opening hours. The reading room is also used to host university study groups.

Education

Museum Beelden aan Zee maintains a long-standing and close collaboration with Leiden University. In the museum library, Dick van Broekhuizen—Head of Collections and Research at the museum and lecturer at Leiden University—gives weekly lectures to both bachelor’s and master’s students. These students come from disciplines such as museum studies, archaeology, art history, and arts, media & society. 

Together with Leiden University, the museum seeks to keep the study and knowledge of sculpture alive, while also offering students practical insights into the museum world. This commitment to education also extends to other areas of academic collaboration, such as internship supervision and thesis mentoring.

Publications

The Sculptuur Instituut publishes monographs on Dutch sculptors. This series includes catalogue raisonnés of artists such as Cor Hund, Piet Esser, Gerrit Bolhuis, Jan Meefout, Oswald Wenckebach, Leo de Vries, Maja van Hall, Jan Spiering, Joh. G. Wertheim, Paul Grégoire, Johan Polet, and Pieter Starreveld. The monograph Per Abramsen, while not a catalogue raisonné, is a notable publication in the series. A monograph on Theresia van der Pant is currently in preparation.

Smaller-scale research on sculpture is published under the title Sculpture Studies. While the printed series is now concluded, it remains available for consultation in the library. New material on Edgar Degas and Theresia van der Pant is currently being prepared.

At present, the digital collection database is most easily accessible via collectienederland.nl.