Designing the campaigns for National Heritage Day in Noord-Holland

Inspiring people to visit cultural heritage sites and buildings

Campaign: Toekomst van Toen

The Netherlands is home to many historical buildings and sites. A church, a farm, a bridge, a canalside house, a pumping station, square or dike. Historical buildings and sites are beautiful and give us an idea of how we used to live.

The National Heritage Day (Open Monumentendag) takes place each year during the second weekend in September. Owners of historical buildings and sites open their doors and the public is invited to come in and have a look around for free. The annual event attracts some 1 million visitors.

Each year for National Heritage Day, the province of Noord-Holland activates the Toekomst van Toen (‘Future of the Past’) campaign. Funding from the Province of Noord-Holland enables various historical buildings and sites to be restored, renovated or given a new function and the province is eager to show how the money has been used each year.

Activation

Toekomst van Toen is an activation campaign for the province that engages visitors through a programme of events in the most unusual restored historical buildings of that year. All activities are designed to draw a connection between the past and the present.

It is a campaign for a wide audience at a unique location where you can truly experience something during a day, because an engaged public ensures sufficient support and thus preservation of historical buildings and sites in the Netherlands.

The Beautiful Minds design team helps event agency Buro Zorro with the design aspect of the campaign. The campaign is updated each year as five new historical buildings or sites are designated every year.