ROTTERDAM, 11 September 2026 – Museum Rotterdam is looking for children aged 7 to 12 to help shape its new city museum at Het Steiger. The young advisers are called Steigerbouwers, a Dutch play on words referring both to Het Steiger, the museum’s future home, and to steigerbouwers, literally “scaffolding builders”. In practice, they will act as young co-builders of the new museum. The young advisers will have a say in everything from exhibitions and treasure hunts to the museum shop, activities and, perhaps most importantly, which cakes should appear in the café.
Children become museum advisers
Museum Rotterdam wants children from every part of the city to join the development process as genuine advisers rather than simply future visitors. Their ideas will help determine what the new museum should look like and what families will eventually be able to see and do there.
Questions on the table include which objects deserve a place in the museum, what kind of treasure hunts should be created and which activities would make a visit more interesting. Even the café menu is fair game, so Rotterdam's next generation is being given a surprisingly broad brief.
Children selected as Steigerbouwers will meet several times a year for creative workshops. They will examine museum objects, come up with activities and contribute ideas about exhibitions, the museum shop, the café and other parts of the visitor experience.
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A new city museum at Het Steiger
Museum Rotterdam is preparing to move to Het Steiger, the Rotterdam post-war reconstruction landmark designed by Kraaijvanger Architects. The building complex will become a new city museum bringing together Rotterdam's history, meeting spaces and stories from across the city.
Plans include a permanent place for Museum Rotterdam '40-'45 NU, a historical timeline of Rotterdam, interactive installations aimed at families, educational programmes, a heritage cabinet and changing exhibitions. Activities are also planned in and around Het Steiger.
The Steigerbouwers programme is intended to make children part of that development from an early stage, rather than asking them what they think once the museum is already finished.
How children can take part
Museum Rotterdam is inviting primary-school children aged 7 to 12 from all Rotterdam neighbourhoods to apply. Applications can be creative: children can send a letter, drawing, poem or video explaining why they would make a good Steigerbouwer and why their ideas should be included in the new museum.
Applications can be sent to
The museum has not specified a fixed application deadline in the press release, so parents and children interested in taking part should check the Steigerbouwers page for the latest information.
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Museum Rotterdam prepares its move
The Steigerbouwers project comes during a wider transition for Museum Rotterdam. The museum is due to leave its current Coolhaven location in November 2026, but activities will continue while work on the new city museum progresses.
The first pop-up activities at Het Steiger are expected from mid-December 2026, giving Rotterdam residents an early introduction to the future museum. The first phase of the new museum is expected to open at the end of 2027, when Museum Rotterdam '40-'45 NU is scheduled to receive a permanent home in the entrance building.
Ideas developed by the young advisers will already be incorporated during that process. If Museum Rotterdam gets its way, part of the new city museum will quite literally have been shaped by Rotterdam children.
