Brussels museum ‘Autoworld’ celebrates this month its 30th birthday. An event that will not go by unnoticed because on 15 September a brand new interactive area opens on the first floor of the museum. Erik Wood, CEO of Eventonline had a chat with Managing Director Sébastien de Baere about the past and future of this iconic museum.
Autoworld is primarily a private museum with a cultural mission. Since several years, Sébastien de Baere and his team have been working to make Autoworld a more vibrant place. “We use a special strategy that we have outlined some five or six years ago and we remain faithful to it. We implemented a dynamic influx through the organization of events and exhibitions,” the Managing Director explains.
The highlight of this anniversary is obviously the ‘30’ in ’30 Years of Autoworld (1986-2016)’. This retrospective will not only take the visitor on a walk down memory lane, but will also look towards to the future. “From the very start our strategy was to organize and host as many events possible”, says de Baere. Indeed, Autoworld annually hosts around 150 events. “We also need to survive as a private museum. Therefore, events are an important source of income, since ticketing alone is not enough to keep the doors of Autoworld open. However, we primarily remain a museum”, adds de Baere. “We have a cultural mission too.”
Sébastien de Baere and his team continue to renovate and improve the museum in a constant manner. Following the celebration ’30 Years of Autoworld’ it was decided to introduce a new zone. “In recent years, we have continuously expanded the museum with new sections like ‘Sport and Competition’, ‘Belgium at Autoworld’, as well as an interactive area for children. When we noticed another part of the museum needed some urgent renovation, we have decided, together with the members of the Board of Directors, to re-invest and improve the content of the museum.”
The new section is called ‘Media Room’ and sounds promising. Here, the visitors are informed about the history of the building, even before it was a museum. “In an interactive way visitors can discover why and when this building was constructed. The building dates from 1875,” Sébastien de Baere explains. “But of course the 30-year history of our museum is being highlighted as well. Where we come from, the changes we made, the exhibitions we have organized etc. You can watch it all in a very nice video. And then we also focus on the car history of the past thirty years.”
The 30-years anniversary is also the ‘file rouge’ through the ‘Media Room’. The name of this space is very appropriate as this multi-purpose room can be used for events, product presentations and press conferences as it is equipped with a 80-inch screen, video and audio and all the necessary technological facilities.
However, the new ‘Media Room’ is only one facet of the anniversary celebrations. A second part with which it is closely connected will be the theme exhibition ‘Thirty Years of Super Cars’, an exhibition that undoubtedly will draw many car aficionados to the museum.
“We managed to put together a collection of cars that defined the past thirty years. Not the most commercial successes, nor the prettiest, but the most exotic cars that have dominated the 80s, 90s etc.”, says the Managing Director. “We compiled our ‘bucket list’ and then selected the most spectacular cars for the expo.” And the list looks impressive indeed! To name a few of these models: the Nissan GTR, the Ferrari F40, the Porsche 959, the Honda NSX, or even the McLaren P1 … A real feat indeed to put together all these gems for this exhibit at Autoworld!
However, Autoworld has even more surprises in store for the end of the year with the exhibition ‘100 Years of BMW’. “It took quite some time,” says de Baere. “BMW very much liked our proposal and they were very enthusiastic. As a result, we have the full support of BMW Belgium and BMW Germany. More than 50 BMW cars will soon be in our museum telling the history of this legendary car manufacturer.”
In short, autumn will be a very busy period at Autoworld. “We’re all for it!”, adds the Managing Director of the museum. “Previously, Autoworld was a fairly lifeless museum, even a bit drab and dusty I dare say. With the new team we have chosen to be very dynamic, hence the events of partners or our own special expositions where we can capture the momentum of the museum, allowing visitors and car aficionados to be triggered to return to the museum several times a year.”
One more thing. Autoworld has an area of 16,000 m2, but events do not always have to be focused on large groups. You can already host an event at Autoworld for ten persons.
View this customer also on Eventonline:
http://www.eventonline.be/en/detail/unique-meeting-rooms-in-the-hart-of-brussels-autoworld/
