LWL pleased with the Capital of Culture Year
The Henrichshütte Hattingen was the main venue for the Heroes exhibition / Photo: LWL-Industriemuseum/Annette Hudemann
One of the many positive effects of RUHR.2010 enjoyed by the whole Ruhr metropolis in 2010 was the extremely keen interest shown by visitors. The Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL) recorded a general rise in the number of visitors to its museums in the Ruhr area. This is especially pleasing as it runs counter to the regressive trend elsewhere in Germany.
All in all, more than 1.26 million people visited the 17 museums run by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe last year. The main winners here were the LWL museums in the Ruhr metropolis that staged events within the framework of RUHR.2010.
The LWL Museum for Archaeology in Herne, for example, notched a new visitors’ record: a total of 207,000 people visited it in 2010 (2009: 59,000). The reason for this was the RUHR.2010 exhibition “AufRuhr 1225!”, which alone accounted for 166,000 visitors.
A further highlight of the LWL in 2010 was the Heroes exhibition, which was also part of the official European Capital of Culture programme. Apart from the main exhibition at the Henrichshütte in Hattingen, seven other sites of the industrial museum presented so-called satellite exhibitions: the LWL Industrial Museum Zeche Zollern in Dortmund raised its visitor numbers by around 12,000 to 92,500 with "Heroes under the sign of the hammer and chisel". The LWL Industrial Museum Zeche Nachtigall in Witten also welcomed more visitors than the year before: almost 42,000 people visited, among others, its exhibition "Heroes – Hercules from Olympus to the Ruhr valley".
The LWL Industrial Museum Schiffshebewerk Henrichenburg in Waltrop also recorded more visitors: almost 78,000 people visited it in 2010 (2009: approx. 75,000) to see the special exhibition "Heroes - Shipbuilding engineer Rudolph - A hero of technology?".
The LWL museums will also be hosting numerous exhibitions on art and (industrial) culture in 2011, for example the photographic works of Thomas Voßbeck, which can still be seen at Zeche Zollern in Dortmund under the title of "Structure and architecture - The post-industrial cultural heritage of Upper Silesia" to May 2011.