The Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp exists 10 years and we celebrate with a party weekend on Saturday 30 September 30 and Sunday 1 October. Expect a full program for families, with creative workshops and an exuberant dance party in the 1920s style. 

An exhibition with portraits by photographer Koen Broos puts one donor in the spotlight for each of the museum’s ten years in existence.

Family offer

A boat race, family walks, guided tours for families without language barriers, toddler tours and buggy tours. With creative workshops such as ‘make a hug’ and ‘look into your future’, but also decorate cupcakes, print family bags and use sidewalk chalk, we invite everyone to celebrate both inside and outside the museum. A world brunch, food trucks and drinks cannot be missed. Far-sighted planners can reserve their spot now.

Dance party

On Saturday evening, September 30, the cobblestones in the warehouse will be briefly transformed into a vibrant dance floor from the roaring twenties. Lindy hop, jazz and swing make it an unforgettable evening full of timeless elegance and exciting dance moves. Come dressed in retro outfit: feathers, hairbands and long gloves allowed. Keep an eye on this page in the coming weeks for more details about this exclusive Roaring Twenties dance party.

Photo gallery

Photographer Koen Broos portrays witnesses and donors of the museum’s objects and stories: one donor for each of the museum’s ten years of existence. And we do that with great pleasure, because we owe our collection to the many donors who have offered both historical and contemporary objects and stories.

For example, Caroline Emmet, the granddaughter of pianist Irving Berlin, is portrayed because she donated her grandfather’s piano to the museum. Irving Berlin, composer of ‘(I’m dreaming of a) White Christmas‘ and ‘Putting on the Ritz‘, among others, crossed the ocean to America on a Red Star Line ship. There he grew into one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.

But contemporary donors with a current migration story are also given a place in the exhibition. Emzar, who had to flee Georgia because of his queer activism, donated a Georgia flag that he often took with him on LGBTQIA+ rallies. Emzar currently works at the reception of Ukrainian refugees in Antwerp. For him, the donation is a symbolic farewell to an intense period in his life.

Participation

We invite groups that have an extra warm heart for the museum, such as local residents, newcomers, vulnerable groups for whom a visit to the museum is less obvious, students with Dutch as a second language and the wider sector for a new tailor-made offer.

There are also nocturnes and guided tours for Ligo students, cycling classes for newcomers and in the Permeke Library, people can muse about their memories during a story lunch in the ‘Heimwee-tuin‘.

Special recognition goes to the people who started the museum and who helped make it a success in the years that followed.

Full programme. 

Art and museums in Antwerp

• ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Baroque Influencers city festival of tradition and renewal.
• REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• FOMU 2023 | Reimagined collection, strippers – Nicaragua – Kurdistan and people touching each other.
• ANTWERP 2023 | MoMu fashion museum presents IO Van Oostveldt and Man Ray exhibitions.
• ANTWERP | Rubens House closed for renovation.
• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• VIDEO | Inside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2023 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2022.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.
• ANTWERP | Traveling exhibition #StolenMemory at Museum At the Stream (MAS).
• Museum At the Stream opens ‘City at war, Antwerp, 1940-1945’ exhibition on 8 September.