Museums and concert halls were turned into salons in the Netherlands on Wednesday in protest against the COVID-19 restrictions passed by the Dutch government.
According to the government’s restrictions, museums, bars, cafes, and theatres are not allowed to open but barbers, beauticians, and gyms may run their businesses.
“A museum visit is a safe visit, and equally important as going to a nail salon, perhaps more so. We just ask them to be consistent make the rules in a way everyone understands them. At this point that seems to be lacking,” The museum’s director Emilie Gordenker said.
The cultural sector says that it is unfair that they must remain closed, while COVID-19 curbs were lifted last week on shops and “contact professions” like barbers, nail salons, and even sex work.
A barber and two nail artists tended to visitors among priceless works of art at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and two barbers set up their chairs on the stage of the Concertgebouw, in the capital.
“We wanted to make the point that a museum is a safe visit and we should be open,” Van Gogh Museum director Emilie Gordenker.
A barber, Mischa, carted his barber’s chair, mirror, and trimmers into the entrance of the Van Gogh Museum, said, “It’s crooked. I can do my job and the people from the museum cannot. Look around you. There’s so much space, and people can be in a supermarket with 300 people, it’s crazy,” reported BBC News.
Amsterdam’s De Balie Debate Center avoided the rules by opening a religious institution called the Philosophical Society, the Community of Reason.
The Mauritshuis, home to Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring, organized a boot camp for workouts, on parliament’s doorstep in The Hague. The Limburgs Museum was among those turning into a gym for the day.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema warned that the cultural protests wouldn’t be tolerated but businesses say that the government’s strategy is illogical and contradictory.
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