Open-air museum Nieuw-Amsterdam closed on weekends

From now on the Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam open-air museum will be closed on weekends. Despite the fact that many people flock to Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam on weekends the museum will only be opened on weekdays from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. “The museum has no money to pay the people who work during the weekend,” said Gerard Alberga who added that the nation’s only open-air museum barely manages to stay afloat despite the fact that is has been receiving aid from donors since 2010. Statistics also indicate that the number of visitors dropped to 21,000 in 2017. Statistics indicate that 35,000 people visited the open-air museum in 2015. “That is the reason why we can barely manage to pay our employees,” said Alberga. The government tried to breathe new life into the museum in 2008 when the Culture Directorate of the Ministry of Education established the foundation for the preservation of the museum. Reports indicate that 40 people work at the open-air museum. 13 of those workers receive their salaries from the Ministry of Education, 14 from the Ministry of Home Affairs (Biza) and the rest are paid by the museum. Alberga explained that the museum does not have to remain closed on weekends if the government keeps its promise. The then minister of Education Ashwin Adhin had reportedly promised that the ministry would cover the wages of the remaining 13 employees. This has not happened yet. “Lately we have had to resort to begging just to keep the museum open every day but now we just can’t go on like this,” said Alberga who added that the closure of the museum would be a loss of a huge piece of heritage for Suriname. “Fort NieuwAmsterdam is a historical site especially for the migration history. All the ships that transported slaves and migrants to Suriname passed the fort before reaching Paramaribo,” said Alberga who hopes that the government will keep its promise so that the museum can once again be open for business every day of the week.