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From a Collection to a Museum - Pinball Expo 2024 - Mischa de Muynck

Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2024)·video·27m 48s·analyzed·Oct 19, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Dutch Pinball Museum transforms collection into educational institution balancing play and storytelling.

Summary

Mischa de Muynck, a photography teacher and volunteer at the Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam, presents the museum's evolution from a private collection into a cultural institution. He discusses the strategic challenge of balancing entertainment with education for diverse audiences—pinball enthusiasts, nostalgia seekers, tourists, and 'pinball pilgrims'—while showcasing the museum's curated exhibitions, playable machines, and educational panels that tell stories about pinball's history, art, technology, and cultural significance.

Key Claims

  • Dutch Pinball Museum receives approximately 2,500 visitors per month (30,000 annually)

    high confidence · Direct statement by Mischa de Muynck in Q&A section when asked about visitor numbers

  • The museum is the #1 thing to do in Rotterdam according to some ranking

    medium confidence · Mischa states 'we are the number one things to do in Rotterdam' but does not specify which ranking or source

  • Dutch Pinball Museum has expanded by an additional floor for education since spring 2024

    high confidence · Mischa confirms in final Q&A: 'Since spring break, we have expanded another floor with education'

  • The museum operates with Gerard de Zande as founder/CEO and his wife, plus ~3 floor managers per day and volunteer staff

    high confidence · Direct statement in Q&A about staffing structure

  • Admission fee is 16 euros (approximately $17.50) with over 100 pinball machines on free play

    high confidence · Stated explicitly: 'after paying the admission fee of 16 euros, it's approximately $17.50, they can play these machines. We have over 100 machines on FreePlay'

  • The museum features a rare 1971 Stardust plexiglass pinball machine as a centerpiece in the history room

    high confidence · Described in presentation: 'We have a great, stunning plexiglass pinball machine. That's the 1971 Stardust'

  • The museum displays four of seven fairy tale pinball machines and is seeking the missing three

    high confidence · Stated: 'We have four of the seven fairy tale pins. So we are missing a few. So if someone has some information how to get the other three, we would like to have that'

  • Celebrity visitors to the museum have included Jack Black, Mark Tremonti, and boxing champion Raphael Farrakhan

    medium confidence · Anecdotal claims by Gerard de Zande in Q&A; described as 'famous people like Mark Tremonti was also once there. or the former world champion boxing, Raphelio Tour, last time he was there'

Notable Quotes

  • “A museum displays a collection or parts of a collection... And the museum preserves stories for coming generations.”

    Mischa de Muynck@ 4:18 — Core philosophy articulating the distinction between collection and museum—fundamental to the Dutch Pinball Museum's mission

  • “Pinball is more than fun and games... pinball is culturally significant, it has a roaring history with a lot of told and untold stories.”

    Mischa de Muynck@ 5:24 — Justification for treating pinball as museum-worthy subject matter deserving preservation and storytelling

  • “Education is boring, especially when it's told by old white men like me. Playing pinball is fun and that's the struggle we are faced with.”

    Mischa de Muynck@ 11:54 — Articulates the core tension the museum navigates: balancing visitor desire to play with educational objectives

  • “We feed them small snippets to get them interested, to tickle them, seduce them before we get them addicted, like we all are.”

    Mischa de Muynck@ 12:55 — Strategy for engaging casual visitors through curated storytelling rather than overwhelming information

  • “If you start a museum, it opens doors. So if you're really into a band or a fan, start a museum and you will meet them.”

    Gerard de Zande@ 22:20 — Meta-commentary on unexpected benefits of museum ownership; speaks to celebrity appeal of pinball culture

  • “We probably are going to exhibit those things in the next few months... it's an ongoing thing to expand and to make it more beautiful.”

    Mischa de Muynck — Confirms active acquisition and exhibition plans, indicating dynamic growth strategy

Entities

Dutch Pinball MuseumorganizationMischa de MuynckpersonGerard de ZandepersonRotterdam, NetherlandsorganizationPacific Pinball MuseumorganizationJack BlackpersonMark TremontipersonSlashperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Dutch Pinball Museum operates as sustainable nonprofit with lean staff model (founder + spouse + floor managers + volunteers); operational revenue model based on €16 admission + café/restaurant

    high · Q&A reveals staffing: 'The employees are gerard and his wife and we have some what we call floor managers so So each day we have about three floor managers and some help at the cafe restaurant' plus volunteer maintenance Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday

  • ?

    community_signal: Dutch Pinball Museum positioned as major community hub and tourist attraction; ranks #1 'thing to do' in Rotterdam; serves 30,000 annual visitors across diverse demographics

    high · Mischa states museum is 'number one things to do in Rotterdam' and reports 2,500 monthly visitors (30,000 annually); noted as destination for both local Dutch visitors (70%) and international 'pinball pilgrims'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception from pinball community toward Dutch Pinball Museum's educational model and visitor experience; audience appreciation evident in engaged Q&A and testimonials

    high · Final questioner states: 'it is literally one of the most immersive educational museums we've ever been to' and mentions multiple visits (2018, 2021, 2024); indicates repeat visitation and recommendation from experienced collectors

  • ?

    event_signal: Dutch Pinball Museum actively expanding education infrastructure and acquisition strategy; recent floor expansion and ongoing artifact acquisition from Pinball Expo 2024

    high · Mischa confirms: 'Since spring break, we have expanded another floor with education' and 'Gerard has bought some things also here in this week. So we probably are going to exhibit those things in the next few months'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.083

0:00
Well, thank you for inviting me, Rob Berg and staff. Thank you Gerard for giving me the opportunity to talk about your museum, our museum we are so proud of. My name is Michel de Meunck. My daytime job is teaching photography and I'm a volunteer at the Dutch Pinball Museum for one day a week. And I'll give you some introduction about the Dutch Pinball Museum and why you should really come there. This is Delftshaven, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We are at the left brown building. It's the museum. We have some inside pictures. I'll show you more later on in this presentation. So we came from the Netherlands to the USA. I think when you're living in the United States, you probably know this painting. It's a painting, it's in the US Capitol in the Rotunda. It's a painting by Robert Weir. And it's about the Pilgrim Fathers who were leaving Rotterdam Delshaven in Speedwell and They joined the Mayflower and they set sail here to the United States and they came from Delfshaven. Not a lot of people know that, but they made a long trip and I guess most of them ended up in Chicago to make ping-pong machines. We also made this journey not by boat, but we made it by plane and we went directly to Chicago. And if you go the other way around from Chicago to Rotterdam, you probably land in Amsterdam, Schiphol and then go an hour drive down south and then you end up in the region of Rotterdam. This is the region of Rotterdam, only 600,000 inhabitants. If you compare that by Chicago, I think it's 2.7 million, so about a fifth. And this is a big region, but if we zoom in a little more, then we go to Rotterdam Center, and I have circled it, Delshaven is over there. And if you zoom in a little more, you stand on this bridge, and you have this view, then you see this.
2:38
And here on the left, this is where the Pilgrim's Fathers departed to the United States. And here on the right, we have the Dutch Pinball Museum.
2:50
@ 27:31
Gary Stern
person
Steve Ritchieperson
Roger Sharpperson
Dennis Nordmanperson
Riverview Amusement Parkorganization
Pinball Expoevent
$

market_signal: Museum leverages celebrity visitor moments as organic social media content ('free publicity'); strategy of photo documentation and posting generates engagement (300 likes vs. 5 for personal posts)

high · Gerard describes: 'if a famous person walk in, I always say get a selfie with him and we post it. And then I get like 300 likes. If I put something on myself, I get five likes. So it helps.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Dutch Pinball Museum differentiates from entertainment venues through 'museum' framework emphasizing historical preservation, cultural significance, and educational storytelling alongside playable machines

    high · Core presentation thesis: museum 'preserves stories for coming generations' and 'displays a collection or parts of a collection' with educational panels, themed rooms, and artifact exhibitions; contrasts with traditional arcade play model

    • So you could really say the Dutch Pinball Museum is worth a pilgrimage. So I guess you all come to the Dutch Pinball Museum, but don't book your tickets yet, because I have some information first.
    3:11
    Let me explain why I'm standing here this day. This is a bird with a difficult Latin name. I won't even try to pronounce it. But in Dutch language, we call this a sterren, stern. And this is one stern and this is a flock of sterns.
    3:33
    And for the sake of argument, let's call this a collection of sterns. This is a museum. This is the Chicago Natural History Field Museum, a very nice museum here in city.
    3:49
    This is really a museum. And this is a museum in United Kingdom, the Bristol City Museum. They have a collection of birds, as you see.
    4:02
    You probably see the difference between a collection and a museum. A museum needs a collection, but the sole collection is not a museum yet. So what is a museum? Well a museum displays a collection or parts of a collection, looking at you Gerard, parts of a collection, not always everything. And the museum preserves stories for coming generations. And we all know a really famous pinball museum person, I guess you all know him, Indiana Jones, he quoted, it belongs in the museum. So how did the Dutch Pinball Museum originate? It originated in 2015 and it really started as a collection of pinball games, as we say, a flock of games. Gerard or Gerard van de Zande is the founder and he is still the CEO. He's also an Expo Hall of Fame member. But Gerard wanted more because he said, pinball is more than fun and games. And I'm thrilled to make a contribution on making the museum more a museum. And we all know because pinball is culturally significant, it has a roaring history with a lot of told and untold stories. And we all know that pinball is technically challenging. And people who don't think pinball is technically challenging, try me at the end of the seminar. A museum, and I said it before, a museum preserves, and it preserves not only things, it preserves stories. And these stories are preserved for the past, present, and future generations.
    6:02
    So we try to showcase these stories, and there are a lot of stories to be told. stories about the technology, stories about the history, about the art, about seduction, about the game, about the makers, and of course about the players. But I think the most important thing about a museum with pinball-related stuff is it's about the love of the silver ball. Some people rather call it fighting the silver ball, but I think love and hate can exist next to each other as we all see on pin site on a daily basis But if you are in a museum a pinball museum you want to experience you want to go back in time you want to play So we often call our museum a youseum. It's a museum where you can also experience, for instance, a flock of Stearns or a flock of Bally Williams or a flock of Gottlieb machines. But the question is, how do you get from a collection to a museum? And I'll take you in this talk about the struggles we experience in making a museum a museum.
    7:35
    Because we want to tell the culturally significant stories. So how do we do it? Do that without scaring the public. And maybe you think scaring the public. Well, that's a real thing, scaring the public. Before I tell you why we are afraid about scaring the public, we first have to define our target audience. What do you think the target audience of a pinball museum is? Everyone. Pinball players. When you say everyone, that's a bit difficult because if you are a hairdresser in Chicago, is your target audience all people with hair or only people with hair in the region of Chicago? Someone else? Target audience? Sorry? Yes, children. Well, we defined our target audience as follows. We have three major things and I'll add a fourth later on. The pinheads, the people who want to play pinball, who know pinball, I guess a lot of people here in this room call themselves pinheads. Sorry? Pinball enthusiasts. Pinball, do you think it's a better term? Okay, pinball enthusiasts, pinheads, whatever. I think you are one of the fourth category, Jonathan. So I'll explain later. We have the nostalgia. Those are the people who want to play a pinball machine they used to play in their youth. And we have people visiting Rotterdam, also known as tourists. So what do these people expect? Pinheads or pinball enthusiasts, they expect a lot of machines to play.
    9:40
    Nostalgia, they want to play the machine they used to play. So the Addams Family or the pinball machine with a robot girl on the back glass or the pinball machine with a big hat on the play field. Those terms we hear when people come in. And the tourists, they just want to have a good time. And talking about the tourists, we are the number one things to do in Rotterdam. So we are very proud of that. And I think there's a fourth category. Thank you. Our fourth category, which I think Jonathan belongs to, and maybe some other people here, are the pinball pilgrims. They want to see something special, something special that you cannot experience anywhere else. So when you are here in Chicago and the Pinball Expo, we see a lot of things that are unique and we want to see them, we want to play them. Like I wanted to do this week here in Chicago, where we wanted to visit the Art Institute, only to find out that that is closed on Monday and Tuesday. So we have to come back to see the famous painting like American Gothic, Nighthawks from Hopper, Van Gogh's Yellow Bedroom and Monet's Water Lilies. So we definitely coming our back. But our target audience in general wants to play pinball and we want to educate them. So that is a struggle because pinball marketeers, well, most of them are excellent marketeers because we all know how hard it is to walk past a pinball machine and not playing it. Or we want to look at it. We want to see how the state of the machine is. Is it any good? Why is it here? We all know that drinking is an excuse to go to the bar and play some pinball. So we see education is boring, especially when it's told by old white men like me. Playing pinball is fun and that's the struggle we are faced with. So we were thinking about that and we said we have to give the visitors what they want. They can play pinball. We have over 100 machines on FreePlay and after paying the admission fee of 16 euros, it's approximately $17.50, they can play these machines. Along the way, we try to educate them, telling stories, try to get them addicted, try to make them pinheads or even better, pinball pilgrims. We want to tickle them, we want to seduce them, but no long, big stories. Remember, most people are on a sort of first date with pinball. So we feed them small snippets to get them interested, to tickle them, seduce them before we get them addicted, like we all are. And I'll give you some examples on how we try to do that. When you enter the museum, you have to go through the history room where we have the history from 1777 until now. We have that on display. We have a great, stunning plexiglass pinball machine. That's the 1971 Stardust. And we have some really nice artifacts in the museum, like this one, a small pinball machine. It Dennis Nordman job in the industry thing where he made this and he got hired by Bully Williams We explain why pinball is called pinball We have a big wall with pre machines pinball machines. We call this the wall. And we have information panels scattered throughout the museum. We define three categories, the category facts and figures, the category machines, and the category people. And here you see a fact things about the ball and a people panel about Steve Ritchie. I'll zoom in a little more. This one is everything about the ball. And we have these information panels in two languages, in Netherlands, in Dutch, and in English. And it's important to have these stories that you can read within 130 seconds,
    14:53
    because this is a great pastime to do between two games. Some other examples, some pinball heroes like Roger Sharp and the Adams Family Machine, or a panel about lingo in abbreviations in pinball or as I say, how to scare new people away from the hobby. And a panel about Gary Stern. He was in our museum last month. We try to make our museum a bit thematic, like this one is a music room where we have all musical pins next to each other. And in the backside we have this panel with black and white photos from music artists playing pinball. Sometimes people ask us, are these people all played in your museum? And we of course say yes. Well a little lie is not a problem I think. But we have a really special pinball machine on display and that's the Madonna never made Madonna pinball machine. Python Angelo made a sketch and this is one of the last sketches remaining because a lot of them were destroyed by the Madonna management and we even have the invoice he sent to Bally Williams. Another example is these two fun houses and a roadshow. Most people know the 1990 Funhouse machine. We have the predecessor from 1956, the Funhouse, and we have the 1994 Roadshow. And next to it, we have a display cabinet with even more information about these games. For example, the Riverview amusement park is a big thing in the Roadshow and Funhouse machines. The Riverview amusement park was only a few miles away from the Chicago factories. And the Funhouse pinball is almost an exact copy of the Alladin's Castle rides over there. And we have some original entrance cards from these rides of the Riverview park. We have a life-size translight of one of the most iconic pinball machines of all times. And I guess you all see what a pinball machine this is. Of course, the Twilight Zone.
    17:30
    And even when you go to the restrooms, we don't give you any rest because we have what we call toilet stories. For example, why does Humpty Dumpty has six flippers?
    17:44
    Or a story about the SBA dollar, Susan B. Anthony dollar, B. Anthony Doerr, a story where I came across when I listened to one of my favorite podcasts at the WETCHAT. Talking about WETCHATs, of course, we have WETCHAT machines with an explanation about it next to it. And we have, of course, the Humpty Dumpty, the fairy tale pins. We have four of the seven fairy tale pins. So we are missing a few. So if someone has some information how to get the other three, we would like to have that. We have some plexiglass exhibitions and some original drawings and all these things are next to playable machines because we want to have people playing machines and be educated at the same time. Of course we want to do even more in the next few years. Gerard has a wish list for pinball machines he really likes to have, the Red Race, the prototype, the three missing machines of the Fairytale series, and we would like to have the Total Recall prototype. I think it was here in Expo 1990, and we talked with Gary Stern about that, but he doesn't think it exists anymore. I have a wish list for the education department. I want to have some interviews with engineers and manufacturers.
    19:19
    We want to know more about seducing the customers to play and to buy pinball machines. So the marketeers view on making pinball machines.
    19:30
    We want to make exhibitions about the art throughout the decades, the difference between fine art, decorative art and applied art.
    19:41
    The Pacific Pinball Museum does these things, for example, with the Pointy People exhibition. And I want to cooperate with other pinball museums and manufacturers. And we all have the same goal to bring pinball to a broader public. So surely you can have a great time playing pinball, but I think now we all know that pinball is more than fun and games. With that, I conclude my talk, and I'm open for any questions.
    20:24
    Are there any questions for me or for Gerard? Yeah, I have a question, because I know you have a lot of photos of celebrities on the walls. Have you ever been surprised that people come into town and then there's somebody that walked in that was recognized character?
    20:47
    Well Gerard knows probably everyone and also famous people So a famous person can walk by me and I don recognize But Gerard, I'll recognize all those people.
    21:08
    Yeah, Dutch people, a lot of Dutch people, but also famous people like Mark Tremonti was also once there. or the former world champion boxing, Raphelio Tour, last time he was there. We get a lot of famous people because famous people also like pinball. Did you know that?
    21:26
    Yeah, and they want to have a good time and they will find us. And pinball and famous people combine and I always said it's free publicity. So if a famous person walk in, I always say get a selfie with him and we post it. And then I get like 300 likes. And if I put something on myself, I get five likes. So it helps. Yeah.
    21:45
    Slash wanted to come, it was in the corona area and he couldn't make it. So I think his management forbid him to come. So we sent a t-shirt over to his hotel and the next day he sent me a picture back wearing our Dutch Pinball Museum shirt with a Slash and it was iconic. This is something we really remember. And we met Jack Black. Jack Black is also a very big pinball fan. And we had a great time with the guys from here. We had dinner with him and after party and everything. So if you start a museum, it opens doors. So if you're really into a band or a fan, start a museum and you will meet them.
    22:28
    Other questions? I think in the back, yes. Regarding your efforts to educate people a little bit, what have you folks done with tours or docents? We have self-guided tours in the museum. So when people come in and they are interested, we tell them everything about the Pinball Museum. And the first part, the history room, is the part of Gerard when people are wanting to know more, they get educated. But what we see, and that's also the struggle that people come in and they want to play. That's the first thing they want. Okay, they go upstairs, they play, and after an hour, they come down and they want to see also the history. Yes. Other questions?
    23:25
    So what percentage of the museum would you say is, in terms of visitors, is Dutch versus foreigners?
    23:34
    You are asking about what is Dutch and what is English? Okay, yeah. I guess it's 70% from the Netherlands, 30% from abroad, yes. Because we have a lot of tourists and pinball pilgrims. So I guess that's about correct, yeah.
    24:04
    Two questions. One, how many texts do you have? And other question is, would you consider providing or licensing some of the materials to other pinball museums? Regarding the first question, we have a volunteers night at the museum at Wednesday. Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday we are open. Wednesday evening the volunteers come in and we have about six volunteers who are doing the maintenance. About 10. And we, sorry, the other question was? Would you consider licensing some of the material? Yes, I think cooperation is a real important thing. So like other museums do, they give their information free to other museums i think yeah we we also want to want to do that because we all have the same goal to to bring pinball to the broader public yeah
    25:12
    how many employees work in the museum and how many visitors around you have in the months um the the employees are gerard and his wife and we have some what we call floor managers so So each day we have about three floor managers and some help at the cafe restaurant. Regarding the visitors, I guess we have around 2,500 visitors a month, so 30,000 a year. Yeah. Dennis over here with the great shirt. If people over here want to come and visit the museum, what are the opening times and days? Yes, we are open at Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
    26:06
    Yes, thank you very much. Okay, one last question. We've been lucky enough to visit the museum and it is literally one of the most immersive educational museums we've ever been to. And being that the pilgrims left from the church just down the road, we're definitely It encourages pinball pilgrimage. Quick question, what does the future hold for the museum?
    26:31
    Expansion, continuing to grow up in the florists of the museum, things like that. When did you come over by us?
    26:45
    Yeah, we were there last March, you were there December, and then we came in 2018 as well. So we've noticed, was it 2019? It's like 2021. 2021, excuse me. Yeah. Okay, so you all have been in a new location. Since spring break, we have expanded another floor with education, and we are constantly trying to renew the educational department and also, of course, bringing in new pinball machines.
    27:18
    I think it's an ongoing thing to expand and to make it more beautiful. So Gerard has bought some things also here in this week. So we probably are going to exhibit those things in the next few months. Yeah.
    27:40
    Okay. Thank you.