Visitor’s rules
1. Definitions
These visitor’s rules use the following terms:
1. Hermitage Amsterdam: everything (buildings, grounds, and legal entities) that comes under the scope of the Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel foundation (including the Hermitage for Children and the Outsider Art Gallery). Hereinafter abbreviated to HA. The following foundation names are used: Stichting Producties Hermitage Amsterdam (Hermitage Amsterdam), Stichting Instandhouding Amstelhof-Neerlandia c.a, Stichting Publieksfaciliteiten Hermitage Amsterdam, Stichting Programma Hermitage Amsterdam.
2. Exhibition: the space in which art works are exhibited; the space visitors pay to visit which they enter following access control. This includes the semi-permanent exhibition Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age and the Outsider Art Museum.
3. Visitors: the persons present in the HA during the exhibition opening hours or during receptions/events outside of exhibition opening hours.
4. Guests: those who enter the HA offices and/or meeting rooms for an appointment with an HA employee. Whenever guests visit an exhibition area (whether during or outside opening hours), they must follow the visitor’s rules.
5. Staff: HA staff. Can identify themselves using a company badge.
6. Security: on-duty officers of a private company hired by HA or staff in their own uniforms who can be identified by a badge with the ‘V’ security emblem.
7. Entrance ticket: a ticket that provides access to an HA exhibition, purchased at/collected from the HA ticket office (or other points of sale, e.g. the website) or tickets and passes issued by the HA. The validity of an entrance ticket will be determined by the staff.
8. Shop: the area of the shop in the museum, delineated by glass doors or by shop entrances at the exhibition stairs in the southern wings of the building (Keizersvleugel wing).
2. Applicability of the rules
Anyone who enters the HA accepts the applicability of the visitor’s rules. Everyone must follow the visitor’s rules in all areas of the HA whether or not those areas require paid admission. The rules also automatically apply to the restaurant, the shop, the courtyard, the back garden, the corridors, meetings rooms, and facilities like the toilets, halls, and offices.
3. Enforcement and supervision
If the HA discovers or suspects that a visitor has violated these rules, it is entitled to remove the visitor in question from the premises or refuse him/her admission to the HA. In this regard, the HA can take whatever action it considers necessary and/or desirable, which includes filing a police report. The HA has authorized the security team to act in accordance with these rules. The HA uses security cameras and stores all recordings for a certain period of time. In the event that these rules are violated, the recordings may be used as evidence in any further proceedings, for example if criminal charges are brought against an offender. The HA uses both visible and hidden cameras.
4. Prohibitions
The following actions are prohibited without the HA’s consent:
1. Entering the HA without a valid entrance ticket and/or ID or without the HA’s prior consent.
2. Entering sections of the exhibition which have been closed off.
3. Hiding or concealing oneself in or otherwise entering cabinets, empty spaces between exhibition panels, storage areas, offices, and other spaces which can reasonably be understood to be inaccessible or not usually open to the public.
4. Appropriating, destroying, or damaging items of property belonging to, on loan to, or otherwise situated inside the HA, or removing such items from the HA.
5. Touching art works/items on loan/items being exhibited.
6. Approaching art works/items on loan/items being exhibited too closely or carelessly.
7. Approaching art works/items on loan/items being exhibited with pens or other objects, not even if they are being used to indicate something.
8. Bringing animals into the HA. Guide dogs and care dogs are exempt from this rule.
9. To act or dress offensively, to make too much noise, be a nuisance, or otherwise disturb the peace within the HA, as determined by the staff.
10. To prevent staff, volunteers or tour guides from performing their duties and activities whether through your words and/or actions, as determined by the staff.
11. Making a mess and discarding rubbish outside the designated rubbish bins.
12. Offering goods for sale.
13. Bringing balls, balloons, narcotics, alcohol, food, dangerous substances, irritants, objects, products, or weapons into the HA.
14. Using photographic, video, film, audio, and other recording equipment.
15. Lighting a fire or smoking.
16. Taking bags bigger than an A4 size, rucksacks, and umbrellas into the exhibition. Items that are not allowed in can be handed in to the cloakroom free of charge.
17. Endangering the safety of visitors and staff, whether directly or indirectly, as determined by the staff.
18. Committing or intending to commit a crime or exhibiting any other antisocial behaviour, as determined by the staff.
19. Leaving goods and/or materials behind.
20. Placing anything on the furniture and/or walls.
21. Drilling, stapling, sticking, screwing, or nailing into or onto the furniture or walls.
22. Covering up, moving, touching, or damaging alarm sensors or cameras.
23. Taking items from the shop without paying for them.
24. Taking audio tour equipment with you when you leave.
25. Consuming your own food or drink in the designated hospitality areas.
26. Eating or drinking outside the designated hospitality venues.
27. Using your mobile phone in the exhibition rooms.
28. Bringing sharp objects into the HA.
29. Using pens, markers, pencils, and so on to point out something if you are in the vicinity of paintings and/or other items on loan.
5. Instructions
1. All visitors must present a valid entrance ticket if requested to do so by a staff member.
2. All visitors must present valid identification if requested to do so by a staff member.
3. With regard to general and specific security issues, the staff may ask any visitor to search their bags.
4. All prohibitions and instructions on notice boards in the HA must be strictly observed on the spot.
5. Groups of schoolchildren and young people must be accompanied by adult supervision, either in their own group or by the HA’s hired staff. The number of supervisors depends on the number of schoolchildren/young people. As a rule of thumb, there should be one supervisor for every ten visitors.
6. Visitors to the HA should speak softly and walk quietly (which means no running).
7. All visitors must give the HA their permission to make video and/or sound recordings or to have such recordings made. Visitors will not make any objection to the use and/or disclosure of their portrait/image, nor will they request any financial compensation in this regard.
8. Visitors must store their bicycles, mopeds, scooters, etc. in the designated public stands. The HA will remove any bicycles, mopeds, scooters, etc. which are placed in front of emergency exits and/or on the HA’s fences or at any other locations which are not designated for them. The cost of any locks will not be reimbursed. Cars must be parked in designated parking spaces.
9. Motorized forms of transport can only be driven on the HA’s grounds at walking pace.
10. Instructions from staff members must be followed immediately.
11. All visitors must take note of the emergency instructions for visitors. In the event of an emergency, all visitors must leave the HA immediately if instructed to do so by the staff. That includes messages broadcast by the automatic evacuation system. If the situation so requires, clothing and other goods handed into the cloakroom must be left behind.
6. Liability
Visitors entering the HA and using the HA’s facilities, such as wheelchairs, prams, changing tables, etc., do so entirely at their own risk.
1. The HA is not liable for any damage and/or physical injury, unless there is wilful misconduct or deliberate recklessness on the part of staff members while performing their duties/work.
2. The HA is not responsible for the theft or loss of or damage to visitors’ belongings which are handed in to the cloakroom.
3. All liability for any other damage besides damage to material objects belonging to visitors and physical injury is excluded, including all forms of consequential loss.
4. If the HA is liable for any damage, its liability per incident of damage is limited to the cost of the entrance ticket held by the visitors at the time. If and when the HA is insured for the incident in question, its liability will be limited to the amount that is paid pursuant to its liability insurance policy, all this in accordance with the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.
7. Final provision
These rules and any disputes arising in connection with them are solely governed by Dutch law. All such disputes will only be submitted to the competent court in Amsterdam.
Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel
Hermitage Amsterdam
Postbus 11675
1001 GR Amsterdam
The Netherlands
hermitage.nl
mail@hermitage.nl
+31 (0)20 530 87 55
Drafted in Amsterdam, June 2009
Revised in Amsterdam, June 2017