With beautiful beaches, fields of tulips, bike-friendly cities, and relaxed social policies, the Netherlands often make it on to those ubiquitous top-places-to-travel lists. But just in case you needed another reason to add this lively destination to your bucket list, enter Museumkaart Match, a tinder-like app for museumgoers.
Platonic Love for Picasso
The Netherlands is a country about the same size as Maryland, yet it’s home to more than 400 museums. To help ensure that its dense population doesn’t miss out on that bounty of brushstrokes, the national museum association created a Museum Card, which gives cardholders access to 400+ museums, updates on new exhibitions, and general museum promotions.
But new to the card is a matchmaking service designed to help art enthusiasts find a fellow museum lover. According to a write-up from Univers, the news site out of Tilburg University, “it’s like Tinder, but for finding museum buddies rather than that other type of buddies.” (sic)
“You have more fun together than alone”
The idea behind the service is simple but clever. Museumkaart Match pairs you with other museum enthusiasts—removing the social isolation that can sometimes be a barrier to attendance—and gives you a chance to connect with someone who shares your same artistic interests. “You have more fun together than alone,” shares one user, who just loves meeting new people and learning about their stories.
Users create their own profiles and can find potential matches by filtering for age, sex, area, availability and artistic interests. While the majority of users are currently over 45, the app isn’t without younger (all 18+, mind you) museum goers in search of mostly platonic company.
Of course with any service like this one, there’s bound to be a bit of blurring of the edges. Some users are clearly looking to use this app the way one might use Tinder, searching for romance among the Rembrandts. Most of that can be avoided, with some careful filtering and a little reading between the lines.
Learn more about Museumkaart Match on Univers, or if you’re up to date on your Dutch, check out the site directly.