The Hollandsche Molen
Because of the work that the Hollandsche Molen Association has been doing since 1923, hundreds of mills have been preserved and started moving again. In the first instance it was about maintaining the economic function of the mills in the Netherlands, with the well-known flour mills for flour and the polder mills for draining land. Today, the association is committed to safeguarding the heritage. Public support for mill preservation and interest in this cultural heritage has increased enormously. This also applies to the Craftsmanship of Miller.
Craft of Miller
That Miller Craft was the end of 2017 placed on UNESCO's International Representative List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is supported in the Netherlands by a group of volunteers who have united in organizations such as the Guild of Voluntary Millers, the Gild Fryske Mounders, the Craft Wheat Millers Guild and the De Hollandsche Molen Association. These associations organize miller training, among other things, so that this special craft can also be continued in the future. In 2020 (18 - 20 June) they will jointly organize an international Millers conference in the Netherlands with the Department for Cultural Heritage and the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Two mill funds for craft and young people
The Culture Fund Prize is worth 150,000 euros, of which 75,000 euros is deposited in a registered fund with the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund. With the Millers Craft Fund, the association wants to encourage initiatives that contribute to the development of crafts to preserve Dutch mills. The money is also intended to strengthen or deepen the knowledge about it. De Hollandsche Molen, founded in 1923, has decided to place the freely disposable amount of 75,000 euros in a fund that it will manage itself. This Mills Youth Fund will support projects of young volunteers - between 12 and 25 years old - who are committed to monumental mills in the Netherlands.
Two beautiful film fragments were shown during the award ceremony. "An old head in an old mill," miller Sander Hupkes laughs at the portrait that Humberto Tan makes of him. And rapper Sicks made a rap especially for the presentation of the Culture Fund Prize about the 1200 mills in the Netherlands - and in particular about all millers and volunteers, who keep them going: give the wheel a twist. "
The Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage warmly congratulates De Hollandsche Molen association on this special, but well-deserved, oeuvre prize.