Veenkoloniaal museum in Veendam

You're standing at the Veenkoloniaal Museum in Veendam. The name means something like the Peat Colonies Museum. The handsome building in front of you didn't start life as a museum, though. It opened in 1911 as a secondary school, designed by the architect and government architect Jan Vrijman. The last pupils left in 1987, and two years later the museum moved in. Since 2004 the building has been linked to the Van Beresteyn cultural centre, so a theatre, a library, a music school and the museum now share one roof.