Experience the world of silver

A visit to the Dutch Silver Museum in Schoonhoven offers a fun, interactive and educational outing for young and old.

Visitors see, feel, smell and hear silver, and discover much more about this versatile precious metal in the World of Silver. With regularly changing exhibitions and activities, it’s well worth coming back again!

Exhibitions

Silver stimulates the senses in the new exhibition ‘Please Touch’ at the Silver Museum

Please Touch!

Silver objects are delicate: fingerprints can cause permanent damage, and air pollution makes silver tarnish. Yet these very objects were originally made to be used. Showpieces passed from hand to hand at festive dinners, and religious items were touched in the hope of healing. Use left its marks: tangible reminders of human interaction.

‘Please Touch’ casts a critical light on the preservative nature of museums and raises questions about the relationship between touch, experience and meaning. Touch is a basic human need; from birth, a baby learns to rely on its senses for nourishment and development. The act of feeling can unlock memories or transport the mind to different times.

The exhibition will be on view from 30 October 2025 through 13 September 2026.

Paul Derrez

Celebrating life

In 2025, Paul Derrez turns 75. It also marks his 50th anniversary as a jewellery maker and his 25th as a silversmith. These milestones are being celebrated with a major retrospective exhibition at the Dutch Silver Museum in Schoonhoven. The exhibition presents his body of work, including jewellery, objects and silverware. As a festive addition, he is creating a new collection of spoons, drawing—naturally, in both theme and design, materials and technique—on his rich oeuvre and extensive experience.

The exhibition “Paul Derrez – Celebrating Life” is on view from 20 February 2025 through 30 November 2025.

Vakschool 2025

Miniatures and Masterpieces 2025

Every year, the Dutch Silver Museum provides a platform for the graduating students of the Schoonhoven School for Gold- and Silversmithing. With the exhibition of Miniatures and Masterpieces, we put young and innovative craftsmanship in the spotlight.

Over the past months, the students of the Schoonhoven School have been working hard on their Miniatures and Masterpieces, and now it is finally time to showcase these masterful creations. From 9 July until the Silver Night, these unique graduation works can be viewed in our Silver Lounge on the ground floor of the Dutch Silver Museum.