After more than a decade operating, it closed on December 2018 to take a break and open a new venue in the city.
But the plans for the new opening were stopped by the pandemic. DiD Frankfurt faced a very difficult time.
But the organization successfully applied to receive economical support from the German government to cover the costs during the inactive period. They created a Dialogue online workshop format. And of course they were busy planning different reopening scenarios.
Finally, and catching the chance of a pandemic decrease in Germany, the new DIALOGMUSEUM opened few days ago.
It is located at the very heart of the city of Frankfurt am Main at the B-level of the Hauptwache. This central location is one of the city‘s main traffic junction where all suburban trains stop. The Hauptwache is the beginning of the pedestrian zone of Frankfurt’s main shopping street: The Zeil.
The new DIALOGMUSEUM counts 960 m2. It offers four themed rooms. One is for temporary exhibition content – which now is an apartment of a blind student called Helen. The tour starts at an urban park and continues to Helen's apartment. It follows to the city where visitors go to the farmers' market and/or find themselves in a traffic situation and enter the highlight: a famous and historic Frankfurt tram called Ebbelwoi-Express. Here they explore a city tour passing by the main sightseeing spots of the city center. The tour continues to the bar to have a drink and the dialogue with the guide.
Here you can see some digital impression of the new DIALOGMUSEUM installations.
When leaving the exhibition, visitors are invited to leave a comment in the new digital guestbook which is fully accessible, so the guides can get their feedback via email.
There are three rooms for workshops and educational programs. One of them is inside the dark area.
The exhibition has a flexible architecture to make more ways through the dark possible. A new spontaneous short experience was designed and it is called Klangraum. It consists of sound daybeds where you feel music all over the body. The first installation was composed by Momem (museum of modern electronic music/first techno museum worldwide) and is called 069, like the area code of Frankfurt. It is an electronic music walk through the beautiful city.
The foyer welcomes visitors with playful analogue and digital stations to train the senses, play the empathy and invisible friend quiz and - at the sharing station - they can not only take a photo but donate and learn about the DIALOGMUSEUM and other social projects and enterprises to become an “inkluencer”.
Even though the number of visitors is still restricted, the attendance has been very positive so far. Loyal visitors have come to the new exhibition but also new guests have decided to experience DiD. The feedback is very positive, the visitors have been amazed by the new DIALOGMUSEUM.
Both guides and guests require proof of testing , vaccination or recovery and masks are mandatory during the tour. Disinfection stations are offered at several points and marked ways are all over the lighted areas.
The new DIALOGMUSEUM offers a revitalized DiD concept as well as safe hygiene measurements. The demand from visitors is very good. Conditions seem ideal for a new successful DiD venue, and we keep our fingers crossed for that. But as Maureen Ogrocki – pedagogical manager at the DIALOGMUSEUM - told me: “Planning in times of corona is hardly possible, but we learned to react on unpredictable problems.”