{"id":98247,"date":"2025-07-28T02:25:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T02:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/98247\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T02:25:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T02:25:16","slug":"these-new-museums-want-to-make-the-netherlands-a-modern-art-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/98247\/","title":{"rendered":"These New Museums Want to Make the Netherlands a Modern Art Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe twisting, swooping swirl of metal, glass, and wood rises from the ground floor of the century-old warehouse, climbs to the second story, then bursts through the roof, elevating visitors over Rotterdam\u2019s historic harbor in a double helix that does double duty as both staircase and artwork. That the Tornado, cantilevered atop the new Fenix<\/a> museum, looks like it could be an amusement-park thrill ride is no accident: Its Instagram-worthiness is baked into a plan to put this 700-year-old city on the metaphorical map.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRight next door to Fenix, which opened in May and tells the story of human migration through the lens of art<\/a>, an empty storage facility is being transformed into 86,000 square feet of dance studios for every- thing from ballet to hip-hop, with an adjacent 400-seat theater planned from the ground up; the National Museum of Photography<\/a> will move into its new home in yet another renovated warehouse this fall; and Rijnhavenpark<\/a>, a 54-acre green space and beach designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh\u2014the vaunted landscape architect behind Brooklyn Bridge Park and scores of other high-profile redevelopments\u2014is rising on the shared waterfront along the Nieuwe Maas River. It\u2019s an ambitious slate of projects for a midsize city that has never been a big draw for leisure travelers. And one billionaire family is footing the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAn aerial view of the Tornado and Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe. The city has been a playground for modern architects, who rebuilt it in\u2028glass and steel after it was decimated in World War II.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHufton + Crow<\/p>\n

\n\tThe van der Vorm clan\u2019s simple-to-grasp but possibly complicated-to-achieve goal is to transform their hometown into a cultural magnet. It has been done before: Second- or even third-tier cities becoming must-see destinations thanks almost entirely to iconic art and design. Who among us can honestly say they\u2019d ever even heard of Bilbao, Spain, before Frank Gehry erected an audacious Guggenheim Museum there?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Rotterdam has always lived in the shadow of its more glamorous neighbor to the north, Amsterdam, whose art trifecta of the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk<\/a>, and the Van Gogh Museum offer stiff competition, as do its charming canals and old-world architecture. Adding to the challenge: The Hartwig Art Foundation<\/a>, backed by Rob Defares, another Dutch billionaire, is building a new contemporary-art museum in Amsterdam. And just outside the capital, in Zaanstad, art-world veteran Ernest Mourmans and real-estate developer Serge Hannecart are converting a former military base into a vast museum campus, set to open\u2014and to steal a bit of Rotterdam\u2019s thunder\u2014in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA rendering of the future Hartwig Museum, built in a former courthouse in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHartwig Art Foundation<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the upstart\u2019s proven grit and apparent openness to change may improve its chances for success. The city was flattened during World War II, when some 80,000 Rotterdammers were left homeless after a single night of the German air raids. Unlike, say, Munich, which voted to faithfully replicate its devastated old town, Rotterdam embraced modernity, akin to Chicago after the Great Fire. A glass-and-steel skyline conjured by such local mega talent as Rem Koolhaas and MVRDV<\/a> now encircles the port, the largest in Europe\u2014and the original source of the van der Vorms\u2019 abundant wealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe family amassed its fortune from the Holland America Line, which transported millions of immigrants across the Atlantic to North America beginning in the 1870s. After selling it to Carnival Corp. for roughly $625 million in 1988, the van der Vorms established HAL Investments<\/a>, which scored even bigger paydays by diversifying into such categories as eye-glasses; they pocketed an estimated $4 billion from the sale of GrandVision<\/a> to EssilorLuxottica in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Red<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRed Grooms, The Bus, 1995, mixed media.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTitia Hahne<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the years, they have dedicated a sizable chunk of their assets to charity. Today, their philanthropic reach is matched only by their desire for privacy. In keeping with Dutch culture, they maintain a very low profile, living intentionally normal lives and turning down all requests for interviews. But their beneficence has spoken volumes about their values. The van der Vorms\u2019 first foundation, De Verre Bergen<\/a>, is dedicated to social welfare, health, and education in Rotterdam. In one major push, it provided rental homes to over 200 refugee families from Syria. Careful to avoid pricing out locals by disrupting the real-estate market, the foundation limited its acquisitions to properties that had been for sale for at least several months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Omar<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFrom the Fenix collection, left to right: Omar Victor Diop, Diaspora, 2014-2015, pigment print (series of five); Efrat Zehavi, Where Are We Going (detail of 116 portraits), 2020- 2022, plasticine.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTitia Hahne\/Fenix<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2016, Wim Pijbes, a seasoned museum director who\u2019d ushered the Rijksmuseum through a 10-year renovation and expansion before becoming a consultant, got a call from Martijn van der Vorm inviting him to coffee. When they met up, van der Vorm explained that De Verre Bergen often received grant requests from arts organizations, and he wanted to start a separate foundation to help them. He asked Pijbes to take the helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Chien-Chi<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tChien-Chi Chang, a newly arrived immigrant eating on a fire escape, New York, USA, 1998.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMagnum Photos<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like him,\u201d Pijbes says of van der Vorm, sitting in an office at Fenix with a view of the harbor as well as the museum\u2019s interior. \u201cI like his highly visionary approach: Make it really good so that it can last for a hundred years\u2014or 3,000 years\u2014so a long-term view. And of course, there are the means to do it. We never talk [publicly] about the budget, but it\u2019s not a small foundation. We can really do big things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTake its donation to the National Museum of Photography. \u201cThey knew that our big dream was having our own building,\u201d says Birgit Donker, its director, adding that the institution, which holds 6.5 million objects in its collection, was even considering leaving Rotterdam. When Pijbes heard about the museum\u2019s straits, the foundation suggested it buy and renovate a local eight-story former coffee warehouse\u2014courtesy of a roughly $46 million gift, which Donker calls the largest ever to a cultural institution in the country. \u201cI had to pinch my arm the first time I was there: \u2018What\u2019s happening?\u2019 They really enabled this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe atrium and central stairwell of the new National Museum of Photography in Rotterdam, opening this fall in a onetime coffee warehouse.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudio Hans Wilschut<\/p>\n

\n\tBut before that opportunity presented itself, Pijbes hit upon the idea of creating a museum from scratch only after being disappointed with the modest proposals put forth by existing cultural nonprofits. \u201cAlmost every person said, \u2018We need 20,000 [euros] for our next book,\u2019 or, \u2018We need 50,000 for our next exhibition,\u2019 \u201d Pijbes recalls. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t move the needle. After dozens of discussions, I said, \u2018We\u2019re looking for something bigger. What would you do if we give 1 million? Or 10 million?\u2019 No clue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOkay, I can imagine that,\u201d he continues, allowing that the interviewees were probably stunned by the trail of zeros. But when not a single potential recipient followed up with any ideas, Pijbes decided, in the spirit of the new foundation\u2019s name, Droom en Daad\u2014Dream and Deed\u2014to be proactive. He began scouring the city, but without a clear plan for what he\u2019d do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dana<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDana Lixenberg, Tupac Shakur, 1993, gelatin silver print mounted on aluminum, at the National Museum of Photography.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudio Hans Wilschut<\/p>\n

\n\tIn February 2017, he came across a derelict former warehouse on the harbor. The space was enormous, spanning more than 172,000 square feet. The way he tells it, once he found his way to the second floor, stood out on the balcony, and looked across the water, he had the answer. There he gazed upon the Pier of Tears\u2014so named because millions of immigrants said their final goodbyes to loved ones on that dock before departing for the New World\u2014and, behind it, the onetime headquarters of Holland America. The structure itself, built in 1923, was even part of the shipping line\u2019s operations. A museum about migration right in the spot where so much of it happened felt like kismet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA detail of that museum\u2019s semitransparent \u201ccrown\u201d facade, behind which are short-term-stay apartments.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudio Hans Wilschut<\/p>\n

\n\tSo did the prospect of hiring an Asian architect, considering the fact that the building is in a neighborhood called Katendrecht, the site of continental Europe\u2019s first Chinatown. When Pijbes soon attended a symposium and was impressed by fellow panelist Ma Yansong, he asked the founder of the buzzy Beijing-based MAD Architects, \u201cDo you have time to make a museum?\u201d and invited the rising star to Rotterdam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMa thought Pijbes was \u201cjust being polite,\u201d he tells Robb Report on the terrace of the Nieuwe Instituut<\/a>, a center for architecture, design, and digital culture that, in a convenient bit of cross-pollination, unveiled a show dedicated to Ma\u2019s inventive two-decade career the same week that Fenix opened its doors. \u201cBut at the same time, I was really hoping to do something in Europe,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe\u2019re the only Chinese architects doing work overseas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ma<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMa Yansong, founding partner of MAD Architects, on-site at Fenix, a onetime warehouse for the Holland America Line.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHufton + Crow<\/p>\n

\n\tMa, who is also behind the much-anticipated Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/a> in Los Angeles, came up with exactly one idea to present to Pijbes: a shiny, undulating sculpture-as-staircase. That was enough. It was meant to symbolize movement, he explained\u2014and visitors would see their own progression reflected back at them as they chose which of multiple routes to take upward. \u201cYou wonder which way to go,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then, when you walk through, there is the experience that you imagine\u2014the journey, the time, the history\u2014 and you look at yourself in the steel, [which is] still more like an artistic experience, and then you suddenly go through the roof. So, it\u2019s a lot of emotion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Ma, who lived in the U.S. while earning his master\u2019s degree at Yale and has traveled frequently to Rotterdam to work on Fenix, the museum\u2019s theme hit home. \u201cStep by step, the narrative of migration means more and more to me,\u201d he says. Droom en Daad also signed MAD to conceive the new Danshuis<\/a>, slated for completion in 2030. Opportunities for dancers with disparate disciplines to interact are often limited, so Ma hopes to lean into transparency. \u201cInside is all glass,\u201d he says of his initial plan, \u201cso they can see each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTypically, when a maverick philanthropist sets out to build a museum, the primary purpose is to house their private collection. (Think Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney or, more recently, Eli Broad.) Fenix, however, began with nothing more than a theme\u2014and a hefty bank account. Pijbes and the director he designated, Anne Kremers, quickly began to shop for art both new and old all over the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThey made their first acquisition at Frieze New York<\/a> in 2018: Alfredo Jaar\u2019s (Kindness) of (Strangers), a wall piece of neon arrows depicting the circuitous migration routes that were commonly traveled in 2015, the year it was made. They later purchased scores of other works, among them Gordon Parks\u2019s photographs of segregation in the U.S., one of Danh V\u00f5\u2019s 350 fragments of a re-created and chopped-up Statue of Liberty, and two oil portraits of African sailors in the merchant city of Leiden by 17th-century Dutch painter Jan van Staveren. The foundation also commissioned works, such as a series of 116 doll-size likenesses of Rotterdammers sculpted in modeling clay by Efrat Zehavi as she chatted with her diverse subjects on the streets of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

The opening of this place and the timing of it\u2014it\u2019s very charged. Art is all about timing.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Filmmaker Steve McQueen on Fenix<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tHistorical artifacts\u2014from a blueprint of a slave ship to a graffitied chunk of the Berlin Wall\u2014pepper the primary inaugural exhibition as well. But the object that, for Pijbes, best encapsulates the bravery of so many who cross borders is a subpar boat on long-term loan from the Italian government, which confiscated it from migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa to the island of Lampedusa. \u201cI saw all these ships, all the clothing, all the empty bottles, all the blankets\u2014they were still on the ships,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of witnessing their horrible journey. So, I said, \u2018Shit. I feel [like] an intruder in the personal stories of people.\u2019 I don\u2019t know what happened on these boats, what kind of traumas have taken place. People might have died or drowned.\u201d Pijbes pauses, choking up. \u201cSo, my gosh, then it really came very close.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, he was weary of focusing exclusively on despair. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to have only misery,\u201d he says, especially when hope is often the driving emotion of people leaving their homeland. The fraught position so many migrants now find themselves in is on the minds of the artists who turn out for an opening party, many having experienced the same unease firsthand. \u201cI know the violence of a border,\u201d says Omar Victor Diop, who lives in Paris but as a Senegalese artist is routinely subjected to rigorous visa processes when he wants to travel. \u201cThere\u2019s always the suspicion you\u2019ll want to stay because you come from a worse place. It\u2019s pretty humiliating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs hors d\u2019oeuvres from Fenix\u2019s restaurant, O, created by Michelin two-star Turkish chef Maksut A\u015fkar, are passed and a few guests begin to dance to the D.J.\u2019s beats, the Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, the British son of Caribbean immigrants, contemplates the zeitgeist. \u201cThe opening of this place and the timing of it\u2014it\u2019s very charged,\u201d says McQueen, who has a neon artwork on view. \u201cArt is all about timing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a sunny morning in Amsterdam, Ernest Mourmans pulls up to the De L\u2019Europe hotel in his Bentley Continental, his hair pulled back in a ponytail. About 20 minutes later, we turn in to a decommissioned army installation in Zaandam, a city whose claim to fame heretofore has been a clutch of historic windmills along the river Zaan. For the past five years or so, he and developer Serge Hannecart have been quietly converting much of the former military base and munitions factory into a sprawling showcase for contemporary art, and I am getting a sneak peek. Each artist will have their own building, with about 21,500 square feet to fill beneath ceilings that soar up to 45 feet high. Think the Dutch version of Marfa, Texas, Donald Judd\u2019s ode to Minimalism. But instead of a dusty desertscape in the middle of nowhere, the waterside Zaanstad Amsterdam Museum<\/a> (ZAMU) is surrounded by lush gardens designed by Piet Oudolf<\/a>, renowned for the High Line park in New York City and whom Mourmans has known for decades; so far, he has planted 20,000 bulbs. The plan is for regularly scheduled boats to ferry visitors directly from Amsterdam to the ZAMU dock in just 15 minutes. This being the Netherlands<\/a>, plenty of cyclists are also expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAn exterior view of ZAMU, with a garden designed by Piet Oudolf.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tErik and Petra Hesmerg<\/p>\n

\n\tOpening in the first half of 2026 will be pavilions for John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, and KAWS. Several other big-time names have visited the roughly 99-acre campus and called dibs on the cavernous spaces, in many cases planning to produce new site-specific pieces, but Mourmans is not ready to reveal their identities publicly. ZAMU\u2019s blueprints call for an eventual 15 to 20 permanent installations, as well as restaurants and bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAn architect by training, Mourmans has amassed a trove of works by collaborating closely with Chamberlain, Frank Stella, and others to produce their monumental sculptures during their lifetimes. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s important to keep the collection together, so it doesn\u2019t disappear in all directions\u2014three here, four there,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m going to make sure nothing will leave here. It will stay forever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe has fabricated KAWS\u2019s immense wooden pieces that riff on animated characters for about 12 years. \u201cErnest is a fascinating guy, and he\u2019s a perfectionist,\u201d Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, tells me over the phone. \u201cI know if he\u2019s doing it, it\u2019s going to be great. But it sounded like such a giant task, it was hard to get my head around.\u201d Eventually, he managed: A new sculpture, the largest wooden KAWS piece to date, will be so monumental, it must be built inside the pavilion. If it\u2019s not completed by the opening date, visitors will be able to observe its assembly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe John Chamberlain pavilion at ZAMU, rising on a former military base just outside Amsterdam, where each artist will have their own enormous space.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudio Hans Wilschut<\/p>\n

\n\tZAMU is teaming with the other artists or estates to curate their pavilions as well. While also operating More Gallery, an exhibition space in a former turbine hall near Lucerne, Switzerland, Mourmans has been orchestrating the renovations himself with an eye toward sustainability. The museum will rely almost exclusively on natural light. Mourmans takes me into Chamberlain\u2019s space, where he finished installing 19 hulking sculptures last year (it\u2019s exceedingly rare for a museum to have more than one or two) and where the new Rosewood Amsterdam hotel is hosting a V.I.P. dinner the following night. Most of the artworks are iterations of the Abstract Expressionist\u2019s signature style, achieved by crushing automobiles, then fitting the parts together like pieces of a puzzle for which only he knew the solution. Also on view are some of his \u201cFoils,\u201d massively scaled-up versions of tiny three-dimensional doodles made by scrunching and twisting aluminum foil. Improvised though they may appear, Chamberlain was a stickler for precision: An assistant was tasked with hand-counting the nubs to ensure the number precisely matched that of the maquette. \u201cHe had it completely in his head,\u201d Mourmans says of the artist\u2019s vision. \u201cHere, you come, you understand Chamberlain, you understand his language.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMourmans and Pijbes aren\u2019t the only ones rethinking what a museum can be in the 21st century. With the backing of electronic-trading mogul Rob Defares and starry advisers like Rem Koolhaas, veteran museum director Beatrix Ruf is turning a former Amsterdam courthouse into a nearly 215,000-square-foot total art ecosystem, containing not only exhibition galleries but also workshops, performance and rehearsal spaces, offices for other cultural nonprofits, restaurants, and short-term-stay apartments. Ruf likens the Hartwig Museum to the Library of Alexandria, an institution as \u201cpublic civil engagement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat we want to bring back is, not everything in a museum has to be exploited,\u201d she says. Construction is expected to continue until 2028, so in the meantime, the Hartwig opened a temporary space across the street this summer and has been busy with its numerous other programs, including collaborating with artists internationally to produce work, donating that work to the Dutch state, and partnering with Performa<\/a>, the New York\u2013based performance-art festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs she talks about the Hartwig, Ruf is also very curious to hear about ZAMU and Fenix, as well as Droom en Daad\u2019s broader efforts to remake Rotterdam. Noting that many of the premier museums of Europe were founded by visionary philanthropists, she says, \u201cIt might be we\u2019re in a phase like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCompetition seems the furthest thing from her mind. \u201cIt\u2019s great. Nothing against it at all,\u201d she says of the other projects. \u201cMore, always more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tWhere to Stay\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"De<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of De L\u2019Europe Amsterdam<\/p>\n

\n\tRotterdam\u2019s cultural relevance may be on the upswing, but the city still lacks five-star accommodations. There are some novelty options: the four-star Hotel New York<\/a>, which occupies the former Holland America shipping-line headquarters opposite Fenix; Wikkelboats<\/a> floating cabins in the harbor; and short-stay apartments atop the National Museum of Photography<\/a>, which have already begun renting. But visitors seeking luxury digs are better off making Rotterdam a day trip and sleeping in style in Amsterdam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere, the De L\u2019Europe Amsterdam<\/a> <\/strong>(top) has long been the grande dame. Opened in 1896 and owned by the Heineken family since the 1950s, it offers top-notch service in a hushed atmosphere defined by centuries-old oil paintings and marble bathrooms. Just over half of the 107 guest rooms are suites. Book a table at its elegantly renovated Michelin two-star Flore and enter through the kitchen before feasting on a botanical-focused tasting menu that is as exquisitely presented as it is prepared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Rosewood<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDani\u00eblle Siobh\u00e1n<\/p>\n

\n\tCompetition arrived in May, when the Rosewood Amsterdam<\/a> <\/strong>opened its doors in the former Palace of Justice after a fastidious 10-year renovation that reportedly cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The vibe is high contemporary, with a display of art commensurate with the reputation of the Cheng family of collectors who own the Rosewood Hotel Group. The lobby, for instance, features a pair of shaped canvases by Frank Stella (one of them, above), while a large Sterling Ruby hangs over a staircase, and Grandmother, a Maarten Baas \u201cReal Time\u201d clock with no hands, stands in the reception area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Rosewood<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDani\u00eblle Siobh\u00e1n<\/p>\n

\n\tChic locals are dining on the terrace of the restaurant Eeuwen on the bright afternoon I eat there, and Advocatuur, the Rosewood\u2019s glamorous India-inflected bar, is buzzing by 6 p.m. The still that produces the hotel\u2019s proprietary jenever\u2014the precursor to gin\u2014marks the entrance to an intimate speakeasy (above). And if you imbibe a bit too much while there, book a treatment at the serene spa the next morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n