Museum Barberini
Kick-off "Holland in Potsdam" in April 2023 with Potsdam cultural institutions, H.E. Ronald van Roeden, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Germany, Manja Schüle, Minister for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, Burkhard Exner, Mayor of the City of Potsdam and Michael Philipp, Chief Curator, Museum Barberini
Exhibitions, events, blog and audio walk: Potsdam „in oranje“!
Exhibitions, events, blog and audio walk: Some 20 Potsdam cultural institutions celebrated the theme year "Holland in Potsdam" in 2023. To kick off on April 27, the Dutch national holiday "Koningsdag," the blog Holland in Potsdam was launched as a joint project of the partners!
The Dutch Quarter in Potsdam is world-famous—but the influence of the Netherlands in Potsdam goes much further. From April through the late fall of 2023, the project “Holland in Potsdam” showcased a wide range of connections between Potsdam and the Netherlands, from tulip festival to migration, from fine art to gardening.
The multifaceted program represented the collaboration of over twenty cultural institutions in Potsdam, including the Museum Barberini and the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation as initiators of the program as well as the Potsdam Museum, Jan Bouman House, Lindenstraße Memorial Foundation, Filmmuseum, Berlin-Brandenburg Mill Association, Friends of the Stern Hunting Lodge, and the Liebermann Villa on the Wannsee. All participants contributed to the blog Holland in Potsdam accompanying the program of events, with articles, videos, and photo galleries posted each week from now through the fall, highlighting a mix of contemporary and historical themes.
We are thrilled that the idea of imagining a Potsdam cultural summer ‘in orange’ with our exhibition as the point of departure has been so well-received by our colleagues from other cultural institutions in Potsdam. The enthusiasm that all the participants have shown in putting together the city walk, blog, and program of events inspires us all and heightens the anticipation for the multifaceted program, which will culminate on September 10 in a major cultural festival on the Alter Markt.
As ambassador of the Netherlands and patron of the exhibition, I am delighted to open the exhibition Clouds and Light: Impressionism in Holland this summer. I am impressed above all by how the cultural institutions gathered here have uncovered an unbelievable number of connections to the Netherlands, layer by layer, with archaeological precision. This marvelous initiative of the Museum Barberini showcases the Netherlands in a diverse and very attractive way.
Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig: At the Dunes, Zandvoort, 1891-92, Singer Laren, gift of P. J. Hart Nibbrig 1981
The point of departure for the theme year was the exhibition Clouds and Light: Impressionism in Holland, on view at the Museum Barberini from July 8 to October 22. The exhibition brought together around a hundred masterpieces by forty artists including Johan Barthold Jongkind, Vincent van Gogh, Jacoba van Heemskerck, and Piet Mondrian. Already now, an audio tour of Potsdam was available free of charge on the Barberini App, taking listeners on a walk to twenty different locations in the city with fascinating connections to Holland. Like the previous city walks “Italy in Potsdam” and “France in Potsdam,” the tour will be permanently accessible on the app as an audio guide and will also appear in print as a brief art guide in the publication series of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation.
In 2023, the Schlössernacht in Potsdam also focused on the Netherlands. During the weekend of August 18–19, visitors were invited to experience the opulently decorated palaces and park of Sanssouci under the motto “Prachtig” (“Splendid”). Initial highlights of the event program included tours focusing on the women of the Dutch Quarter, organized by the Jan Bouman House, as well as tours on garden art and Dutch tiles offered by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation.
Complete information on the project and program of events is available on the blog Holland in Potsdam.
Potsdam is a cultural capital of Europe—and has always been shaped by international exchange. The traces of our Netherlandish neighbors are most visible in the Dutch Quarter. But there is much more to discover than just poffertjes and pannenkoeken, and not just at the tulip festival or the Sinterklaas Christmas market. The cultural summer of 2023 brings visibility to ‘Holland in Potsdam’—with readings, concerts, film screenings, walks, and exhibitions. Thank you to the Museum Barberini and the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation for initiating this theme year!
The Dutch Quarter is proof of the historical connections to the Netherlands that have existed since the time of King Frederick William I—and even that of his predecessors. In those days it was craftsmen and architects who came to our city; now it is students, scientists, and of course artists. The motives of those who come to us now are different than they used to be, but one thing has stayed the same: the interaction between our guests, whether temporary or long-term, and the people who live here creates value—value that you can see, in which you can live and work, as well as intellectual and cultural value. All of you have set out to show the complexity of this value—through exhibitions, tours, informational programs, and not least of all the cultural festival in the center of Potsdam in September. I would like to express my sincere thanks for your efforts and, of course, for the support of the embassy of the Netherlands. I look forward to the various events and even now wish all of you the best of success.