Let’s have a look at the already pretty impressive calendar for spring 2024…

Visual arts

• A group exhibition of female artists from the Netherlands opens at Saatchi Gallery in London on Woman’s Day, 8 March (with the private view on the evening of 7 March). Standing on the Shoulders of Giants runs until 12 May and is free to visit.
  For our Dutch readers, see this preview in De Volkskrant.
• RENDR Festival in Belfast (which took place on 29 February and 1 March) showed an installation by Dutch immersive media artist Matthias Oostrik and one of the keynote speakers was Merel van Helsdingen , Founder and Managing Director of Nxt Museum, the Home of New Media Art in Amsterdam. Good news for those who’ve missed it: Matthias Oostrik’s work will stay in storage in Belfast and a slightly adjusted version will be part of Belfast Photo Festival , from 1 to 30 June 2024.
• Chisenhale Gallery is working on three (!) consecutive solo exhibitions by artists who are based in the Netherlands. The ‘ Creativity from the Netherlands ’ season starts on 16 May with an exhibition by Rory Pilgrim, followed by exhibitions of Simnikiwe Buhlungu ’s work in September and October and Bruno Zhu ’s work from November 2024 to February 2025.
• Whilst we are looking a bit beyond spring, let's also already mention Claudia Martínez Garay ’s first major solo exhibition in Scotland, at Dundee Contemporary Arts from August to November 2024.
• GRIMM, the only Dutch gallery in London (as far as we are aware), has just opened the UK debut exhibition of acclaimed Dutch contemporary artist Saskia Noor van Imhoff , titled Mineral Lick (until 6 April). 

Theatre

• Belfast Children’s Festival has a special ‘Focus on the Netherlands’ this year, with performances by two Dutch theatre companies – Het Houten Huis and Maas Theater en Dans – and several events for theatre professionals to learn about the Dutch approach in making arts for young audiences. Productions from the Netherlands for young audiences are highly regarded in the industry. They are often of very high artistic quality, and not seldomly the topics that are dealt with in these plays are boundary pushing for young audiences. Most importantly: the things that are happening on stage are incredibly enjoyable to watch for both the children and their parents and grandparents.
  The Irish News published a lovely article about the Belfast Children’s Festival focus on the Netherlands.     
• 'The Years', directed by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s (ITA) new Artistic Director Eline Arbo, is coming to London's Almeida Theatre from 27 July to 31 August. Five different actors bring one woman’s personal and political story to life, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing post-war Europe.

Audio-visual arts

• Dutch sound artist duo No Plexus are coming to Scotland in March and will reside at Cove Park for three weeks to prepare new work for Sonica Festival in Glasgow, in the autumn of 2024.
• Two other Dutch musicians (both from Leeuwarden) are in Salford at this very moment. Selma Ebbens and Wytse Dijkstra are working with arts organisation Walk the Plank and with sound artists from Greater Manchester to create installations for a walking tour through Salford. In total, eight installations will be created in Salford. The opening weekend is 18 and 19 May. The tour will remain available for at least a year.
• A lovely audio-visual production, especially created for babies aged 6 to 18 months (and their parents and grandparents), was part of the Imagine Festival at the Southbank Centre in London last month. The nine sold out Rockaby concerts by Dutch ensemble Frisse Oren were a big hit at the festival. 

Literature

• Also in the weekend of 18 and 19 May is the European Writers’ Festival at the British Library in London, organised by a network of embassies and cultural institutes in London called EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture). The Dutch Embassy is part of that network and, like all other members, has selected an author to participate in the festival. The Dutch participant is Simone Atangana Bekono, whose book Confrontations (translated by Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen) was published in English in January this year.
• If we were allowed to select more Dutch authors for the festival, we would have been able to fill the entire programme with incredible authors from the Netherlands. In the past few years, hundreds of Dutch books have been translated into English and there are still more fantastic translations coming up in 2024. Some examples of exciting recent publications of translated Dutch work are Mary, or the birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout (translated by Laura Watkinson), Good Men by Arnon Grunberg (translated by Sam Garrett), My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld (translated by Michele Hutchison), The History of My Sexuality by Tobi Lakmaker (translated by Kristen Gehrman), Breakwater by Marijke Schermer (translated by Liz Waters), We Are Light by Gerda Blees (translated by Michele Hutchison) and The Fighter of Auschwitz by Erik Brouwer. Find many more books on www.newdutchwriting.co.uk/books.

Film

• The same EUNIC London network is also hosting a festival with short films from all over the EU. Again, there was space for just one Dutch production. The curator selected I Am Not A Robot , directed by Victoria Warmerdam. The film festival In Short, Europe: Best of Best takes place in Glasgow on 20 and 21 April and in London on 27 and 28 April.

Music

• In March 2024, Wishful Singing (from the Netherlands) and The VOCES8 Foundation (from the UK) will launch an online course on Gregorian singing, called Gregorian Treasures . The vocalists of Wishful Singing and VOCES8 will also embark on a corresponding Gregorian Treasures Tour in April and June 2024, featuring concerts in the Netherlands, England, and France.
• Dutch musician and composer Mees Vervuurt is currently in London, working together with nine UK-based musicians/composers who are all following a course via The Alternative Conservatoire . On 18 May they will give a performance at Rich Mix London.
• Lovers of live pop, rock and electronic music should make their way to The Great Escape in Brighton, from 15 to 18 May. This festival is a celebration of new music from all over the world. Dutch bands that form part of the line-up are Marathon , néomí ,  Nusantara Beat and Sarah Julia .
• For her next UK tour, electronic music producer Halina Rice, from London, is joining forces with sound artist Marijn Cinjee, from Utrecht. The first time they created intricate, immersive listening experiences together was last year in a theatre in London's West End. That was also supported by the Dutch Embassy, as are the performances in April 2024 in Bristol, Brighton, Newcastle, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester.
• Haarlem Accordion Orchestra from the Netherlands has been invited to perform at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, London, as part of the Bellows Across Borders  concert series. The concert - on Sunday afternoon 7 April - will feature a wide range of music, from Bach to blockbuster film scores to original music for accordion orchestras.

Design

• A display with amazing applications for “waste” materials can be found on the fourth floor of the V&A in London. The famous Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma shows there what can be made of recycled linoleum and she reveals how versatile wool can be – even wool from sheep that are not kept for their wool. Meindertsma uses a robot arm to “knit” all kinds of shapes with the wool. She even made a couch! Christien Meindertsma: Re-forming waste is on display until October 2024.
• Another famous Dutch designer who has been pioneering extremely sustainable design principles, Claudy Jongstra, has been commissioned to make artworks and interior design objects for the Bankside Hotel in London.

Many of the projects above are financially supported by the Dutch Embassy in London or culture funds in the Netherlands. By connecting people working at arts organisations in the UK with artists in the Netherlands and by supporting them to work together, audiences in the UK get an opportunity to experience arts from the Netherlands and artists from the Netherlands get an opportunity to work internationally; the epitome of a win-win situation. Read more on our webpage about cultural exchange.

The United Kingdom is one of the focus countries in the Netherlands’ International Cultural Policy. With this policy our goal is to strengthen the position of the Dutch cultural sector in the UK, through visibility, exchange and sustainable cooperation. Also, through Dutch cultural activities in the UK we aim to support the bilateral relationship between the Netherlands and the UK (cultural diplomacy). Finally, we aim to apply the strengths of the cultural sector and creative industries as we work towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).