Whether you like singing, dancing or acting, watching films or visiting concerts, we have just the activity to boost your dopamine levels. Feel free to share this article with people you know. These activities below are better enjoyed together.

Film

BREAKING NEWS: The beautiful and incredibly uplifting film North Sea, Nature Untamed is coming to cinemas in the UK. This stunning cinematic production – which won a Gouden Kalf Award in 2025 (the Dutch equivalent of a BAFTA award) – shows the incredible biodiversity in the sea between the UK and the Netherlands. Yes, that rather murky looking sea right on our doorstep is actually teeming with wildlife! Watch the trailer here.
This news is so fresh that we don’t even know the official release date yet. Sometime this summer!

Another film by a Dutch director coming to a cinema near you is The North. This film about two friends hiking Scotland’s West Highland Way and Cape Wrath Trail received a four star review in The Guardian. The North is an ode to friendship and to the healing power of nature. Amidst the sweeping landscapes, harsh weather and chance encounters with other hikers, the solitude and silence of the trek forces two male friends to confront truths about themselves and their friendship – and find out what it truly means to stand still and listen.
The first preview screening in the UK is on 20 March at Tyne Valley Film Festival. A list of all the screenings in Scotland and England can be found here.

Other film screenings that we would like to mention are two short films that will be shown at the European Film Festival at Jesus College in Cambridge on Sunday 29 March. Both are short films by Dutch film director Sam Yazdanpanna: Ask the Wind and Silence is Full of the Unsproken. Yazdanpanna’s work is inspired by the predicament of so many people whose lives are heavily influenced by decisions made by people in power, by the paperwork they hold – or don’t – such as which passport one has, what visa status a refugee is given, whether a woman is married or not. Both films are set in the Netherlands and the main characters are from Iran, the country where Yazdanpanna was born, and from which he fled as a teenager to eventually settle in the Netherlands. The film director, who also created an interactive graphic novel Like Dust, about his own journey to the Netherlands, assisted by people smugglers, will speak about his work and life experiences at the festival in Cambridge. Book your free ticket at the bottom of this webpage.

Dance

Southbank Centre’s grooviest and funkiest days in the 2026 calendar are 4, 5 and 6 June. We recommend you mark these days in your dairy. In GROOVE, The Ruggeds and Ghetto Funk Collective – both from the Netherlands – take us back to the era of James Brown, Nina Simone and Herbie Hancock. This show is performed in the 900 seat Queen Elizabeth Hall.
And that is not all! On 5 and 6 June these Dutch dancers and musicians will also do a takeover of Southbank Centre’s Riverside Terrace. There will be funky tunes, dance battles, dance workshops, and a lot of opportunities for you to show your best moves. The party on the terrace is free to enter.
And that is still not all! On Saturday 6 June it gets even more groovy when the incredible dancing sisters Norah, Yarah and Rosa – aka LET IT HAPPEN – join the takeover of the Riverside Terrace. This is not to be missed.

More into contemporary dance? The UK’s oldest dance company, Rambert, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. In celebration, Rambert will tour the UK and internationally with a triple bill of outstanding choreographies. This Is Rambert includes the oustanding production Gallery of Consequences by Dutch choreographer Emma Evelein. The centenary tour starts at Sadler’s Wells in London on 10, 11 and 12 June, followed by theatres in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Salford and Norwich.

There are not only action-packed activities on the Dutch cultural calendar in the UK. Lots of sensitive and thoughtful artistic events are making their way from the Netherlands to the UK as well.
There is abundant scientific evidence that being creative and being exposed to creativity of others has tremendous health benefits. Not only does participating in the arts contribute to happier individuals and positive interactions between people; various forms of art can trigger a range of neurotransmitters in the brain, which can help people with memory loss, or severe depressions, or other brain illnesses, to cope better with those limitations.

Classical Music

A wonderful example of world-class arts benefitting people living with dementia is the performance Forgotten by the Netherlands Chamber Choir at the Barbican Centre on 15 May. Forgotten is a musical exploration of living with dementia. It takes audiences into the mind of a dementia patient – through fear, confusion, memory loss, and ultimately surrender to the unknown. The work is created in collaboration with dementia patients and performed by the internationally acclaimed Nederlands Kamerkoor.

Another incredible concert taking place in May is a collaboration between the famous Dutch piano duo brothers Arthur and Lucas Jussen and the orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. On 2 May, there will be a concert in London, followed by a European tour.

Also in May, on the 6th and 7th, the Dutch Apollo Ensemble are performing the Baroque chamber opera Auto da Catingueira by Brazilian composer Elomar Figueira Mello at Round Chapel in East London. This very Brazilian opera hadn’t been performed in Europe until Apollo Ensemble made a Dutch version of it, which was performed all over the Netherlands throughout 2025. Now, the opera – in its original language – is coming to London, as part of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2026. For these London performances, the musicians of Apollo Ensemble will be joined by Brazilian opera singers.

The pairing of the Netherlands-based New European Ensemble and acclaimed Scottish author Ali Smith is another very special international collaboration. The music for Seasonal Quartet is written by four female composers, inspired by Ali Smith’s novels Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. Smith narrates the story on stage. You can circle two dates in your diary, as Seasonal Quartet will be performed twice in the UK in the coming months: at the Spitalfields Music Festival in London on 2 July and at Edinburgh International Book Festival on 28 August.

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam, which regularly performs in the UK, has two UK concerts lined up in the near future: on 20 March in Leamington Spa and on 22 March in Norwich. In both instances they perform together with Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey.

Indie rock

Touring the South of England this week (15 to 18 March) is Dutch indie rock band Mood Bored. They will make stops in London, Bristol, Southampton and Reading. For the fans up North: Mood Bored have toured the UK before and we are hopeful that they will play in a venue near you pretty soon. (Perhaps you could give your local venue a little nudge.)

In April, psychrock band Yīn Yīn will be performing in Norwich, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol and London. Yīn Yīn frequents the UK even more often than Mood Bored, so our message for fans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: tell your local music venue about the many great bands in the Netherlands.

Literature

The European Writers Festival returns to the British Library in London on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May. Almost every European country is represented by an author at this festival, which celebrates international dialogue and understanding through the written word. The Dutch author that has been selected to participate is Jente Posthuma, who was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2024. Two of Posthuma’s books have been translated into English: What I’d Rather Not Think About and People with No Charisma. Both novels will be for sale at the festival and Posthuma will be happy to sign your copies.

Theatre for young audiences

Belfast Children's Festival is staging yet another Dutch production. Be Kind, by Weisse Circustheater, is an intimate theatre experience for babies aged 6-18 months. In this sensory performance of sound, colour and movement, two circus artists take a sensory journey where little ones are introduced to acrobatics and juggling. This show is performed several times on 13 and 14 March at the Brian Friel Theatre, Queen's University Belfast.

Edinburgh Children’s Festival has two shows from the Netherlands in the 2026 programme. One is aimed at 2- to 6-year-olds, the other is aimed at teenagers. WOW! by theatre group BonteHond is a physical and musical performance that reveals the world through the eyes of toddlers, who delight in everyday objects and situations. For teenagers, Theatre Artemis has created a show about FOMO (fear of missing out), the title of which is It Would Be Such A Shame If You Missed Out.

Visual Arts

Thus far, the British charity Hospital Rooms had only worked with visual artists in the UK to, on the one hand, provide arts workshops to patients in mental health wards and, on the other hand, to create – with input gathered during those workshops – artworks to improve the living environment in the hospital ward. Now, Hospital Rooms is working with its first international artist: Lily van der Stokker. This Dutch artist, who previously had solo exhibitions at Tate St Ives and Camden Art Centre, will make a work of art for a ward at Parkview Mental Health Clinic Birmingham. The people staying at this ward, often for several months at the time, are teenage girls with serious mental health issues. During workshops, the girls were invited to design their own wallpaper, inspired by Lily van der Stokker’s colourful work. In May, a completely new Lily van der Stokker will be revealed on one of the walls in their ward. Impactful, beautiful, inspirational.

FACT Liverpool currently has an exhibition with works by three artists who are all inspired by technological developments. One of those artists is Jan Zuiderveld from the Netherlands. Zuiderveld has created an AI-driven coffee machine that refuses to dispense coffee on demand. To get a coffee, you must motivate Coffee Machine and prove you are worthy of its service.
The artist's second installation at FACT is a camera that provides real-time commentary about the person in front of it, in a voice similar to Sir David Attenborough's. The work raises questions about surveillance and agency: how do external narratives, especially those generated by AI, influence our sense of self, of each other, and of the world around us?

The East London gallery Auto Italia presents Noorani Metal Sound, the first major UK solo exhibition by Netherlands-based Pakistani artist and researcher Zahra Malkani. Working across multiple media, she explores the politics of development and dispossession through the lens of dissident ecological knowledge and traditions of environmental resistance. The exhibition opens on 23 March.

Coincidentally, the founder of Auto Italia, artist Kate Cooper, who has been living in the Netherlands for many years, will have a solo exhibition at Glasgow International in June. More details to follow soon.

Two commercial galleries in London also currently have works by Dutch artists on show. GRIMM is presenting a number of brand new paintings by Michael Raedecker. This is Raedecker's second exhibition with the gallery in London, and his largest show in the city in over ten years. Meanwhile, Mark Manders has made an installation for London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, which invites visitors to consider how our understanding of the ancient past, shaped from the fragments and artefacts that survive, might be incomplete.

Design

Mint Gallery in London – another commercial enterprise – has been championing Dutch design for decades. Of all the 75 to 80 designers Mint currently represents, at least a quarter is from the Netherlands. Paying a visit to Mint Gallery is always a treat for the senses. Paying a visit during London Craft Week even more so. Highlight Thursday evening 14 May in your diary. That’s when the young Dutch designer Willem Zwiers gives a talk about his work at Mint. Among other things, Zwiers will share insights in how he developed his ‘Blow Up Collection’. It involves inflating clay slabs in wooden moulds, using a similar technique used in the glass industry, but adapted for ceramics. Pretty nifty.

Talks

One more talk to mention here – although already sold out – is a conversation between Robbert Dijkgraaf, a former Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, and Christoph Lindner, the President and Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London. The two men – one an esteemed Science Professor, the other a respected Arts Professor – know each other well. They both believe there is a lot of value in promoting more exchange between the arts and the sciences, and they also both worry about the increased restrictions that are being felt by both arts professionals and scientists to do their work freely.

Residencies

One of the best ways to build lasting connections between arts professionals in the Netherlands and the UK is to facilitate opportunities for those professionals to work in each other’s country for a few weeks. Such residencies can be rather costly, though. Recently, Arts Council England and the Performing Arts Fund NL decided to support two music residencies: one collaboration between a Dutch ensemble and a British composer, and one between a collective in England and a composer in the Netherlands. Thanks to the generous support of these two art funds, Fraz Ireland will be creating new music in collaboration with Het Muziek in Amsterdam, while Jasper de Bock will work with musicians of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for several weeks. The two art funds don’t have structural funding available to keep making these residencies happen, but we are very grateful for the opportunity provided to these ensembles and composers involved. We can’t wait to hear what comes out of these exchanges.

Another exchange between arts professionals that is aimed at building lasting connections is a programme for European creative producers, organised by Factory International in Manchester and largely funded by EUNIC. There are fifteen participants from all over Europe. The Dutch participant is Naomi van Dijck. The programme starts with various online meetings. In July the group will come together in Manchester for a week.

Van Gogh House London is welcoming a Dutch artist duo again this year. From mid-April till late May, Annabelle Binnerts and Bart Lunenberg will live and work in the house where Vincent van Gogh once lived. They will be well supported by the staff of Van Gogh House. Public-facing events and workshops with local schools will be part of the residency, as is the creation of a new work that will remain in the house long after the artists have left.

Theatre

Speaking of Vincent van Gogh’s time in London: the theatre production Vincent in Brixton is coming to Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames from 14 March to 18 April. In this production, the famous Dutch painter is played by Dutch actor Jeroen Frank Kales.

Kales isn’t the only Dutch actor with a lead role in a UK production. Actress and singer Vivian Panka, who already had some big roles in musicals in the past, is now a proper musical star. Panka is Regina George in Mean Girls! The musical is touring the whole of the UK, showing in more than 30 theatres this year.

More Dutch theatre will be coming to Edinburgh in August. We’ll save the details for our next newsletter.

Jazz

A Dutch Jazz showcase will be part of  Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival from 17 to 21 July, with six Dutch jazz gigs and one Dutch jazz talk. Again, we’ll share more details in our next newsletter.

Contact the Culture Team at the Dutch Embassy in the UK

Many activities featured in this news article have been made possible with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK. Supporting collaborations between well-established UK-based arts organisations and trailblazing Netherlands-based arts professionals is part of the International Cultural Policy of the Netherlands. If you want to know more about this, please contact us on lon-ppc@minbuza.nl.