It is one of the city’s tourist attractions: the Dutch Quarter in Potsdam. And it is probably the most visible, if by no means the only, sign of Dutch influence in the Brandenburg state capital. This year’s theme year “Holland in Potsdam”, which is scheduled to officially start on Thursday, April 27, King’s Day, aims to draw attention to the multitude of cross-connections between Holland and Potsdam.
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works of art by around 40 Dutch artists are shown in the Barberini show.
The program, which is to be published on the internet blog holland-in-potsdam.de from April 27, is being put together by more than 20 different institutions, with more than 50 people involved in Potsdam’s cultural life. In addition to the Museum Barberini and the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (SPSG) as initiators of the campaign, these also include the Potsdam Museum, the Jan Bouman House, the Lindenstraße Memorial Foundation, the Film Museum and the Friends of the Jagdschloss Stern, and last but not least the Mills Association Berlin- Brandenburg or the Liebermann Villa at Wannsee.
Joint cultural festival on September 10th at the Alter Markt
“We are very happy that the idea of conceiving the Potsdam cultural summer based on our exhibition as a cultural summer ‘in orange’ met with such a positive response from Potsdam’s cultural institutions,” said Barberini Museum Manager Ortrud Westheider. “The enthusiasm that everyone involved shows to manage the city walk, blog and event program inspires us all and increases our curiosity about the diversity of the program,” Westheider continues. The Barberini boss also announced a joint cultural festival on the Alter Markt, which is planned for September 10th.
A show entitled “Clouds and Light. Impressionism in Holland”. Around 100 masterpieces by 40 artists from the Netherlands will be on display until October, including Johan Barthold Jongkind, Vincent van Gogh, Jacoba van Heemskerck and Piet Mondrian.
Ambassador is patron of the Barberini show
The patron of the exhibition is Ronald van Roeden, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Germany: “As ambassador of the Netherlands and patron of the exhibition, I am very pleased that the exhibition ‘Clouds and Light. Impressionism in Holland,” said van Roeden during his visit to the Dutch Quarter on Monday of this week. “Through this wonderful initiative by the Museum Barberini, the Netherlands is presented here in a diverse and very attractive way.”
Traces of our Dutch neighbors are most visible in the Dutch Quarter in Potsdam, said Brandenburg’s Minister of Culture Manja Schüle (SPD). “But there is much more to discover than poffertjes and pankook and not just for the tulip festival or the Sinterklaas Christmas market,” says the longtime Potsdam resident. The cultural summer 2023 will make “Holland in Potsdam” visible – with readings, concerts, film screenings, walks and exhibitions. The Potsdam Palace Night is also dedicated to Holland this year. On the weekend of August 18th and 19th, under the title “Magnificent”, there will be an invitation to the staged Park Sanssouci and its palaces to show points of contact between Prussia and Holland.
At the start of the theme year on April 27th, the Barberini app for smartphones will offer a city tour as an audio tour of 20 different locations in the city with reference to Holland. Like its predecessor projects “Italy in Potsdam” and “France in Potsdam”, the city tour is permanently available.
