11 Jul - 30 Nov 2025
Refresh Amsterdam #3
Imagine the Future
11 Jul - 30 Nov 2025
Amsterdam Museum on the AmstelVanaf 11 juli te zien
What does the future look like? And who actually determines what the future is? For the third edition of the biennial presentation Refresh Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Museum invites artists and the public to dream, explore and create. What has the future in store for us? In the exhibition, artists and the public guide you through their wishes, expectations and fantasies for the future. Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the Future will be shown from July 11 to November 30, 2025, at the Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel (Amstel 51, H’ART Museum building).
This exhibition is part of the celebration of 750 years of Amsterdam. It is also the largest and final exhibition of the Amsterdam Museum in the H’ART Museum building.
The future is not defined by one path, but a landscape of possibilities. How will we shape it, as individuals, as a city and as a society? For Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the Future, the Amsterdam Museum commissioned fifiteen professional contemporary artists to create work on the urgent topics that affect our shared future. The exhibition features works by visual artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers, writers, and performers.
This includes an artwork made from children’s drawings of the future, speculation about a more inclusive future based on fictional archaeological finds, and research into seeds and plants for Amsterdam in the time ahead. Each artwork is therefore a call to see the future not as an inevitable given, but as just one of many possible, alternative futures that we can actively shape— through imagination, creativity, and collaboration. Each work focuses on how the past, present and future are connected.
Especially for this exhibition, visual artist Raquel van Haver created six new works for the Amsterdam Museum as part of Amsterdam 750 and the project Group Portraits of the 21st Century. These six large group portraits are presented separately in the main hall of the exhibition Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the Future. The works by Van Haver depict people who, according to the artist, should be remembered in the future because they contribute to the city of Amsterdam today.
Inspired by regent portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries, Van Haver depicts influential thinkers, creatives and activists from the city - from Gloria Wekker to Massih Hutak, Diana Ozon and Joost van Bellen. Each painting is framed with special veneer in which additional stories and symbolism are woven. The portraits are the heart of the exhibition and a powerful tribute to heroes of today.
Jouw toekomstwens in het museum
For the first time, members of the public are also co-creators of Refresh Amsterdam. In april 2025, the Amsterdam Museum asked the Dutch public to share their dreams, expectations, and wishes concerning the future. Whether it was a video, postcard, song, poem, painting, construction drawing, or photograph, it could be anything, as long as it depicted a personal view of the future of the Netherlands.
All submissions will become part of the digital collection of the Amsterdam Museum. A professional jury will select the twenty most inspiring submissions. The winning entries, as well as the works of the professional artists, will be on view in the exhibition Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the Future.
Made possible by
Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the Future will be shown from July 11 to November 30, 2025, at the Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel (Amstel 51, H’ART Museum building). The exhibition is made possible in part by the VriendenLoterij. The Amsterdam Museum is generously supported by its Main Benefactor the Municipality of Amsterdam and Main Partner for Education the ELJA Foundation.