11 Jul - 30 Nov 2025
11 Jul - 30 Nov 2025
Amsterdam Museum on the AmstelFrom July 11
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.
Raquel van Haver presents solo exhibition The Collateral Kin
Especially for this exhibition, visual artist Raquel van Haver created six new works for the Amsterdam Museum. These six large group portraits are presented separately as a solo exhibition with the title The Collateral Kin 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. Next to painting the people on canvas, Van Haver also photographed them and archived everyone's story in cooperation with Stadsarchief Amsterdam.
'The 17th-century group portraits from the Amsterdam Museum's collection formed a source of inspiration. Paintings known to visitors as works in which the elite often came together and showed their deeds with grandest gestures. I bring these works into the present with The Collateral Kin.”
Contemporary artists
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.
Your wish for the future
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.
Family game (8+)
What will Amsterdam look like when you're old? And in a hundred years? And in a thousand years?
The exhibition includes a special family game (8+). With this card game you will go through the museum and make your own wish for the future in the form of a drawing. And, your wish becomes part of the exhibition!
- Pick up the family game for free at the audio tour desk. Afterwards, you may keep the game.
- For children up to and including 17, admission is free.
- The family game is only available in Dutch
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, het Cultuurfonds and Mondriaan Fund. The Amsterdam Museum is generously supported by its Main Benefactor the Municipality of Amsterdam and Main Partner for Education the ELJA Foundation.