Symposium Refresh Amsterdam #3

The program unfolds across three panels. In the first panel the past acts as a guiding thread, helping us to understand the present by reflecting on what has come before us. By shifting the focus to the present, the second panel questions how we live in the now and how our choices today shape the paths ahead. The third panel invites the artists to imagine possible futures, using their own work as a lens through which to explore alternative scenarios.

The symposium demonstrates that hope for a more inclusive and collective future is not an escape from reality, but a form of activism. To imagine a better world is an act of resistance — a refusal to accept the present as inevitable, and an invitation to envision what could be.

Location: Huis Willet-Holthuysen
Date and time: 5 October | 14:00 - 17:00
Price: free with purchase of museum ticket, registration required

Moderator and art historian Meta Knol
Art historian Meta Knol (1969) has a unique profile at the intersection of culture, science and society. As a curator, author, moderator and strategic advisor, she creates exhibitions and fosters debates on museum innovation. She is one of the founders of the Dutch Ministry of the Future, a bottom-up movement of long term, future-forward thinkers and doers that help inventing new forms of civic design. As director of Leiden European City of Science 2022, a pilot program of the European Commission, she co-developed a bottom-up model for Public Engagement with Science. 

Meta holds various board positions, including at the Dutch Research Agenda (NWO/NWA) and the Rembrandt Association. She is the chair of the Supervisory Board of Design Academy in Eindhoven. In 2026, Meta's book will be published: Handbook for Time Travelers.

Guest curator Nina Folkersma 
“In 2025, society will be facing major issues such as climate change, social inequality, and shifts in global power. This calls for new perspectives.” – Nina Folkersma, guest curator of Refresh Amsterdam #3.

According to Nina, artists are the antennae of society and experts in depicting new visions. In her role as curator, she looks for ways in which art helps us to see the future not as a fixed fact, but as a dynamic and changing scenario in which we can all play a role.

The Amsterdam Museum commissioned fifteen contemporary artists (collectives) with a connection to the city to create new work. From different creative disciplines, they offer their personal view of the future. They encourage visitors not to see the future as a fixed fact, but as one of many possible scenarios in which you yourself play a role.

Head of curators at the Amsterdam Museum Imara Limon

Artists t.b.a.

Panel 1: Understanding the Past
The future is rooted in the past. To understand where we are headed—both collective and personal—we must first recognize where we come from. This panel invites a moment of critical reflection: What can the past teach us about the present? And how can acknowledging its ongoing influence help us better understand today?

Panel 2: Shaping the Present
The present is fleeting—often becoming the past before we can fully grasp it. This panel focuses on how we can better engage with the “now” rather than being consumed by what lies ahead. How do artists interpret the present moment, and in what ways can they influence it? In a society that often urges us to look forward, what does it mean to truly inhabit the present?

Panel 3: Imagining the Future
The future remains uncertain, yet art and imagination allow us to explore possibilities beyond what we know. In this panel, artists use their own work as a starting point to envision potential futures. How much influence do we have over what lies ahead? Can we shape what we cannot predict? By speculating about the unknown, the conversation opens space for alternative perspectives on what might come next.

In honour of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, the Amsterdam Museum presents the third edition of Refresh Amsterdam: a large-scale art event that explores current themes in the city and society. In this edition the museum brings together work by artists and the public, with the central question: what does the future look like? This question forms the initial basis for collaborations and interactions between various artists and cultural institutions which are the focal point of the exhibition’s public program.

The exhibition features work by visual artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers, writers, dancers, and performers. The following 15 artists contributed to this edition: 4Siblings Collective, Frank Ammerlaan, Sebastián Díaz Morales, Ivna Esajas, Koen Hauser, Ischa Kempka, Minne Kersten, Natascha Libbert, Brigitte Louter, Fiona Lutjenhuis, Roshanak and Afagh Morrowatian, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Patricia Werneck, Don Yaw Kwaning and Maurits de Bruijn. The exhibition is curated by Nina Folkersma.