Let’s go outside! Discover the art on the streets of The Hague

City map with 150 highlights

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Did you know there are many works of art in The Hague, right on the street? In the city center you will find a sculpture gallery with 40 modern sculptures, including a huge sculpture by Karel Appel near City Hall: a stack of colourful animals. And of course there are many historical monuments in the city, for example around the Binnenhof. And ‘kèhk nâh' (The Hague slang for ‘look there') - not just Eline Vere, but also Haagse Harry is immortalized in a sculpture!! Outside the city center there is also a lot of art to be found - in the Zuiderpark, around the Gemeentemuseum, in the harbour and on Scheveningen Boulevard. And if you are looking for an unforgettable experience you should visit the unique piece of land art by James Turrell in Kijkduin. An absolute must!

The Sculpture Gallery
The Sculpture Gallery was created after a concept by the Dutch artist P. Struycken, who also made the light art installation at the art academy of The Hague ( no. ...). Along the Grote Marktstraat, Kalvermarkt and the Spui, in the city center, you will find a superb survey of contemporary sculpture art. It is a real open-air museum, with a continually changing set up of the collection. Over the past 25 years art center Stroom Den Haag has commissioned leading Dutch artists to create new sculptures, including Atelier van Lieshout, David Bade, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Folkert de Jong, Maria Roosen, Carel Visser and Auke de Vries.

Zuiderpark/Escamp
In the Zuiderpark you will find Edible Park: two gardens and a sustainable pavilion. The British artist Nils Norman created them on commission by Stroom to test what ecological gardening can do for a city. If you are interested in sustainability, you are welcome to visit and roll up your sleeves.

In the adjacent Escamp city district, after World War II many artists were involved in the building of houses. This resulted in beautiful 1950s style wall reliefs. In between the buildings there are also works of art to be found, by some quite famous names: artists from The Hague like Willem Hussem and Rudy Rooijakkers, and the internationally renowned Marino Marini.
The Scottish artist Toby Paterson gave a wall relief from a demolished housing block a new life in the Zuiderpark. By placing it inside a metal structure, the wall ornament can now be viewed from all sides, including the wallpaper and wall sockets of the last inhabitants.

Scheveningen
On the boulevard, near museum Beelden aan Zee, you will meet the fairytale creatures of Tom Otterness. As an ode to Scheveningen this American artist also installed The Herring eater, reaching more than twelve meters into the sky. Another iconic sculpture is the Fisherman's wife by C. Bakker from 1982. She looks out over the sea, hoping for the safe return of her husband and sons. In the harbour you will find the Tonnenmonument (Monument of barrels) by Phil van de Klundert. It was installed in 1979 in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the harbour and the fish auction building.
Are you travelling by bike? It is very likely that you will encounter a unique guardhouse at one of the Biesieklette bicycle stations. Like the one by the artist John Körmeling: a transparent little building with poetic texts. The guardhouse designed by the artist/architecture collective FAT is a fusion of a white pyramid, a miniature house with stepped gables and medieval battlements. 

James Turrell 'Celestial Vault'
The work by the American artist James Turrell is famous all over the world. In 1996 he designed a unique piece of land art in Kijkduin, commissioned by Stroom. In the dunes, where the typical Dutch light can have such a tangible presence, he created a place to gaze at the sky. When you lie down on your back on the bench in the grass-covered crater, all you can see is the sky. The strange thing is: it feels as if the sky slowly deforms; it takes the shape of a vault that rests on the edge of the bowl. Nearby there is another bench, where a panorama unfolds over the sea, the beach and the countryside beyond. When you lie down on this bench the sky gradually becomes flatter. This impressive observatory is certainly worth a bike ride! (climb the stairs across from restaurant De Haagsche Beek).

Design window display and flyer/map: Vruchtvlees

The free flyer/city map is a production of Stroom Den Haag.
Stroom is supported by the City of The Hague.