2025.11.29 – Art Noord VII: The Small Museum Art Fair With a Big Northern Heart

Key Takeaways

At a glance

• Art Noord VII is an art fair inside Museum Belvédère in Heerenveen-Oranjewoud in the north of the Netherlands.
• The seventh edition took place from 25 to 28 September 2025 and brought together 17 galleries and art dealers from the northern provinces and beyond.
• Visitors could see and buy modern and contemporary art in a calm museum setting, enjoy live music, and discover young artists through an extra programme.

Story & Details

A museum that turns into a fair

In late September 2025, Museum Belvédère once again changed from a quiet art museum into a lively marketplace for ideas and images. For four days, both wings of the building became the stage for Art Noord VII, a compact art fair that focuses on work from the northern provinces of the Netherlands and connects it with the rest of the country.

Instead of long rows of anonymous stands, the fair uses the existing museum spaces. Paintings, photographs, sculptures, ceramics, and works on paper are shown against the clean white walls and large windows of the museum. This gives the event a different feel from many city fairs: calm, clear, and close to the art. Organisers describe Art Noord as the only art fair in the Netherlands that takes place fully inside a museum, and as a low-threshold way to meet art and artists in person.

The 2025 edition in focus

Art Noord VII ran from Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 September 2025. Seventeen galleries and art dealers took part, including spaces from Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe as well as Amsterdam, Haarlem, Alkmaar, Zeist, Eindhoven and other cities. Their stands showed a mix of regional favourites and artists who work on a national or international level.

Modern and contemporary art formed the core of the fair. Visitors could move from quiet black-and-white drawings to colourful abstract canvases, from delicate ceramics to expressive figurative painting. Some galleries focused on a small group of artists with strong personal styles. Others presented broader selections, inviting collectors and first-time buyers to browse and compare.

A special role was given to Afslag BLV, the project space of Museum Belvédère. During Art Noord VII it presented work by younger artists, giving them a place inside the same halls as more established names. This bridge between generations is part of the fair’s identity: it honours the northern art tradition while also pointing to the future.

The atmosphere extended beyond the exhibition rooms. In the museum café, visitors could sit down with coffee, cake or lunch, talk with gallery owners, and listen to live music. A Gipsy jazz band, Saint Germain des Pres, played during the fair days, adding a warm soundtrack of swing standards, bossa rhythms and light-hearted jazz to the event. The mix of art, music and food helped make the fair welcoming not only for collectors, but also for local families and day-trippers.

A brochure full of colour

The visual identity of Art Noord VII underlined this friendly mood. The brochure for the fair combined large, simple shapes in strong colours that form the letters of the name with a grid of artwork images in the centre. Small photographs showed fragments of sculptures, paintings and textiles: a white ceramic piece here, a vivid field of sunflowers there, portraits, interiors, bold abstract forms.

This design told a clear story. It suggested that Art Noord is playful but serious, rooted in the region yet open to many styles. It also helped visitors navigate the fair, with the inside pages listing the participating galleries and giving a short overview of the side programme.

A short Dutch language mini-lesson

Two Dutch words appear again and again in information about the fair. The first is “kunstbeurs”, which simply means “art fair” and points to a place where galleries gather to show and sell art. The second is “randprogramma”, a “side programme” of extra events such as talks, short courses or guided tours that run next to the main exhibition.

Together these terms capture the spirit of Art Noord VII. It is a kunstbeurs inside a museum, with a randprogramma that adds music, education and conversation to the visual experience. Even after the doors closed at the end of September 2025, that combination of ideas continues to define how people talk about the fair and how they look forward to the next edition.

Conclusions

Why this small fair matters

Art Noord VII may have lasted only four days in September 2025, but it left a clear mark. It showed that a museum-based art fair can feel both intimate and ambitious, serving local audiences and serious collectors at the same time. By placing work from northern artists next to pieces from other regions, it strengthened the sense that Friesland and its neighbours are not a quiet corner but an active part of the wider art map.

For visitors, the fair offered simple pleasures: walking through light-filled rooms, discovering new names, talking with gallery owners, listening to live jazz, and perhaps taking home a painting or print. For the participating galleries and artists, it created a shared platform where modern and contemporary art from the north could shine in a setting that respected the work.

As the year moves on, Art Noord VII now sits in the museum’s archive, but the idea continues. The fair shows how one museum in Heerenveen-Oranjewoud can turn a few days in September into a meeting place for art, music and community, and how a small event can have a big northern heart.

Selected References

Further reading and viewing

[1] Museum Belvédère – Art Noord VI background on the concept of the museum art fair: https://www.museumbelvedere.nl/en/archive/art-noord-vi-2024/

[2] Kunstpunt Groningen – agenda entry “Kunstbeurs Art Noord VII” with dates, description and list of participating galleries: https://www.kunstpuntgroningen.nl/agenda/kunstbeurs-art-noord-vii/

[3] Friesland.nl – event listing “Kunstbeurs Art Noord VII” describing the seventh edition as the only museum art fair in the Netherlands and outlining the programme: https://www.friesland.nl/fy/planne/evenementenkalender/aginda/3935998387/kunstbeurs-art-noord-vii-1

[4] Kunstlokaal No8 – page “Art Noord VII” with practical information, opening days and ticket details, plus a description of the gallery’s presentation: https://www.kunstlokaalno8.nl/art-noord-vii/

[5] Museum Belvédère – YouTube video “Kunstbeurs Art Noord VII bij Op & Ut”, offering a broadcast-style look at the fair and its context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWa8-P1KpCs

Appendix

Key terms

Art fair
An event where galleries and art dealers present artworks for viewing and sale in a shared venue, usually over a few days, often with talks, tours or other activities around it.

Art Noord
The name of the museum-based art fair held at Museum Belvédère, focusing on modern and contemporary art from the northern provinces of the Netherlands and from other parts of the country.

Heerenveen-Oranjewoud
An area in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands where Museum Belvédère is located, combining a town and a nearby wooded estate landscape.

Kunstbeurs
A Dutch word that means “art fair”, used for events where galleries show and sell art in one place for a limited period.

Museum Belvédère
A modern and contemporary art museum in Heerenveen-Oranjewoud in the Netherlands, known for its focus on northern art and for hosting the Art Noord fair inside its own building.

Randprogramma
A Dutch term for the side programme of an event, meaning the extra activities such as talks, workshops, guided tours or music that support and enrich the main exhibition or fair.