The 2025 programme of Museum Belvédère in Heerenveen-Oranjewoud turns one small museum in the Dutch north into a full year of stories about landscape, light and quiet human feeling. A simple folded leaflet for the seasons of summer, autumn and winter shows how these stories connect.
Key Takeaways
A year in one small museum
- Museum Belvédère focuses on modern and contemporary art from the northern Netherlands, set in a calm park near Heerenveen.
- In 2025 the museum built a full year around Jan Mankes, Henk Visch, Noorderlicht and the Faroese painter Sámal Joensen Mikines.
- By late November 2025, the shows by Mankes, Visch and Noorderlicht have ended, while “Sámal Joensen-Mikines – Always the Sea” continues until early February 2026.
Story & Details
A low building beside the water
Museum Belvédère stands in a green park with trees, water and open sky near the town of Heerenveen in Friesland. The museum building is long and low, with large windows that bring in northern light. Inside, visitors see paintings and sculptures from Friesland and the wider north of the Netherlands, together with guest shows from abroad. The museum opens from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 17:00 local Dutch time, giving plenty of space in the day for slow visits. [1][20]
A busy art year in 2025
The year 2025 began with a major show of the Dutch painter Jan Mankes. From 25 January until 22 June 2025, Museum Belvédère and Museum Arnhem shared a double exhibition that brought together a large part of his small but intense body of work. Demand was so strong that the run was extended in both places until 24 August 2025, so the first part of the year at Oranjewoud was filled with his pale animals, quiet rooms and soft landscapes. [5][6][21][25][29]
While the Mankes paintings still hung on the walls, the museum park started to change. From 28 June until 21 September 2025, the outdoor spaces and the west wing hosted “Henk Visch – Unguided Tours”. Twelve sculptures, two smaller installations and other works by the Dutch artist formed a kind of walking route. Visitors could move among long, thin figures, strange bodies and poetic shapes that seemed to ask questions without words. [2][16][30]
A second summer project looked at technology and the environment. The Noorderlicht exhibition “Machine Entanglements” ran in the west wing from 12 July to 7 September 2025. It focused on the way satellites, drones, sensors and other systems change how people see nature and how they affect animals and plants. The show asked what the word “nature” still means when even remote places are watched by cameras and data streams. [6][14]
After these summer projects, the focus shifted from Dutch fields and digital clouds to the rough Atlantic. On 11 October 2025 Museum Belvédère opened “Sámal Joensen-Mikines – Always the Sea”, the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of the Faroese painter who worked mainly on the island of Mykines. The show runs until 8 February 2026, so at the end of November 2025 it is fully under way. The paintings bring strong seas, steep cliffs, dark hills and small villages into the museum’s large east wing. They stand in quiet dialogue with the landscapes by northern Dutch painters that are part of the museum’s own collection. [0][4][8][10][11][13][15][17][22][24][26]
At the same time, art lovers can see “Art Noord VII”, a compact art fair hosted by the museum, also planned for the period from 11 October 2025 to 8 February 2026. This event brings together galleries and artists from the wider region and turns the museum into a lively meeting place for collectors, visitors and makers. [6][26]
Three artists, three kinds of quiet
The 2025 programme highlights three very different artists who share a love of quiet tension.
Jan Mankes, active in the early twentieth century, painted small works with a soft, almost glowing light. Many of his best-known paintings show farm animals, self-portraits or simple interiors. The 2025 exhibition at Museum Belvédère concentrated on the years when he lived in the Frisian village of De Knipe, close to where the museum now stands, and drew his ideas from the local fields, canals and houses. [1][5][21][25][29][32]
Henk Visch, born in the mid twentieth century, works with sculpture, drawing and installations. His figures often stand on thin legs, reach out long arms or bend in unusual ways. They can look playful, spiritual or slightly uneasy at the same time. In the summer show “Unguided Tours”, these works filled the park and rooms of the west wing, inviting visitors to walk without a fixed route and to make their own storyline. [2][16][30]
Sámal Joensen Mikines brings in a different kind of intensity. His canvases show storms, funerals, fishing boats and high cliffs from the Faroe Islands, together with scenes from his time in Denmark. Critics describe his style as a strong mix between Impressionism and Expressionism, with thick brushmarks and sharp contrasts between dark and light. The current show in Heerenveen presents mainly seascapes and landscapes and is accompanied by a Dutch-language book with the same title as the exhibition. [0][4][7][10][11][13][15][17][22]
Northern light, new tools
The Noorderlicht exhibition “Machine Entanglements” connects strongly to the wider world. Artists in this show look at satellite images that track climate change, drone views of forests and fields, and smart farming systems guided by artificial intelligence. Their photos and installations suggest that landscapes are now shaped not only by weather and soil but also by code and cables. This makes the museum a place where art, science and daily life meet. [6][14]
A tiny Dutch lesson from the leaflet
On the seasonal leaflet, three Dutch words stand out under the museum’s name: “zomer, herfst, winter”. They are simple but helpful for any visitor. “Zomer” means summer, “herfst” means autumn and “winter” is the same as in English. Together they show that the museum thinks in seasons, not just single dates, and that art here is tied closely to the feeling of time passing in the north.
Conclusions
A small museum with a wide horizon
The 2025 leaflet of Museum Belvédère shows how a modest building in Friesland can open onto very different worlds. In one year, visitors move from the soft silence of Jan Mankes to the playful figures of Henk Visch, then to the cold Atlantic seas of Sámal Joensen Mikines and the complex networks of “Machine Entanglements”. Some of these shows have already closed by late November 2025, while “Always the Sea” and “Art Noord VII” continue into the new year, keeping the museum full of life on short winter days. The leaflet acts as a pocket map to this journey, and the museum itself offers a calm place where northern light, long views and thoughtful art meet.
Selected References
[1] Museum Belvédère – official site and visitor information.
https://www.museumbelvedere.nl/
[2] Museum Belvédère – park and information about “Henk Visch – Unguided Tours”.
https://www.museumbelvedere.nl/en/museum/park/
[3] Museum Belvédère – archive overview of the 2025 programme.
https://www.museumbelvedere.nl/archief/
[4] Museum Belvédère – English page for “Sámal Joensen-Mikines – Always the Sea”.
https://www.museumbelvedere.nl/en/current/grote-zaal/
[5] Kunstpunt Groningen – exhibition page for “Jan Mankes – Uiting geven aan geestelijk leven”.
https://www.kunstpuntgroningen.nl/agenda/jan-mankes-uiting-geven-aan-geestelijk-leven/
[6] Museum Belvédère – Dutch agenda and information on 2025 exhibitions.
https://www.museumbelvedere.nl/nl/activiteiten/agenda/
[7] Museum.nl – exhibition description for “Sámal Joensen-Mikines – Always the Sea”.
https://www.museum.nl/en/museum-belvedere/exhibition/samal-joensen-mikines-always-the-sea
[8] Kunstpunt Groningen – “Sámal Joensen-Mikines – Always the Sea” overview.
https://www.kunstpuntgroningen.nl/en/agenda/samal-joensen-mikines-always-the-sea/
[9] Kunstpunt Groningen – “Noorderlicht Biënnale – Machine Entanglements”.
https://www.kunstpuntgroningen.nl/agenda/noorderlicht-machine-entanglements/
[10] Museumtijdschrift – article on the Jan Mankes exhibitions in Arnhem and Heerenveen.
https://museumtijdschrift.nl/artikelen/recensies/de-kleine-kwetsbare-wereld-van-jan-mankes/
[11] Friesland.nl – event page for “Sámal Joensen-Mikines – Always the Sea”.
https://www.friesland.nl/en/plan/evenementen/events/3795976928/samal-joensen-mikines-always-the-sea
[12] YouTube – Museum Belvédère video “Henk Visch – Unguided Tours”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjzDpPjdcRQ
Appendix
Art Noord
Art Noord is a small art fair held at Museum Belvédère that brings together galleries and artists from the northern Netherlands for a few days of sales, talks and meetings.
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are a group of rocky islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, between Scotland and Iceland, known for high cliffs, strong winds and small fishing towns.
Henk Visch
Henk Visch is a Dutch visual artist known mainly for slim, often playful sculptures that stand or walk in unusual poses and appear both simple and philosophical.
Jan Mankes
Jan Mankes was a Dutch painter whose small works show animals, self-portraits and quiet rooms in soft, gentle light, giving an intimate and sometimes dreamy mood.
Museum Belvédère
Museum Belvédère is an art museum near Heerenveen in the Dutch province of Friesland, focused on modern and contemporary art with a strong link to the northern Netherlands.
Noorderlicht
Noorderlicht is a Dutch photography and media-art organisation that creates exhibitions and festivals, often linking visual culture to social, political and environmental themes.
Sámal Joensen Mikines
Sámal Joensen Mikines was a painter from the Faroe Islands whose strong, expressive works show seascapes, landscapes and life in small island communities, as well as scenes from Denmark.
Unguided Tours
“Unguided Tours” is the title of the 2025 exhibition by Henk Visch at Museum Belvédère, where visitors walked among sculptures and installations without a fixed route.
Zomer, herfst, winter
“Zomer, herfst, winter” are Dutch words printed on the museum leaflet; they mean “summer, autumn, winter” and point to the seasonal rhythm of the 2025 programme.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 