Iris van den Broek

10 x museums and art institutions in Rotterdam

Rotterdam is a bubbly mix of innovative architecture, lively festivals and challenging art and culture. The many exhibitions in top museums such as Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Kunsthal Rotterdam and the Nederlands Fotomuseum are well worth a visit. For those that love art, don’t miss this top ten of museums and art institutions in Rotterdam.

1. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen will undergo a necessary long-term renovation from 27 May 2019. During this Transit period, eight institutions and museums across Rotterdam will be holding exhibitions with works of art from the museum collection under the title ‘Boijmans Next Door’. The collection will also be presented abroad by means of touring exhibitions. In the meantime, construction of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot – the world’s first publicly accessible art depot – continues apace and this landmark adjoining the museum is set to open in early 2021.

2. Kunsthal Rotterdam

The Kunsthal Rotterdam is an icon of modern architecture and was designed by the Rotterdam agency OMA/Rem Koolhaas. The building is located on the edge of the beautiful Museumpark and Westzeedijk. There are always several – large and small – exhibitions at a time, from old masters to contemporary artists, from innovative designers to engaging photographers. Stop for a snack or a drink at the Kunsthal Café.

The Kunsthal wants to surprise and amaze. Not only the first time, but again and again!

Emily Ansenk, Director

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen offers the visitor a comprehensive survey of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present day

The Kunsthal Rotterdam is one of the leading cultural institutions in the Netherlands

The Nederlands Fotomuseum is the leading national museum of photography in the Netherlands

3. Nederlands Fotomuseum

The Nederlands Fotomuseum is the national museum of photography with an impressive collection of more than 5.5 million images. The museum shows photography in all its facets. Historical and contemporary photography, Dutch and international, alternate. In recent years, work by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Nan Goldin, Lewis Hine, Alfredo Jaar, Josef Koudelka and Viviane Sassen was presented in large exhibitions.

4. Maritime Museum

The collection of the oldest shipping museum in the Netherlands has more than half a million maritime objects. There are various exhibitions including the Offshore Experience, a challenging search for energy at sea. Outside, on the quay in Leuvehaven, you can admire ships, cranes and other port objects from the period of 1850 to 1970.

5. Museum Rotterdam

Museum Rotterdam is about the city and its inhabitants and shows Rotterdam as it was, is and will be. The museum has been located in the Timmerhuis since 2016. The Timmerhuis building is a spectacular transparent cloud of glass, just behind the city hall, designed by Rem Koolhaas. Both collection pieces and residents tell the story of the city here in three exhibitions. The exhibition Museum Rotterdam '40 -'45 NOW, in the outbuilding of Museum Rotterdam in Coolhaven, pays extra attention to the Second World War in Rotterdam.

6. Wereldmuseum Rotterdam

The Wereldmuseum Rotterdam offers a mirror image of 130 years of collecting by Rotterdammers for Rotterdammers. The Wereldmuseum will be optimised and renewed until the autumn of 2019. In the meantime, the doors of the museum are open and it showcases small exhibitions and activities. During the renovation the museum can be visited for free.

7. TENT and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art

TENT is an exhibition space for contemporary Rotterdam art. Through a varied programme, TENT focuses on relevant and current developments in contemporary art, connecting the art of the city to what is happening in the world. The exhibition space is located in a monumental former school building on the Witte de Withstraat. The building is shared with the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, one of the most important institutes for contemporary art in the Netherlands.

TENT and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art

The Natural History Museum Rotterdam in the Museumpark

8. Het Nieuwe Instituut

At Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Museum for Architecture, Design and Digital Culture presents temporary exhibitions with the theme of innovation. In addition to an archive and a library, there is a bookshop and Het Nieuwe Café, a lively museum café on the water. In 2015, Het Nieuwe Café won the Museum Glass 2015, the prize for the best museum café in the Netherlands. The Sonneveld House Museum next door, one of the best-preserved houses in the style of the Dutch branch of the International School of Modernism (Nieuwe Bouwen), is open to the public.

9. Natural History Museum Rotterdam

The Natural History Museum Rotterdam is a lovely Rotterdam museum that continues to amaze. The permanent collection of birds, mammals, fish, insects, shells and plants shows earth's biodiversity in all its variety. You can see all the fossils that can be found in Dutch soil in the exhibition ‘Picked up, Fished out, Cut out'. The exhibition 'Pure Resilience' shows that the city is also nature. Eye-catchers are the skeleton of a sperm whale and the skeleton of elephant Ramon. With famous dead-animals-with-a-story such as the Domino sparrow, the Second Chamber Mouse and the CERN marten, the museum also attracts international attention and public.

10. Chabot Museum

The Chabot museum is a small museum with a varied international exhibition programme. The Chabot Museum manages one of the most important collections of painter and sculptor Henk Chabot (1894-1949), a Dutch expressionist. As a painter of farmers and horticulturists, the Dutch landscape and in the war years of refugees and people in hiding, Chabot has his own place in Dutch modern art. The museum is housed in the monumental white villa dating from 1938, which, like the Sonneveld House, the Van Nelle Factory and the Feyenoord Stadium, is one of the highlights of the Dutch branch of the International School of Modernism (Nieuwe Bouwen) period.

3 x Art Galleries in Rotterdam

MAMA

A visual arts and culture organisation based in Rotterdam

Contour Gallery

A gallery for contemporary art with a focus on photography and sculptures

Garage Rotterdam

An exhibition centre for contemporary art in the city centre of Rotterdam

Back to overview

The website of Rotterdam Info uses cookies and could gather some information about you. You will agree with our policies by clicking on 'Close notification' or by further usage of our website.

More information