Meervaart Expo
In our foyer, Meervaart presents several rotating exhibitions per year as part of Meervaart Expo, alongside the permanent exhibition Meervaart in sight. We provide a platform for visual artists, photographers and illustrators whose work connects with themes that resonate in our theater program. The exhibitions offer visual depth to current topics and create space for new voices, perspectives and stories, often with a link to our city and its residents.
Exhibition Visions for the southwestern shore and the New Meervaart
From Tuesday 20 to Thursday 29 October, the five remaining architecture teams will present their visions for the New Meervaart and the design of the southwestern shore of the Sloterplas.
Come and view the proposals and share your opinion. You can do so at Meervaart and at the exhibition on the boulevard, by the red benches diagonally opposite our current building.
What appeals to you, and what would you like to see done differently? Scan the QR code at the exhibition and answer the questions. The advisory committee will use the responses when selecting the architecture team that will be commissioned to create a final design.
The exhibition can be viewed from Tuesday 20 to Thursday 29 October 2026 during performances. Would you prefer to visit outside performance times? Please contact our box office at [email protected] to make an appointment.
Expo Meervaart in sight
In the heart of our foyer, around the stairs, we present our permanent exhibition 'Meervaart in sight'.
Meervaart is more than a theater. It is a place where learning, making and presenting reinforce each other. Where performances, local art and artistic-social projects together get a platform. Here the most diverse communities, ages and art forms can meet and collaborate. It is the place that connects makers and companies. We are like a harbor from which you depart and return with new knowledge and values. In the exhibition we showcase the present, past and future of Meervaart. In permanent and changing installations we provide insight into our story: what we are, who we were and how we want to become.
The exhibitions below have now taken place and we look back with pride on these inspiring and successful exhibitions.
The Faces of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra
On view from 18 September to 16 October 2026
In 2026, the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra (AAO) celebrates its fifteenth anniversary. What began as an initiative by four young Amsterdammers – Mohamed Aadroun, Yassine Boussaid, Dwight Breinburg and Mohamed Chairi – has grown into a successful orchestra that has secured a place for the Arabo-Andalusian musical tradition in the musical canon. The orchestra now performs at home and abroad, alongside artists such as Estrella Morente, Sami Yusuf, Nai Barghouti, Naaz and Saint Levant.
This photographic exhibition puts the 22 musicians of the orchestra centre stage. Photographer Nick Helderman followed the AAO and photographed the musicians away from the stage. Their backgrounds are diverse: some were born in Morocco, others in the Netherlands, while some moved or fled from their home countries. What unites them is their love of the AAO’s wide-ranging musical repertoire: from Granada to Baghdad.
The portraits show not only the musicians, but also the people behind the music. Alongside their work with the orchestra, they are, among other things, teachers, civil servants and entrepreneurs. Together, the images tell the stories of 22 different lives, talents and personal histories.
More information:
nickhelderman.com
amsterdamsandalusischorkest.nl
Unity – Meervaart Studio Photo Lab Alumni
On view from 5 August to 12 September 2026
During WorldPride Amsterdam 2026, Meervaart celebrated connection and diversity on 6 and 7 August. In the photo exhibition Unity, photographers from the Meervaart Studio Photo Lab community present work exploring identity, visibility, inclusion, belonging and self-expression.
Drawing on personal experiences and diverse perspectives, the photographers explore what it means to be yourself and to be seen. The images tell personal stories and show how art can create space for recognition, connection and expression.
With Unity, Meervaart invites visitors to reflect on the power of community and the diversity within the LGBTQIA+ community.
Featuring work by:
Tal Ben Yakir @tal.benyakir
Lucette Vink @lucette.jpg
Kyara Bhiekharie @kyaraseraja
Dewi Veldhuizen
Meervaart Studio Photo Lab
Meervaart Jong Atelier Expo
On view from 29 May through July 2026
After a year of creating, discovering and experimenting, participants in Meervaart Jong’s studio classes present their own work. This year, the focus is on the portrait, explored in a variety of two- and three-dimensional forms, from realistic to abstract.
Inspired by a range of artists, these young creators explored how materials, form and technique can tell a story. By experimenting, working together and making lots of work, they developed their own visual language and creative style.
The exhibition showcases the results of a year full of imagination, exploration and the joy of making. The full exhibition was on view during the Meervaart Jong Festival from 29 to 31 May 2026. A selection of the works remained on display at Meervaart afterwards.
More information: meervaart.nl/jong
Photo: Dave van Hout
Public Intimacy #2 – Meervaart Studio Foto Lab x Foam
On view from ????
In the photography exhibition Public Intimacy, young photographers from the Meervaart Studio Foto Lab present their work, developed in collaboration with Foam and photographer Hanane El Ouardani. Following an earlier presentation at No Man’s Art Gallery KIOSK in Amsterdam, a selection of the exhibition was also on view at Meervaart.
The photographers explored personal themes such as intimacy and distance, relationships with their own bodies, memories, and the ways we present ourselves to the outside world. The result is a collection of intimate images and personal stories in which the boundaries between the personal and the public begin to blur.
Featuring work by: Lieke van Dam, Lucette Vink, Yacelyn Anthonio, Dewi Veldhuizen and Leo van der Oost.
For more information about the Foto Lab, click here!
De Nieuwe Meervaart: a new theatre for Nieuw-West
On view from ?????
What will the theatre of the future look like? For the educational project De Nieuwe Meervaart, a collaboration between the Van Eesteren Museum and Meervaart, more than 250 students from six Amsterdam schools explored this question.
Students from Metis Montessori Lyceum, Keizer Karel College, Damstede Lyceum, Ir. Lely Lyceum, Kaj Munk College and Caland Lyceum were asked to design a new theatre they would like to visit themselves. In their designs, they explored how a theatre building could reflect their wishes, ideas and everyday lives.
The exhibition brought together a diverse collection of original and surprising designs, showing how young people imagine the future of Meervaart and Nieuw-West. The works were previously on display at the Van Eesteren Museum.
Find out more about the new Meervaart: read more here.
SiMSALABiMS
On view from October 14 through December 18, 2025
With SiMSALABiMS, illustrator George Adegite brought the stories of Amsterdam Zuidoost to life. In this exhibition, visitors discovered the personal stories, or tori, of people including Chanell, Rebecca, Georgy, Godwin and Danny. Adegite translated their experiences into powerful illustrations that offer a glimpse into life in the Bijlmer.
What began as a comic strip that he distributed monthly through the mailboxes in his apartment building grew into a series with a first season of twelve episodes, and became a familiar fixture in the neighborhood. Through his work, Adegite gives a face to the people and stories that help shape the city.
The exhibition was on view in the foyer next to the Blauwe Zaal and introduced visitors to the raw, personal stories of Amsterdam Zuidoost.
Her (s)tories
Previously on view in late 2025
With Her (s)tories, Meervaart, in collaboration with Stichting Talk-Theater XL and the Amsterdamse Ambassadeurs, paid tribute to the women of Hindustani migration history. The exhibition was part of the theatre production of the same name by writer and performer Shantie Singh.
The exhibition highlighted the strength, struggle, silence and voices of women whose stories have long remained underrepresented. Pioneers, activists and feminists from earlier generations were given a place in the collective memory once again, connected with the voices of contemporary writers, performers and poets.
Through personal stories and images, Her (s)tories offered visitors a deeper understanding of the theatre production and drew attention to an important chapter in Dutch history.
In collaboration with: Stichting Talk-Theater XL and the Amsterdamse Ambassadeurs.
Celebrate Nieuw-West
On view from 1 May to 13 July 2025
With the photography exhibition Celebrate Nieuw-West, Meervaart paid tribute to the vibrancy, diversity and entrepreneurial spirit of Amsterdam Nieuw-West. The exhibition featured portraits of local entrepreneurs and offered a glimpse into the communities that bring colour to the district.
The exhibition comprised a selection from an earlier initiative by the Nieuw-West district, in which more than a hundred entrepreneurs were portrayed by seven photographers from the Nieuwe Makers Nieuw-West network. The photographers captured the entrepreneurs in the neighbourhoods where they work and live.
Eighteen portraits were on display in the Meervaart foyer. The official opening took place on Wednesday 7 May 2025 and was conducted by Yassine Boussaid, director of Meervaart, and Sandra Doevendans, district executive for Amsterdam Nieuw-West. The opening was part of the launch of the Lieve Stad, 750 festival at Meervaart.
Featuring work by: JonneLucia, Noortje Dalhuijsen, Hlalia Masrati, Jaap Kroon, Olivier Tuinier, Teemu Kekkonen and William Lounsbury.