ARTIS-Groote Museum
ARTIS-Groote Museum in Amsterdam reconnects people with nature through immersive, multisensory exhibitions that explore the deep connections between humans, animals, plants and microbes.
ARTIS-Groote Museum in Amsterdam is a strikingly renewed nature museum that invites visitors to explore the deep connections between humans, animals, plants and microbes. Located in a monumental 19th-century building, once the meeting place of the learned society Natura Artis Magistra, the museum reopened after extensive restoration as a place of wonder, reflection and discovery.
Created by ARTIS as part of its broader mission to inspire care for nature, the Groote Museum combines historic architecture with interactive and multisensory exhibition design. Visitors are encouraged to see, hear, touch, smell and even taste their way through questions about our shared ecosystem: how trees communicate like neighbours, how a baby moves like a crocodile, or how glaciers sound as they collapse.
Inside, exhibitions unfold as a personal journey, blending scientific insight, art, soundscapes and contemporary storytelling. Objects and installations highlight both the beauty and the fragility of nature, while digital tours, audioguides and guided “Verbinders” experiences help visitors make unexpected connections across the natural world. Artistic interventions and multimedia works challenge us to rethink our role within the web of life.
The museum is more than a place of display. Daily workshops, discussions and experiments offer opportunities for dialogue, debate and shared learning, encouraging visitors to ask big questions about food, climate, coexistence and the future of our planet. In doing so, ARTIS-Groote Museum positions itself as a space for participatory education and democratic conversation about humanity’s relationship with nature.
As a candidate for the European Museum Academy’s DASA Award in 2023, ARTIS-Groote Museum stands out for its innovative educational practice, sensory exhibition design and ability to link science, culture and lived experience. It demonstrates how museums can create meaningful, transformative encounters that connect knowledge with empathy and inspire responsibility for the world we share.