Looking back on 100 days of Arcadia

Exactly a month ago, Arcadia 2025 came to an end. Together, we look back on 100 days of imagination, wonder and connection. This summer, Arcadia turned Fryslân into a stage for theatre, workshops, making sessions, musicians, art and so much more. From baking bread together to silent poetry techno aerobics, from Súdwest to Bouwurk, all kinds of adventures could be experienced across the whole province.

FLANK
With FLANK, everyone could take part in Arcadia. It resulted in a colourful programme, spread across the whole province. In Harlingen, for example, you got to know GROÛND, where art was made from 260-million-year-old earth. Or you joined in at dBieb for the National Read-Aloud Record: a hundred hours of non-stop reading by two hundred voices.

Klein geluk
Stories, poems and essays popped up all over Fryslân: sometimes as short fragments, sometimes in full length. Written by Frisian, Dutch and international makers, they appeared online and in surprising, unexpected places too. From building site banners, bags and number plates to sports parks and museums. Read your own Klein geluk (Small happiness) via kleingeluk.frl.

Paradys
The Paradys art route took visitors past thirteen artworks in Leeuwarden and across the rest of the province. Each work engaged in dialogue with its surroundings: from a miniature Voorstreek made of neighbourhood waste to a film about the workers’ struggle and donation pots with impossible goals. This way, Paradys made you look at the ground beneath your feet with different eyes.

Veenweide atelier
The peat meadow area faces major challenges: subsidence, declining biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions and drought. For the exhibition ‘Veenweide Atelier: designs for a sunken marsh’, designers worked together with passionate farmers and land managers on new perspectives. On show until 26 October at the Fries Museum.

Over de Drempel
Over de Drempel (Crossing the threshold) showed how art brings people together. Bread was baked, songs were sung in the park, and in Dovenland visitors experienced what it’s like to be deaf. This created spontaneous encounters in a low-key, accessible way.

De revolutie van de Rinsema’s
A sand quarry in Nij Beets was the stage for this whirlwind music theatre about shoemakers and brothers the Rinsemas. In the 1920s, they turned the Frisian peat meadow area into the world centre of Dadaism: a joyful art form that dares to do anything and questions everything. This performance, full of exuberant music, asked sharp questions about inequality and art.

BOUWURK
This summer, a mienskipshûs (community house) rose up in front of the Oldehove: Bouwurk. Everyone could contribute their bit. Residents, artists, designers, businesses and volunteers built this artwork together. In Bouwurk, we met each other, drank coffee, enjoyed art and made room for new ideas. It became a place full of memories, stories and adventures.

Myn Grûn
What does the ground beneath your feet mean? Across the whole municipality of Waadhoeke, art, nature and mienskip came together in villages, churches and meadows. With residents and artists, clay workshops, walks and exhibitions took shape: encounters rooted in stories, traditions and it lânskip (the landscape).

BROEI
In BROEI, young makers aged 12 to 24 got the space to create their own work under the guidance of professionals. From theatre and music to film, literature and visual art: their creativity could be seen in various places across Fryslân. The highlight was BROEIdag, when Bouwurk filled up with wonderfully original productions.

Fryslân Bloeit
In thirty villages and neighbourhoods, residents celebrated their own Bloeiweek (Blooming Week), dreamed up and organised by the mienskip itself. From regional markets to living-room concerts, from creative workshops to sustainable dinners: in Akkrum, Sint Nyk and far beyond, every village blossomed in its own way.

Siel fan Súdwest
Nine artists dove into the soul of Súdwest-Fryslân. Their residencies at local museums resulted in art that gave shape to landscape, history and community. From Workum to Woudsend, the region showed itself from many sides.

Circle4Change
Since April, landscape artist Bruno Doedens cycled with his team and an original Bosk tree through nine European countries: five months and 5000 kilometres long. Along the way, he gave out Birthday Trees and met countless people and green initiatives. On 13 September, he returned to Leeuwarden, where the Tree found a permanent home.

Arcadia Jong
During the summer holidays, Bouwurk was the place to be for curious makers aged 1 to 101. Children and their (grand)parents dove together into a lively programme full of workshops and making sessions. There was something new to experience every week: building stories, inventing a game, working with clay, cardboard, waste or light.

DWAAN
During the DWAAN sessions, initiators got the chance to shape their plans. Together with other creatives and guided by a facilitator, loose ideas grew into tangible projects and programmes.