On Friday 11 December, Museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen will welcome visitors for an international Christmas edition of After Hours. From 6 to 11 pm, the museum will come alive with art, music and winter delights. Visitors can explore the exhibitions after hours and discover the museum in a warm, festive atmosphere. Alongside the seasonal festivities, visitors can join short guided tours and experience remarkable sculptures by internationally acclaimed artists in the museum’s unique setting among the dunes, just steps from the sea.
Art, music and Christmas
Museum Beelden aan Zee is a unique place where architecture, nature and sculpture come together. Nestled in the dunes of Scheveningen, with views of the sea, the distinctive museum building offers an inspiring setting for an evening of culture and creativity. After Hours is the museum’s recurring evening programme, designed to bring modern and contemporary sculpture to life and make art accessible to a wider audience. It also provides a platform for emerging talent from The Hague and its surroundings. Each edition is developed in collaboration with different partners and features a varied programme of music, dance, theatre, poetry, sound art and installations.
A cappella music by CIRCE
For this festive edition, the magic of Christmas takes centre stage. The professional all-female a cappella ensemble CIRCE will fill the museum with beautiful Christmas carols, creating a magical soundtrack for the evening. Visitors can warm up with a glass of mulled wine or a cup of hot chocolate, accompanied by freshly made Dutch poffertjes (mini pancakes). In the museum café, a DJ will spin records to dance, while creative workshops in the Gipsotheek offer visitors an opportunity to discover the world of sculpture firsthand.
Rui Chafes meets Alberto Giacometti
Those who wish to explore the museum further can join short guided tours through all the exhibitions, including Rui Chafes x Alberto Giacometti, on view until 10 January. This international exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Fondation Giacometti and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, bringing together the work of the Portuguese artist Rui Chafes (Lisbon, 1966) with that of the Swiss modernist Alberto Giacometti (Borgonovo, 1901 – Chur, 1966). Although both artists are separated by time, place and form language, they share an artistic pursuit: transcendence and making the invisible visible.
With his impressive installations, Rui Chafes offers a new, tranquil and sensory experience of Giacometti’s world-famous sculptures. He invites visitors to enter his works. Au-delà des yeux and Lumière are dark installations containing architectural passageways in which various sculptures by Giacometti can be viewed in a completely different way. With these works, the Portuguese artist shows the human figure as a temporary manifestation in an infinite space. This creates a powerful field of tension between vulnerability and monumentality, and between form and the invisible.
Memory and cultural inheritance: Laura Dzelzytė
During the dark winter months, the colourful sculptures by the British Lithuanian artist Laura Dzelzytė (1981) illuminate the museum’s Cabinet. Drawing on her personal experience of migration and research into vernacular heritage, she explores themes of home, memory and cultural inheritance. Dzelzytė treats cultural objects as living repositories of human experience. Inspired by a wooden Pensive Christ by Lithuanian folk sculptor Algirdas Butkevičius, she transforms the sculpture into a constellation of eleven translucent wax figures that glow like votive candles, evoking memories of village churches, roadside shrines and domestic rituals of remembrance. Discover her work during After Hours x Christmas where the artist is present for an Art Talk.
Myself and other Planets
In his first solo museum exhibition, Myself and other Planets, Jakob Grosse-Ophoff (1991) portrays human emotions in a playful and relatable manner. Through his kinetic sculptures, he captures comic, poetic, and everyday moments. In an age of rapid technological change and an increasing fixation on virtual ‘perfection’, Grosse-Ophoff returns to simplicity. Using wood and metal, sometimes combined with everyday objects, he creates sculptures that mimic human gestures. These movements are mechanically driven by ordinary domestic motors or hand cranks. Human interaction lies at the heart of the exhibition. Visitors are welcomed to activate the works by pressing a button, turning a crank, or moving past a sensor.
Enjoy art & culture by the sea
With its lively mix of sculpture, music, creative activities and seasonal treats, the After Hours programme offers an accessible way to experience Museum Beelden aan Zee. Whether visitors come for the art, the live performances or the festive atmosphere, the evening promises a memorable cultural experience in a truly special setting by the sea.
Admission After Hours
€10 for regular tickets / €5 for VriendenLoterij VIP-Kaart holders, Museumkaart holders and students. Excluding food and drinks.
More information and tickets: