Welcome to the website of The Hague’s cultural initiatives!

The Hague Broedplaatsen are collaborative and creative initiatives led by the professionals from arts and culture working in The Hague. The initiatives take many forms – from location-based studio and gallery spaces to online and nomadic platforms. Always with the aim of creating space for experimentation, exploration, exchange and play, the initiates bring together makers from different disciplines such as visual arts, photography, design, music, dance, theatre.

The initiatives and their makers work locally and (inter)nationally. This is reflected in artists in residence places, international programs, public events, workshops, etc. The Hague has more than 40 initiatives (2024), some with a long history and some recently founded by alumni of the KABK. Initiatives evolve and change over time in their focus and vision.

Cultural initiatives and the city

“A city that wants to seize opportunities for the future needs people with ideas, with a different view of the everyday and with different solutions, people who can add value to the existing. Other ideas, a different perspective or solution will be researched, development and experiment in advance (…) ”

This vision of a ‘broedplaats’, described by the Boekman Foundation, is close to our hearts. In The Hague, many creative and cultural makers are associated with breeding grounds in the city. On this site you will get to know these places and their makers. Please see all information as an invitation to get to know them better, to visit them and to follow and visit all the activities of these breeding grounds.

History

The first ‘broedplaats’ in The Hague date from the 1980s. Squatters took over vacant buildings. De Blauwe Aanslag (“The Blue Bill”) is best known in The Hague. This former tax authorities building has been empty since 1978. In 1986, after acquiring the building, the municipality signed a management contract with the squatters. Some of the residents and workers from the Blauwe Aanslag then went to live and work in De Grote Pyr, a former educational building, in 1999.

The ‘broedplaatsen’ of the past had a different character than today. They were free places with a political and social stature where makers also lived and worked.

The first initiative as we know it today is the DCR on Constant Rebecqueplein. Based on the first Broedplaats Memorandum (2005), this cultural hotspot opened in 2006. The building is owned by the municipality of The Hague.

In 2024, The Hague has many maker initiatives that mainly work from municipal buildings. Some of them own the building (Maakhaven and De Besturing). In addition, many initiatives work from temporary locations that are used by corporations or developers.

Broedplaats policy has been in place since the first Broedplaats memorandum in 2005. Several updates to this policy have now been published. The most recent memorandum is from 2021 – Cultural broedplaatsen 2021-2024.

Hoogtij (De Haagse Rondgang)

Hoogtij has been held in The Hague since 1998 (first as The Hague Tour). Four times a year, on Friday evening, 25 locations for contemporary art open their doors in The Hague. You can discover art in special places in The Hague in an accessible and hospitable way.

More programming and info at: https://www.hoogtij.net/

ICI – Independent Creative Initiatives

“We provide peer support, and representation to artistic practices and community based initiatives that generate public value, but which are not always easy to monetize. We foster creative processes usually hidden to the public.”

During the pandemic, a group of creative initiatives from The Hague came together and started a ICI The Hague platform. In 2021, with the aim of sharing the manifesto and fostering solidarity between the spaces, a new website platform was launched: https://ici-thehague.nl/.

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