Museum De Fundatie

Museum De Fundatie has its main building in Zwolle, the capital of Overijssel, on the IJssel. The museum also has a second location, Kasteel het Nijenhuis, at Heino, outside Zwolle, where a castle and park host part of the collection.

The museum in Zwolle is one of the most conspicuous cultural buildings in the north of the country. It occupies a neoclassical building of 1838 that was built as the provincial court, and in 2013 an extension in the form of a huge, curved, silvery structure covered in thousands of ceramic tiles was added on top, so that from a distance it looks like a great cloud or an alien craft sitting on a classical temple. The extension is known as the Bubble, and its roof carries some 55,000 ceramic tiles, so the museum is easy to recognise from far away. The contrast between the old and the new is the defining image of the museum, and the extension holds exhibition halls with unusual shapes and good natural light.

The collection reflects the museum's origins as a foundation, set up to house a private collection, and it covers Dutch and international art from several periods. There is a strong group of works from the nineteenth century, including landscape and genre painting by the so-called Sallandse School, painters of the Salland region who were influenced by the Barbizon school and the Hague School and who depicted the rural countryside in a realistic and often romantic style. The modern and contemporary section includes paintings, sculpture and works on paper from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Temporary exhibitions bring in larger names and themes, and they change several times a year.

Visitors should check opening times and ticket prices, which vary, and note that some exhibitions have a surcharge. The museum has a cafe and a shop, and the building is accessible. Zwolle itself is an attractive Hanseatic city, with a well preserved centre ringed by water, the Sassenpoort city gate and many fine old houses, and there is a sculpture route from the station.

The museum suits art lovers and architecture fans, and it makes a good day out when combined with Zwolle's old town. Allow about two hours for the exhibitions.