The Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands, where many travellers touch down for flights to Amsterdam, will receive a seasonal boost as a new art exhibit opens in the transit hub, featuring winter landscape paintings of the European nation.
Authorities at the airport have worked steadily in recent years to set the facility apart in offering conveniences and attractions otherwise unseen in similar airports around the world, such as a library for departing Netherlanders to borrow books from for holidays abroad.
“The idea was very simple: let’s lend books to passengers who go on holiday and they can bring the books back when they return,” said Dick van Tol, who helps run the library.
Features such as the art gallery and library help travellers catch a glimpse of the country’s culture, even if eschewing a holiday in Amsterdam to catch a connecting flight elsewhere.
“Most of the 18 million people who only change planes here don’t see anything of Holland, and this is an opportunity to get acquainted with what Holland looks like,” van Tol told Deutsch Welle.
Part of communicating that artistic and historical legacy will be the Dutch Winters exhibit at the Schiphol branch of the Rijksmuseum, which will run this winter until 21 March 2011. Displaying works from the 1600s to the 1800s, notable artists of the exhibit include Hendrick Avercamp and Jacob van Ruisdael, as well as Barend Koekkoek.
In addition to the library and art exhibit, there will also be a display of photos featuring Dutch landscapes, according to van Tol.
