From 14–16 March 2022, the LAND partners met in the Netherlands for a working visit that balanced planning with place-based inspiration. Hosted by Oerol Festival, the gathering split its time between Leeuwarden, the provincial capital of Friesland, and the island of Terschelling — home to Oerol’s festival and its landscape-based ethos.
We began in the Westerkerk in Leeuwarden, Oerol’s mainland base and a hub for cultural collaboration with Explore the North. Here, the partners mapped out the final programme for the upcoming training week in Slovakia, agreeing on participant selection, logistics, and the shape of the learning sessions.
The afternoon took us outdoors to see BOSK — the extraordinary Arcadia project by artist Bruno Doedens, in which a “walking forest” of hundreds of young trees would meander through Leeuwarden’s streets over 100 days. Bruno shared the artistic and logistical thinking behind this massive, slow-moving procession, blending climate awareness with community participation.
The day closed with a visit to the Waddenacademie, Oerol’s long-standing scientific partner for the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage Site. The academy’s team described how they connect artists and researchers, offering insight into the long-term relationships that underpin Oerol’s work on the island.
On 16 March, the group caught the early train and ferry to Terschelling for a deep dive into the island’s unique landscapes. We began with a walk-and-talk led by Staatsbosbeheer ranger Remi Hougee, exploring how nature conservation and cultural programming can support — and sometimes challenge — each other. Oerol’s programming team then took the group to potential artistic sites, sharing stories of past collaborations and the often-invisible work of negotiating with landowners, municipalities, and community stakeholders.
Beyond the formal agenda, the meeting was a chance for partners to see, smell, and feel the contexts that shape Oerol’s approach — the salt in the air, the rhythm of the tides, the sense of scale that comes from working between a mainland city and a windswept island. These days in Friesland sent everyone home not just with action points for Slovakia, but with a renewed sense of what LAND is here to connect: people, ideas, and places.
