Verwey Museum Haarlem — Netherlands

In a restless world that rarely pauses, museums offer space to stand still — with art and with yourself.

At Verwey Museum Haarlem, Mindfulness in Museums (MiM) developed guided mindfulness experiences that invite visitors to encounter artworks with presence and curiosity.

During these sessions, participants pause and notice how they think, feel, and react while looking at art. Through this process, artworks become mirrors for inner experience. As a result, visitors often discover new perspectives on themselves and the world around them.

Mindfulness in Museums brings mindfulness from the meditation room and clinical practice into museums: spaces for presence, care, and shared humanity.

Mindfulness in Museums and Verwey Museum Haarlem

The collaboration between Mindfulness in Museums (MiM) and Verwey Museum Haarlem explores how attention to everyday life can deepen the experience of art.

Participants join a small group before the museum opens, allowing them to experience the exhibition in a quiet and reflective atmosphere. Guided by a certified Mindfulness in Museums trainer, visitors are invited to encounter artworks with curiosity, presence, and openness.

After the session, participants gather in the museum café for coffee or tea, offering a moment to integrate the experience.

Museum Context

Verwey Museum Haarlem explores the art, history, and culture of Haarlem and its artists.

The museum regularly presents exhibitions that connect personal stories, artistic practice, and the cultural identity of the city. These exhibitions invite visitors to reflect on how art can shape our perception of everyday life.

Mindfulness in Museums contributes to this context by creating guided experiences where visitors encounter art not only intellectually, but also through direct sensory and emotional awareness.

Mindfulness in Museums Programme

Mindfulness in Museums sessions at Verwey Museum Haarlem usually include:

• a short mindfulness check-in meditation
• guided attention to selected artworks
• reflection on sensory and emotional experience
• inquiry connecting the artwork with everyday life

Participants learn to observe their inner experience while engaging with the artwork. This supports emotional regulation and clearer awareness.

In addition, the sessions help people shift from thinking about art to sensing it directly.

Connection to the Exhibition

Mindfulness in Museums sessions were developed in connection with the exhibition:

Rest and Remember — Jacobien de Rooij

This exhibition presents the first museum solo exhibition in Haarlem of internationally recognised visual artist Jacobien de Rooij (1947, Rotterdam).

The exhibition begins with early works focusing on small subjects from her personal life and gradually expands into monumental drawing series that evoke the vastness of landscapes. A distinctive aspect of De Rooij’s practice is that she never draws directly from nature, but always from memory.

During the mindfulness sessions, participants explore how attention to the everyday — a core principle in both mindfulness and De Rooij’s work — can deepen perception and reflection.

Impact

Mindfulness in Museums shows how museums can become spaces for presence, emotional regulation, and social connection when programmes are facilitated by trained professionals.

Participants often report:

• deeper engagement with artworks
• increased calm and clarity
• new perspectives on everyday experience
• a sense of shared presence with others

Since 2020, more than 25 museums internationally have worked with Mindfulness in Museums (MiM), reaching nearly 2,000 participants.

MiM is applied and endorsed by leading partners such as the Van Gogh Museum, Museum of the Mind, and Oxford Mindfulness Foundation.

Role of Mindfulness in Museums

Mindfulness in Museums collaborated with Verwey Museum Haarlem to:

• develop guided mindfulness experiences connected to the exhibition
• facilitate sessions in the museum before public opening hours
• explore how attention to everyday life can deepen art experiences

The MiM methodology is evidence-based, stress-, neuro- and trauma-informed.

All programmes are delivered by qualified mindfulness teachers trained at recognised institutions.

Mindfulness in Museums is a practice-led expertise emerging from the museum field itself, shaped by the sensory and emotional possibilities of art.

Partner

Verwey Museum Haarlem
Haarlem — The Netherlands

Connect with Mindfulness in Museums

Whether you are a museum professional, a mindfulness practitioner, or simply curious — this is your starting point.