Arts Holland

Arts Holland was a cooperation between The Netherlands Board of Tourism (NTBC), Nederlands Uitburo (NUB) and Waag in the field of culture and tourism.

Arts Holland was initiated in 2008 as a national and non-commercial project by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Transport and the four major Dutch cities in Holland. Its aim was to reinforce the position of arts and culture in the Randstad, which is Holland’ most densely populated region that incorporates the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, and Utrecht and their outlying areas.

Within Arts Holland, Waag developed a linked open data platform, to collect all available data on cultural activities in The Netherlands. The content could be adapted to the behaviour or needs of the user. Arts Holland was the first initiative in The Netherlands that collected data in the tourist and cultural fields, opened it and connected it by using an Open Data Platform. The platform offered developers of (mobile) applications access to relevant and up-to-date data in the field of culture and tourism. They are thus enabled to offer culture tourists with innovative apps that give suggestions for cultural events and places based on personal preferences, location and the given time of the day.

A renewed webite and the Open Data Platform were launched during an event on 20 November 2012 at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. Regrettably, the partners in the project did not continue the open data delivery.

This project was made possible by a subsidy from the Creative Industries Fund NL.