Sense of Place

Sense of Place is dedicated to raising awareness among the Dutch public of the rich nature, landscape and cultural history of the Wadden Area (UNESCO world heritage) by staging cultural landscape projects. The secondary purpose of these projects is to boost the local economy and strengthen the local social fabric.

In addition to staging its own projects, Sense of Place often also supports initiatives by local communities and helps them to bring these to fruition. These projects respect the area’s culture and natural environment and tell a story of the location and scenery. Through these varying interventions in the landscape, the various locations add to the appeal of the area and imbue it with meaning: a Sense of Place.

A variety of cultural landscape projects has been scheduled for the next several years, ranging from Den Helder to the Dollard bay in the Wadden Sea, on the islands, and on land. Artists, landscape architects, researchers, local residents, users, NGOs, businesses and government are all brought together to engage in innovative landscape development with a high level of cultural integration.

How it all started

Many new initiatives start with the dream of a single person – a vision, if you will. This person is in tune with the times and the first to spot opportunities, look beyond the obvious, and able to convince others of their vision.  Joop Mulder dreamt of transforming the island of Terschelling into a platform, and over a 35-year period he developed the OEROL festival into what it is today: an international phenomenon that is of great significance to the island. The dream has continued, and the name of the dream is ‘Sense of Place’

About the Organisation

The core team at Sense of Place
Wendy Gooren – Business Manager
Leonie Castelein – office manager/project leader
Yael Water – communication

Public welfare institution

Sense of Place has been designated as a public welfare institution (Algemeen nut beogende instelling/ANBI) by the Dutch government.
You will find further information on this status below.

Stichting Sense of Place
James Wattstraat 4/unit B7
8912 AR  Leeuwarden
kvk  65634187
rsin 856196514

Supervisory Board:
Henk Deinum – chairman
Hendrikus Venema
Jouke van Dijk
Baukje de Vries
Hanna Lará Palsdottir

The Supervisory Board of Sense of Place are unpaid positions.