The National Outdoor Play Day is an initiative by Jantje Beton. Jantje Beton is the leading charity that, since 1968, has been working together with children to create more and better play spaces and increase opportunities for play.
The Marres Garden Festival takes place on June 12 and 13 in Maastricht’s largest public city garden. Explore workshops, performances, and moments of connection in the heart of the city.
Mos Nature-conscious workshop and sensory tent
by Anneke Wubbolts
Free entrance
Discover the magic of moss! As appreciation for nature declines, so does the willingness to take climate action. The project Moss explores this development through a sensory installation that encourages calm, awareness, and respect for the natural environment. In addition, visitors are invited to search for moss in the Marres garden. During this exploration, special attention is given to this small yet important plant, which can be found almost everywhere and plays an essential role in the ecosystem.
While studying visual communication in Maastricht, Anneke Wubbolts learned to look at art, creators, and the world around her in a new way. After graduating, she founded her own company, studio KEANS. In her work, she combines various media and techniques to make social themes accessible and stimulate dialogue. Through this, she aims to spark awareness and forge new connections.
Date:
Friday, 12 June, 2026
Project Mos will also be on display on June 13!
Time:
5:30—8PM
Entrance:
Free
Language:
Dutch
Group size:
20 persons
Location:
Marres city garden Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht Please check in at the front desk first!
Hidden Stories of the Garden Guided tour on history and green heritage
by Angelina Valleau
Discover the hidden layers of Marres’s urban garden and join us in exploring its history, value, and future, gaining practical knowledge and insights along the way.
Angelina Valleau (1971) is an expert in built heritage and its sustainability, with a growing specialization in green heritage: an often-overlooked aspect of historic preservation. Drawing on her “Green Heritage” program at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, she focuses on analyzing, evaluating, and future-proofing historic gardens and landscapes.
Date:
Saturday, 13 June, 2026
Time:
10—11AM
Entrance:
Day pass for Saturday: €15 This includes: – Guided tour by Angelina Valleau – Workshop (including lunch) by Wilgenvrouwen – Performance by Plantelectra Orchestra
Language:
Dutch
Group size:
20 persons
Location:
Marres city garden Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht Please check in at the front desk first!
The Willow Women Project(Wilgenvrouwen) Alchemical & Cyclical Garden workshop, including a group lunch
by Pleun Moons and Beatrice Pittman
Explore how a garden can function as a living workplace, where the relationship between art, spirituality, and natural cycles is brought to life through artistic inquiry, daily care, and self-sustaining practices. At lunchtime, we’ll enjoy a plant-based meal together.
Pleun Moons draws inspiration from her collaboration with her garden, which centers on the relationship between humans and the earth. Her practice combines physical labor with more contemplative methods, resulting in a variety of forms such as paintings, dinners, and harvest festivals. She works cyclically: what grows is processed and returns as the foundation for new work. In this way, she develops a sustainable, ever-evolving practice.
Beatrice Pittman sees the bringing together of people, objects, and rituals as a form of “weaving.” This gives rise to interactive situations in which people and their surroundings enter into dialogue with one another. Her work is exploratory and experiential, with a focus on physicality and encounter. She draws on ancient crafts and rituals and works as a spaceholder: she creates and maintains a setting in which exchange and shared experience take center stage.
Date:
Saturday, 13 June, 2026
Time:
11AM—3:30PM
Entree:
Day pass for Saturday: €15 This includes: – Guided tour by Angelina Valleau – Workshop (including lunch) by Wilgenvrouwen – Performance by Plantelectra Orchestra
Language:
Dutch
Group size
20 persons
Location:
Marres city garden Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht Please check in at the front desk first!
Performance Plantelectra Orchestra / in roots connected
by Julia van de Kar and Ananya Samyt
Experience an intimate performance in which plants use technology to produce sound, effectively becoming musicians themselves. In a small, immersive setting, a performer moves among the plants and interacts with them, while their rhythms and vibrations become audible to the audience. Get closer to nature, which takes center stage here as a living presence.
Julia van de Kar is a theater artist, performer, and educator who graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Performing Arts. She works intuitively and physically, focusing on voice and movement as universal forms of communication. Her performances exist in the space between the visible and the hidden, creating opportunities for connection and reflection. She also develops participatory workshops and works as a museum educator.
Ananya Samyt is a performer and sound artist who works at the intersection of nature and technology. Using modular synthesizers and biosensors, she translates electrical signals from plants into sound, with the plants acting as active creators. Her work often emerges in collaboration with musicians and invites a new way of listening, where nature and electronics converge.
Date:
Saturday, 13 June, 2026
Tijd:
3:30—5PM
Entrance:
Day pass for Saturday: €15 This includes: – Guided tour by Angelina Valleau – Workshop (including lunch) by Wilgenvrouwen – Performance by Plantelectra Orchestra
Language:
Dutch/English
Group size:
20 personen
Location:
Marres city garden Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht Please check in at the front desk first!
Throughout the day, ecological gardener Hans van Engelbrecht will be on hand to answer a wide range of questions about the flora and fauna in the Marres garden, which he knows like the back of his hand.
Hans Engelbrecht is the owner of the company De Groene Stap. He skillfully weaves together cultural history, ecology, and the surrounding environment. This results in a connection between gardens and landscaped spaces where nature and natural processes take center stage. In Maastricht, his projects include the Marres city garden, the Sphinxpark, and the Garden of Mercy.
Marres receives ongoing support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, the Province of Limburg, and the City of Maastricht.
Marres would also like to thank Hans Engelbrecht, the ecological gardener and designer of the city garden, our volunteer Thuur, and everything that grows and blooms in the garden.
On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, the whole country turns into one big playground — and Marres is joining in! Come play outside in our delightful city garden.
Make your own witch’s brew, smell fragrant flowers, taste fresh elderflower, and search for all the colors of the rainbow.
Let your senses be stimulated and your imagination run wild! Be sure to wear old clothes, because getting dirty is not just allowed — it’s a must!
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 Time: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM Location: The city garden of Marres in Maastricht The garden is free to enter
For parents, there’s the option to visit the Vultures & Fireflies exhibition, enjoy reading a book in the garden, or relax at Marres Kitchen.
The National Outdoor Play Day is an initiative by Jantje Beton. Jantje Beton is the leading charity that, since 1968, has been working together with children to create more and better play spaces and increase opportunities for play.
Kindcentrum Dynamiek, grade level 1/2 Photo: Dagmar van Wersch
Throughout the 2024/2025 school year, Marres will be organizing workshops for all grade levels at Kindcentrum Dynamiek. These tailor-made workshops align with the school’s CNAL (Creative Curious Active Learning) themes.
Building and Living
This series of interactive workshops takes young students on a sensory and creative journey through the themes of building and living. Through play, observation, movement, and imagination, they will explore their surroundings and materials in new and engaging ways. All workshops are inspired by the work of Alejandro Galván, which the students will also experience firsthand during a visit to Marres.
SenseSquared
In recent years, Marres has developed a method through the international collaboration project SenseSquared to encourage an artistic approach to education. This method will be part of the collaboration with Dynamiek.
Extended would love to invite you to the exhibition mind and matter, which the Extended members had the pleasure of creating and curating. They have made artworks that relate to themes of memory, the body and soul, the intangible and the physical. Putting into practice everything we have seen, studied, and encountered over the last couple of weeks, the exhibition is a beautiful memoir of our experiences during the Extended program.
mind and matter Saturday 25 January 12:00 – 14:00 Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
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The educational program Extended is a joint initiative of Marres and Jan van Eyck Academie. Thanks to Cultuurmakers Maastricht.
Marres and @ease are joining forces! This January, we’re excited to collaborate on two engaging workshops. @ease is a place for young people from 12 to 25 years old where they can simply walk in or chat online: anonymously, without an appointment and for free.
Join us to meet Mexican artist Alejandro Galván, who is currently working on his exhibition ‘Vultures & Fireflies’ at Marres. Share your story and explore your cultural identity through creative visualization.
Marres and @ease are joining forces! In February, we’re excited to collaborate on two engaging workshops. @ease is a place for young people from 12 to 25 years old where they can simply walk in or chat online: anonymously, without an appointment and for free.
Join us to meet Mexican artist Alejandro Galván, who is currently working on his exhibition ‘Vultures & Fireflies’ at Marres. Share your story and explore your cultural identity through creative visualization.
