Join ARTIS in opening the restored Aquarium

ARTIS' monumental Aquarium is a familiar building to generations of city dwellers. The 19th-century national monument, with its large central hall and rows of aquariums, is one of the oldest working aquariums in the world. For the past five years, it closed for a major restoration and renovation. Now that that restoration is nearly complete, attention is shifting to its contents: live marine life and a new exhibit on water.

With the campaign "Open the new Aquarium together with ARTIS," Natura Artis Magistra is involving Amsterdam residents and other visitors directly in that completion. The campaign is simple but visual: individuals and organizations can symbolically donate liters of water. Those donated liters represent the filling of the renovated aquariums as well as making possible the educational presentation that goes along with it.

Several new underwater habitats and species will return to the tanks in the restored building. Visitors will once again walk past live aquariums in the historic central hall, while at the same time being drawn into a story about ecosystems and biodiversity. The new permanent exhibition zooms in on the importance of water to all life on Earth: from tiny aquatic organisms to entire ecosystems that depend on clean and sufficient water.

Several new underwater habitats and species are returning to the tanks in the restored building.

Those who follow the campaign will see how heritage, science and public engagement come together here in one building that for over a century has shown how water and life are inextricably linked.