Hart Museum Amsterdam

Top location for art exhibitions

Hart Museum Amsterdam was formerly known as the Hermitage Museum. It was originally an affiliate of the St Petersburg Hermitage Museum, but in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, the museum cut all ties with the St Petersburg Museum.

It rebranded as Hart Museum. As you might wonder, how do you suddenly fill a museum? They solved this by collaborating with some of the world’s major museums to host blockbuster shows that perhaps you might never see unless you visited the host museum.

When we visited, Kandinsky was the high profile artist on show.

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Hart Museum Tickets

The Hart Museum is located along the Amstel river and is a large beautiful building with a stunning courtyard at its centre.

When visiting you’ll discover that there are actually three museums housed under the one roof. The Hart Museum itself is where we found the blockbuster style exhibitions, The Amsterdam Museum is where you can discover all about the history of Amsterdam and finally the Museum of the Mind which explores the art of the mind.

You can book tickets for each museum individually or there are combined tickets that include all three museums in one price.

From our point of view, we found that the value offered by all three museums under one ticket far outweighed buying individually. You can only do this through the Hart museum website or as we did by turning up in person on the day. The I Amsterdam City Card is also great value for this.

If you only want to see the one museum though, we recommend you use an online link to book in advance (see below).

You’ll find the Hart Museum featured on various passes including I Amsterdam City Card and Museumkaart.

Hart Museum Amsterdam Experience

Our apartment was literally a stones throw across the river from the Hart Museum and with Kandinsky on show whilst we were in Amsterdam, it was not a difficult decision to spend a few hours enjoying the art.

The building itself is very striking and easy to spot. The canal boats cruise past or make turns off the Amstel into the smaller canals, so it feels like a busy part of Amsterdam, even though some would consider it slightly outside the centre.

Nearby to the Hart Museum is the Xtracold Ice Bar and the National Opera and Ballet, plus a short walk will take you to the small canal boat museum. To the rear of the building is the Holocaust Names Memorial (Amsterdam) which is a beautifully designed memorial that can be quite overwhelming as you walk through the maze of names.

To enter the Hart Museum you go through a small archway that opens up onto a lovely square courtyard that the building wraps around. It was winter so was empty, but in summer I imagine it would be a lovely place to relax and enjoy a coffee.

Once inside the Hart Museum, you will see the ticket office and can either produce your QR code to scan or buy your ticket. Kandinsky is rightly popular, but we had no problem just turning up on the day and getting our tickets. In the height of summer with a blockbuster exhibit, you may not be as lucky and should book in advance.

We decided to get a ticket for the Hart Museum, Amsterdam Museum and Museum of the Mind. We’ll focus on the Hart Museum in this write up though, but we did find the combined ticket was a big saving and definitely worth it.

After scanning our tickets at the turn style, we walked upstairs and watched the Kandinsky introduction video, which set us up for what we were about to see inside.

The Hart Museum is big, it is also beautifully lit, so whatever exhibit is on show, you will feel like you are in a big space with no real crowding issues. Whilst we were there, a group tour of students came through and even their group of over 20 were swallowed up in the space.

There were plenty of seats dotted about in front of the art, something I always appreciate and the flow round the building was simple and enjoyable.

Discovering the life and work of Kandinsky was the real bonus of our trip to the Hart Museum. Abstract art has never really gripped me, but I found this exhibit to be very enlightening and left with a real sense of experiencing something new and exciting.

Where is the Hart Museum

The Hart Museum is located along the Amstel river which is one of the key rivers of Northern Holland.

When we visited Amsterdam in October 2024, we stayed at the Canal Suites Apartments Amsterdam from which we could walk out the door, turn right and see the museum across the river. We’d highly recommend the Canal Suites if you were looking for self-catering accommodation in Amsterdam.

Hart Museum address:

Amstel 51, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hart Museum Cafe

Strictly speaking this restaurant and cafe serves all three museums under the one roof.

It is one of the prettiest museum cafes I have been too, with lovely light filtering through the glass and a real open feeling to the seating. In the summer, you would be able to enjoy the outside courtyard too.

Hart Museum Shop

The final stop is always the shop. This one is pretty big and open too. The museum has plenty of space and uses it well.

This shop was full of Kandinsky products but also some very nice Amsterdam focussed keepsakes, art books and even a section on Miffy for the kids.

It certainly felt a bit more high end in terms of what was on offer, so this is a good place to visit for that unique present that perhaps you couldn’t find anywhere else.