ROTTERDAM, 30 March 2026 – Haven Hotel Rotterdam, Curio Collection by Hilton, has launched a new rolling art programme that brings together Rotterdam artists, hotel guests and major local cultural partners.
The idea is simple enough. Rather than treating art as background decoration, Haven Hotel wants to turn parts of the hotel into a living gallery in the Maritime District. Works by Rotterdam artists are shown in the lobby and in Loef, Living Room & Café, with presentations changing every four months so both guests and visitors can encounter art outside a formal museum setting.
A hotel art programme with Rotterdam roots
The Curio Art Project is built around the hotel’s location at Leuvehaven, where the history of Rotterdam’s port began in the early seventeenth century. According to the hotel, the selected works are meant to echo the atmosphere and maritime history of the site, with attention to form, texture, colour and Rotterdam’s long-standing connection to travel and discovery.
The programme is being developed with Kunsthal Rotterdam and the Maritime Museum Rotterdam. That gives the project a broader local frame, linking the hotel not just to individual artists but also to two institutions that help shape how Rotterdam tells its cultural and maritime story.
TelmoMiel and Melissa Moria lead the first edition
In the lobby, visitors will see two paintings by TelmoMiel, the artist duo made up of Telmo Pieper and Miel Krutzmann. The two works on show are Empty Bags from 2022 and Cocoon from 2024, both oil on linen. TelmoMiel’s detailed, playful style is already well known in Rotterdam. The paintings are placed right at the front of the experience.
TelmoMiel's Empty Bags from 2022 (left) and Cocoon from 2024 (right), both oil on linen.
In Loef, Living Room & Café, Rotterdam visual artist Melissa Moria presents a Flowers Forever installation. The hotel describes her practice as process-led and rooted in material research, with flowers appearing not as decoration but as carriers of time, fragility and attention. Through repetition, layering and natural materials, the work is meant to make traces of touch and labour visible.
Melissa Moria attended the launch in person. Here she explains how she infuses her canvas with a special pigment extracted from insects.
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Flowers, vinyl and maritime history
A third part of the programme comes from Erwin Zimmerman and Michael Engelaan of Demonfuzz Records on the Nieuwe Binnenweg. They created a vinyl-based floral artwork for the corridor, inspired by Kunsthal Rotterdam’s upcoming exhibition Flowers Forever, which runs from 27 March to 30 August 2026. The piece is intended to connect music, visual art and the city through a collage of album covers and floral imagery.
Demonfuzz Records created a vinyl-based floral artwork for the corridor, inspired by Kunsthal Rotterdam’s upcoming exhibition Flowers Forever
The maritime link continues in the rooms themselves. In collaboration with the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, each room will include the museum’s Topstukken book, while the hotel will also present a History Booklet unfolding the maritime past of the former Waterstad area.
The Blue Hour
The official launch event, The Blue Hour, took place on Wednesday 25 March 2026. We were welcomed in the lobby for a guided mini art tour, followed by a cocktail reception downstairs in the recentlly opened Calan restarant, built around a floral menu. The programme also included a visual experience by Marounae Dekaoui and Nassim Azarzar, as well as flower-inspired cocktails, mocktails, and delicious samples of unique dishes.
Some of the delicious bites we got to try at Calan restaurant, part of Haven Hotel Rotterdam
Among the bites were black hummus, a juicy vegetable dish and an ice cream. Unfortunately, I don't recall the exact names nor the ingredients. But I can certainly vouch for the taste. Calan's menu does look very fascinating, so I'll definitely come back another time to sample the rest of the menu.
How to get to Haven Hotel
Haven Hotel Rotterdam, Curio Collection by Hilton is at Leuvehaven 77, 3011 EA Rotterdam, in the Maritime District at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge. From the city centre, Leuvehaven metro stop is the obvious public transport option, and the hotel is also within walking distance of the Maritime Museum, Coolsingel and the riverfront.
