From Restoring to Restorying the Dogger Bank

A Dogger Bank Cultural Diplomacy programme in Museum Panorama Mesdag:

June 4 2026, 13.00 – 16.30 (including a visit to the exhibition drift. dune to dogger bank)

This programme is in English

The Embassy of the North Sea, Doggerland Foundation and Museum Panorama Mesdag are pleased to invite you to the programme Dogger Bank Cultural Diplomacy: From restoring to restorying the Dogger Bank, taking place on 4 June 2026, from 13:00 to 16:30, in Museum Panorama Mesdag.

This afternoon we explore new ways of understanding multispecies cultural diplomacy by approaching the Dogger Bank not as a shared space for interstate cooperation, but as a political actor in its own right, an entity with intrinsic value that we engage with, listen to and represent. Artists, curators, researchers and diplomats are invited to rethink and reimagine cultural diplomacy not about but with the Dogger Bank, grounded in perspectives and storytelling from the Netherlands and the UK.

This programme is part of the exhibition DRIFT: Dune to Dogger Bank (21 March – 13 September 2026) at Museum Panorama Mesdag.

Rewilding Dogger Bank

The Dogger Bank, a vast shallow sandbank in the North Sea, is a vital nursery for sharks, rays, herring and cod, as well as a year-round rich feeding ground for whales and seabirds. It is a Natura 2000 Marine Protected Area. This protection, however, exists mostly on paper, as harmful activities and ecosystem decline continues. Largely out of sight, the Dogger Bank serves as a diplomatic space where the Netherlands, UK, Denmark and Germany negotiate interests such as fisheries, energy, environmental protection and shipping.

Since 2025, an international coalition (Doggerland Foundation (NL), Embassy of the North Sea (NL), ARK Rewilding (NL), Blue Marine Foundation (UK), BUND (DE) and WWF (DK)) have joined forces to restore a healthy and resilient Dogger Bank. Through the Rewilding Dogger Bank Programme, together we pursue legal action, reef restoration, research and imagination, while fostering a broad, democratic dialogue on the future of the North Sea.

We cannot protect what we do not know

Within the Rewilding Dogger Bank Programme, the School of Dogger Bank is an experimental platform for learning and engagement, inviting artists, researchers and audiences to develop unconventional perspectives, artistic research and design approaches that strengthen the Dogger Bank’s cultural, political and legal position. Outcomes take the form of publications, artworks, assemblies, expeditions and exhibitions, with selected artists also featured in DRIFT: Dune to Dogger Bank.

One of the School of Dogger Bank’s first aims is to understand our complex relationship with this distant seascape. Because we cannot protect what we do not know. In the UK, close cultural and economic ties to the Dogger Bank mean that Doggerland features more strongly in the public imagination. This afternoon, we will explore British and Dutch perspectives on Dogger Bank storytelling – historical, political, cultural and multispecies – to deepen our understanding of this vital North Sea ecosystem and spark cross-border collaborations across the four Dogger Bank countries and beyond.

Speakers include

— Jennifer Cosgrave (British Council Country Director)

Doggerland as a catalyst for renewed connection

Through its annual Doggerland Lecture, the British Council invites audiences to explore the shared heritage of the Netherlands and the UK—shaped by both history and future possibility. By reframing the lost landscape of Doggerland, it becomes a catalyst for renewed connection. British Council Director Jennifer Cosgrave reflects on cultural diplomacy today, asking: what if the Dogger Bank were seen not as a contested space, but as an active force in shaping cultural and political narratives? Her presentation reimagines it as a living seascape of connection, possibility, and restoration.

— Renee Hoogland (Postgraduate Researcher at University of Southampton)

A cultural history of Doggerland in storytelling and politics

This presentation explores how the prehistoric landscape Doggerland is evoked and imagined in storytelling, politics and North Sea industry. What does this cultural imaginary of Doggerland – underlining different agendas and worldviews tell us about recent ideas of energy transition, governance and national identity in the North Sea region?

— Arieh Frosh (UK-based artist forming a duo with Ed Compson)

30,000 Years of Offshore Wind Energy Development

Arieh Frosh will present artistic, practice-based research that takes the meeting between offshore wind energy and Doggerland as a narrative starting point. The presentation emerges from a year of research at Norwich University of the Arts, UK, involving collective role-playing workshops, interviews, sailing trips and an amassing of North Sea objects. The research led to series of exhibitions and a film, all of which positioned the expanded site of the North Sea as a discursive one, informed by a looping, cyclical time. They asked, how can we present a nonlinear poetics of the sea?

— Harpo ’t Hart (artistic director Embassy of the North Sea and sound artist)

Reflections and insights from the School of Dogger Bank

Harpo ‘t Hart will present the methods and work of the School of Dogger Bank. He will focus on the interdisciplinary research teams and speak about our efforts to integrate research into worldview, politics, public space and nature restoration into a new narrative for the Dogger Bank.

— Xandra van der Eijk (artist)

Seals and the Songs Between Us

Xandra van der Eijk will present her artistic research residency exploring the long, intertwined relationship between humans and seals along the North Sea coast. Beyond proximity, sustenance and mythology, both species share a capacity for vocal communication. The project treats seal song as a living thread connecting Dogger Bank ecosystems and coastal communities, bridging distances and species, pursued through both scientific and artistic inquiry.

Info & tickets

From Restoring to Restorying the Dogger Bank

June 4 2026, 13.00 – 17.30 (including a visit to the exhibition Drift. Dune to Dogger Bank)

Museum Panorama Mesdag, address: Zeestraat 65, 2518 AA Den Haag

Engish spoken

Admission: free

From Restoring to Restorying the Dogger Bank

A Dogger Bank Cultural Diplomacy programme in Museum Panorama Mesdag:

June 4 2026, 13.00 – 16.30 (including a visit to the exhibition drift. dune to dogger bank)

Rewilding Dogger Bank

We cannot protect what we do not know

Speakers include

— Jennifer Cosgrave (British Council Country Director)

— Renee Hoogland (Postgraduate Researcher at University of Southampton)

— Arieh Frosh (UK-based artist forming a duo with Ed Compson)

— Harpo ’t Hart (artistic director Embassy of the North Sea and sound artist)

— Xandra van der Eijk (artist)

Info & tickets

to register, please fill out this form

Jennifer Cosgrave

Xandra van der Eijk

Arieh Frosh and Ed Compson

Harpo ’t Hart

Renée Hoogland