Who belongs to Alkmaar? A city collection with many voices

In Allemaal Alkmaar, Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar connects old paintings with stories about care, power and city life.

Museum Magazine · 20 October 2026

Three seventeenth-century women in dark dress sit with a book and papers. — Lambert Doomer, Three Regentesses of the Proveniershuis of the Men’s Hospital in Alkmaar, 1681. Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar collection; Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Lambert Doomer, Drie regentessen van het proveniershuis van het mannengasthuis te Alkmaar; collectie Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Image source

The permanent display Allemaal Alkmaar offers a portrait of the city. Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar brings together art and everyday objects from the city collection. It looks back at the city’s past from the Alkmaar of today; less visible histories share space with familiar artists.

Two restored group portraits by Lambert Doomer make mutual care tangible. The museum presents them within a story about how residents cared for one another over the centuries. The people and objects on the table raise the question of who could decide on help; the paintings offer no conclusive answer.

Painting of the bright interior of Alkmaar’s Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk. — Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Interior of the Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar, 1665. Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar collection; Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Interieur van de Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk te Alkmaar; collectie Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Image source

The view then widens to other layers of the city: sixteenth- and seventeenth-century painting, Alkmaar silver, civic guards, the siege and traces of the history of slavery. A church interior by Pieter Saenredam also belongs to the collection discussed by the museum.

The display allows children and adults to explore the collection. The separate temporary exhibition From Water to Land is scheduled from 10 October 2026 to 28 February 2027.

Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar is at Canadaplein 1. Its regular opening hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am–5 pm. Access to individual galleries can vary during exhibition changeovers.