For the ‘Arcadia’ exhibition artists from all over the world were invited to travel to Diepenheim, to join the popular culture and react to folklore, the neighbours and the splendid nature in a cooperation between curators, artists and the local population. Curators Gijs Assmann, Hanne Hagenaars and Heske ten Cate created various exhibitions on popular art and culture, in which contemporary art and local art and culture in Diepenheim were merged. 

​

"An oasis which has existed forever and which the big bad world can’t get its claws into. How do citydwellers, world citizens and strangers look at this reality and what do you have to give up join this close-knit community?"

​

As a part of the exhibition, Abner Preis held a two month project with an elderly home and local craft works club. The participants all made “Spirit Sticks” and together planted a tree in the museum garden for the opening. All the participants made their own puppet, as seeds of hope and carried them through the village as protectors for the tree. The elderly people, a group of volunteers and the artist together walked through the community garden to “stop and smell the roses."