Ars Aemula Nature

Ars wants to promote the quality of contemporary visual arts in Leiden and surroundings by being a meeting place for visual artists and their public, organizing discussions, promoting and showing quality and providing the best amateur art practice.

Ars Aemula Naturae (“art competes with nature”) is an artists’ association with around 90 members. The association was founded in 1694 by Willem van Mieris and Carel de Moor as the ‘Leiden painting and drawing society’. The aim was ‘to offer visual artists the opportunity to further develop their profession’ and ‘to spread the knowledge of visual arts in Leiden and the surrounding area’. Both goals still apply.