Vincent Lancee zit geknield en brengt met een penseel witte verf aan op een zwart-witte muurschildering.

A Pick-Me-Up for Heerlen: New Art on Spoorsingel

Anyone walking, cycling or taking the bus along Spoorsingel will come across a new sight. Artist Vincent Lancee created Opkikker, a mural developed in collaboration with students from Vista College. The artwork adds a positive touch to the everyday journey through the city. It is part of Kunst op Straat, an initiative through which SCHUNCK also provides space for artists, young makers and new ideas.

On the way to the future

The sight of a bus full of students on their way to college gave Vincent Lancee an idea. How nice would it be to give them a little lift on their journey? Together with students from Vista College Kunst Theater Media, he turned that thought into a frog on a wall. The title Opkikker is a Dutch play on words: kikker means frog, while opkikker also means a boost or pick-me-up.

The frog has a range of different meanings. While it is sometimes associated with witchcraft and misfortune, in many cultures it symbolises transformation, harmony and good luck. It is this positive meaning that appeals to Lancee. His frog carries elements of the students’ everyday lives and fragments of Heerlen’s history, crawling its way towards the future.

Lancee (Landgraaf, 1987) is a tattoo artist and illustrator. His interest in creating images began with graffiti on the streets. Through his sketches, he found his way into tattooing. These days, he applies his distinctive black linework to the body almost every day. With Opkikker, his work returns to the street, this time using paint, a brush and a roller.

Schuin zijaanzicht van de muurschildering van Vincent Lancee, met een groot wit wezen, golvende patronen en een gele cirkel op een zwarte muur.

The city as a place for art

In Heerlen, you come across art while doing the shopping, on your way to school or waiting for the bus. Over the past fifteen years, murals and graffiti have become part of the city’s identity. The Kunst op Straat (Street Art) initiative builds on this development.

Since May 2025, Robin Vermeulen has been exploring how Heerlen can continue to make space for graffiti and street art in his role as curator-in-residence. He works on behalf of the municipality of Heerlen, in collaboration with organisations including SCHUNCK and the Kool Cult Foundation.

New works, experimentation, education and talent development all come together in the initiative. The history of graffiti also receives attention. How can emerging artists be given room to develop? What does a work mean to its surroundings? And how do you deal with art that changes or disappears? The collaboration between Lancee and the students shows what these questions can lead to: a new work connected to the people who pass by it every day.

Vincent Lancee zit geknield en brengt met een penseel witte verf aan op een zwart-witte muurschildering.
Vincent Lancee schildert op zijn knieën witte golvende lijnen op een zwarte muur, als onderdeel van een grote muurschildering.

MODULE: room to experiment

At SCHUNCK, this space for experimentation takes shape in MODULE. Together with Kool Cult and Robin Vermeulen, SCHUNCK invites artists to create work on a movable panel measuring 2.5 by six metres. Each contribution offers a different perspective on public space.

Artists who have created work for MODULE include Martinus Papilaja, Dean Kisters and Lily Peters, Thierry Jaspart, Joren Joshua and Irene Fresh. Until 31 December 2026, you can see the contribution by Massoud Sakhi outside, by the sliding doors of SCHUNCK Glaspaleis. He explored drawings, inscriptions and other traces in the marl quarries of Limburg. Drawing on his background in graffiti, he examines people’s desire to leave a mark of their presence.

The Glaspaleis’s monumental display window also provided space for an artist with roots in graffiti. In collaboration with Vermeulen, SCHUNCK presented work by Jeroen Erosie there. His work shows how the visual language of the street can evolve further within a museum setting.

Irene Fresh werkt buiten aan haar kleurrijke MODULE-wisselwand aan de zijkant van het Glaspaleis.

ArtBase: art close to home

MODULE is part of ArtBase, a national pilot programme for regional contemporary art. From 2025 to 2027, SCHUNCK is working with two other institutions and the Mondriaan Fund to explore how art from and within the regions can gain greater visibility. Collaboration with artists and regional partners, talent development and presentations beyond museum walls are central to the programme.

Another example is Op Handen Dragen by Chaim van Luit. Since August 2025, his neon hands have illuminated the west wall of De Putgraaf car park on Plaarstraat. The permanent artwork refers to prehistoric handprints in the Cueva de las Manos cave in Argentina.

Van Luit grew up in Heerlen and has a background in graffiti. His work brings an age-old gesture into the city of today: a handprint as a sign of presence. The municipality of Heerlen realised the work in collaboration with SCHUNCK Museum and other partners involved. This project is also part of ArtBase.

Nachtzicht over Heerlen met verlichte neonhanden op de gevel van de Plaarstraat.

The stories behind graffiti

From 11 to 13 December 2026, SCHUNCK Glaspaleis will host The Tag Conference. This international conference explores the heritage of punk graffiti. Talks, film screenings and new publications bring material from remarkable archives to light.

The programme focuses on graffiti that emerged from the Dutch punk and squatting movements of the 1970s and 1980s. It also gives a place at SCHUNCK to the stories behind the marks on the streets. The conference is presented by SCHUNCK and the municipality of Heerlen and developed by Unlock Bureau.

See Opkikker on Spoorsingel, then continue to MODULE at SCHUNCK Glaspaleis and Op Handen Dragen on Plaarstraat. There’s plenty to pause and take in along the way.