Amsterdam’s historic West-Indisch Huis was once home to the Dutch West India Company but today houses the John Adams Institute, a platform to further cultural exchange between the Netherlands and the US and build upon the historic relationship between the two countries.
The institution is celebrating its 40th anniversary next year and, says new director Ian Kenny, is tweaking its approach to be more in line with the current challenging times.
“The goal of the John Adams Institute has always been to reflect the world we see around us, to hold up not only a window onto the American experience, but also a mirror, and a mirror onto Dutch society, too,” he says.
“The promise that a lot of us grew up with in the west has definitely not come to pass in the way that we collectively worked toward and believed in,” says Kenny, who hails from Ottawa, Canada. “Those times are behind us. So how do you reflect on a country where democracy itself is under siege?”
The answer? By continuing to do what the JAI does best: providing an independent podium for American culture that aims to bring the best and the brightest American thinkers from the fields of literature, politics, history and technology to the Netherlands.
In fact, “bringing the best and the brightest of American thinking” was the old slogan. Now, it’s “Amsterdam’s home for independent American thought.”
“We are independent. We are free-thinking. We believe in democracy and free speech,” says Kenny. “These are our core values, and we’ve decided to lean into them even more outspokenly and brazenly than we have in the past. And I think our programming for the coming year reflects that.”
Happy birthday
The year 2026 will be a big one for both the JAI and the US: the JAI will turn 40 and the US will celebrate its 250th birthday. All the institute’s programming, says Kenny, will be geared to the US‘ semi-quincentennial, starting with a State of the Union address by Jill Lepore, Harvard historian and author of We the People.
In addition to historians, the JAI will host poets, writers and politicians to reflect on 250 years of the American experiment, “examining different aspects of what the United States has been, what it is, and what it might yet still become on its 250th anniversary since independence,” says Kenny.
That includes a new national anthem by former US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, and a discussion with New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan who looks at the US through the lens of consciousness and hard science.
“This kind of pattern is the red thread we want to continue throughout the year to look at what issues are facing not only the United States and Americans, but also that wave over the Atlantic Ocean to us here and impact everybody’s lives,” he says.
New Amsterdam and Old
The US-Dutch connection, one of the longest diplomatic relationships on record, pre-dates the founding of the American republic, when the Netherlands was one of the main financiers of the American Revolutionary War.
John Adams was tasked with securing a loan from the Dutch, and he lived in Amsterdam for a year and a half before getting it. Today, the Netherlands is among the top foreign investors in the US.
“The transatlantic connection is always there,” says Kenny. “And we can learn from a still incredibly important country that has shaped the world we live in and still does-for better, worse, and everything in between.”
The JAI has been able to retain its independence because it relies on donations, entrance fees and private sponsors to support itself—not government subsidies from either the Dutch or the current unpredictable US. That, says Kenny, means the institute is only beholden to its community—“the people who come out and engage with our work.”
Keep hope alive
That includes Dutch American comedian Greg Shapiro. He cites a recent JAI talk by Minnesota governor and former vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who was in Europe as part of a trade mission soon after Donald Trump was sworn in as US president for the second time.
“At that moment in time, he was able to bring his message of a peace mission, not just a trade mission,” says Shapiro. “While Trump was talking tariffs and ripping up treaties, Walz was here to say that half the country wants to do things differently, at least at the state level, where many people share your European values. I found that incredibly relevant and was glad the JAI was there to provide the platform.”
Native Minnesotan Lynn Kaplanian-Buller was also in the audience. “Walz is my governor, and he’s wonderful,” she says. “His message was that as governors, we are going to work together to make sure authoritarianism doesn’t take over. And that is very encouraging.”
Kaplanian-Buller is co-owner of The American Book Center (ABC), another independent English-language Amsterdam stalwart. The JAI and ABC recently formed a partnership to grow their like-minded communities.
“The opportunity arose to fulfil a long-held dream; we have been supporting each other since the beginning,” says Kaplanian-Buller. “We’re sympatico. We also want freedom and speech and ideas and support for the creative processes.
“We don’t want that to be snowed under by politics in the US. We need the freedom to speak out. We need publishers to publish these books, which have a lot more gravitas than social media. And it’s important to have a podium for that kind of thought, now more than ever.”
To that end, ABC and JAI are co-hosting a Books, Borrel & Banter community night on December 10, where there’s likely to be some commiserating but also plenty of celebrating. “The world outside might be daunting, but I think what we are doing here is rising to that challenge,” says Kenny.
“In challenging times, it’s important to keep hope alive. We’re looking beneath the headlines and seeing what’s there. We’re shining the light. The future is ours for the shaping.”
