We started the morning bright and early with a trip to the Diamond Museum. Despite getting a little lost after getting off the tram, we finally made our way to the museum. It was filled with jewelry, crowns and even a diamond encrusted skull. While it was interesting, we all agreed that we were glad it had been free on our Amsterdam cards. After spending about an hour at the museum, we made our way towards the tram stop to head for our site visit at the Street Art Museum. We had about a group of 10 at the museum with us, and it just so happened we got on the exact same tram as everyone who was coming from the hotel. Talk about perfect timing since none of us actually knew where the Street Art Museum was.
After we got off the tram and got oriented, we approached a somewhat small building that was covered in artwork. When someone says museum, typically I tend to think of a large building that houses all the exhibits in one place. The Street Art Museum is quite a bit different. Our museum trip was a nearly two hour long walking tour to different exhibits located in the community. They ranged from tiny pieces to giant murals that covered the entire side of a building. We got to see work from some of the most famous and well respected street artists across the globe.
The thing that is really interesting about the Street Art Museum is that they commission a range of international artists to come into this specific area of Amsterdam and paint their street art. More importantly, the museum works with the local community to make sure that was is painted reflects what they want to see. An example our tour guide gave us was some of the changes that were made to a mural that was set to be painted in a predominantly Muslim community. The mural was going to include the silhouette of a boy wearing a crown. However, the community pointed out that it reminded them and that many of them thought it was the silhouette of a Dutch anti-Muslim politician. Without asking the community, the original mural would have been painted that would have angered and upset the community.
As we were walking around on the tour, some of us did wonder exactly how the community felt about having the art in the first place. One of the examples that stood out to me was an art piece that was meant to represent the struggle to keep a housing complex from being destroyed. The community living there specifically asked for the mural not to reflect that struggle because they wanted to move on with their lives. However, our guide mentioned that the work-shopped mural was still a representation of the struggle, just in a more muted and less obvious way. This did, to some degree, make me question some of the community outreach tactics the Street Art Museum was using. I believe that one of the most important parts of community outreach is the show that community that you have listened and respect their opinion, and I think that specific piece missed the mark.
There were a lot of mixed opinions about the Street Art Museum and how they interact with the community. The discussion about our experience continued well into Talia’s birthday lunch at Pancakes Amsterdam. Kletia was wondering how some of this could even be considered street art when these artists had been paid to come in and paint in a certain location and that the pieces had been work-shopped by the community. She felt that street art was something, at least in Seattle, that was defined by its organic nature, not because someone was paid to paint it. After much discussion, I came to the conclusion that just like the art we see in museums like the RijksMuseum, it is an incredibly subjective experience. What you consider art and the process behind this art is entirely up to you, which is part of what makes art so powerful.
After a break for lunch at Pancakes Amsterdam, we headed over to MOCO, which is the Museum of Modern Art. The museum itself is a very large old house located in the Museumplein, next to the Van Gogh Museum and RijksMuseum. The museum featured pieces from famous artists like Banksy. Banksy is a predominantly anti-capitalist artist and much of his artwork centers around this theme. All of us thought it was a bit ironic that he was so anti-capitalist yet was profiting from having people pay to see his artwork in a museum. There were some amazing 3-D artwork that was actually built into the museum walls by the artist himself. We spent a couple of hours inside the museum before heading outside to explore the garden area and enjoy the sun. After a very long day filled with a lot of walking, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel for the day and have a break before heading out clubbing for Talia’s birthday.