Events at the Amsterdam Museum - Month of May 2023

Besides a permanent collection presentation at Amstel 51 and at Huis Willet-Holthuysen on Herengracht and changing exhibitions, the Amsterdam Museum offers a public programme. At various locations and for a diverse audience. The following events are scheduled in May 2023. Take a look at www.amsterdammuseum.nl for the latest information.

Family show 'Fairy tales from home' at House Willet-Holthuysen

3 and 4 May 2023

The family performance Fairy Tales from Home translates four classic and modern Ukrainian fairy tales full of fantasy, humour and symbolism into text, movement and music. On Wednesday and Thursday 3 and 4 May from Huis Willet-Holthuysen.

Fairy Tales from Home is a project by Ukrainian-Dutch theatre maker Anastasiia Liubchenko. The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced many Ukrainians to flee. In this project, Liubchenko works with both Ukrainian refugees and Dutch people professionally active in theatre. With the performance Fairy Tales from Home, Liubchenko wants to contribute to the encounter between Dutch and Ukrainians. According to her, fairy tales give a very different, more universal insight into a culture. Everyone recognises the fairy tale form and has a certain kind of nostalgia about it.

The performance is a collaboration between Mime Wave Foundation, Amsterdam Museum and Ukrainian school Dzherelo, The Culture Participation Fund, Prince Bernhard Culture Fund and Janivo.

Fairground organ the Snotnose on Dam Square

5 May, 12.45pm - 3.45pm

During Liberation Day, the Snotnose, a barrel organ with a special heroic story, will be heard on the dam at 12.45, 13.45, 14.45, 15.30.

The Brat

On 7 May 1945, Dam Square was full of happy Amsterdammers, gathered to await the Canadian liberators. Happy music sounded from the barrel organ 'Het Snotneusje', built around 1935 by Fa. G. Perlee. However, the party was cruelly disrupted around three in the afternoon when unexpectedly - the Germans had already officially surrendered - German soldiers started firing on the crowd from De Grote Club on the corner of Kalverstraat. Panic! Some hid behind the barrel organ.

Twenty-two people v www.amsterdammuseum.nlonden death, over a hundred were injured. Without 'The Brat', there would have been more casualties. Now the bullets only penetrated the barrel organ. A later refurbishment found some of these bullets. This 'heroic act' has given the small 48-key barrel organ a well-deserved place in the Amsterdam Museum's collection.

The Snotnose is a collection piece of the Amsterdam Museum and can usually be admired in the permanent collection presentation Panorama Amsterdam.

Talk: The liberation skirt. A talk on resilience in patchwork

5 May 15.00 - 16.30 hours

On Friday 5 May, style anthropologist Carmen Hogg opens a talk on resilience in patchwork. She zooms in on the story behind the liberation skirt, some of which are in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum and on display in the exhibition Continue This Thread. She reflects on how needlework can bring people together and make them work together, and on the fact that living in freedom today is not a given. The conversation takes place with curator of Fashion and Popular Culture at the Amsterdam Museum Roberto Luis Martins, designer Tess van Zalinge and Mansoureh Shojaee, initiator of The Iranian Womens Movement Museum.

The Liberation Skirt

A skirt that would symbolise rebuilding the Netherlands and coming to terms with personal war experiences. Initiator and resistance fighter Mies Boissevain-van Lennep called on women in the Netherlands to make a Liberation Skirt: a patchwork skirt made from remnants of old clothes and embroidery with symbolic meanings. This is how Renetta Grabandt made the skirt in the picture, which she wore during the big skirt parade in 1948 to mark Queen Wilhelmina's 50th anniversary of reign.

Speakers

Tess van Zalinge (1989) is co-curator of the exhibition Continue This Thread at the Amsterdam Museum aan de Amstel.

Dr Mansoureh Shojaee (born 1958) is a leading women's rights activist and author from Iran. She is one of the leaders of the Iranian Women's Rights.

Roberto Luis Martins (1994) has been curator of Fashion and Popular Culture at the Amsterdam Museum since 2021 and, together with Tess van Zalinge and Karim Adduchi, created the exhibition Continue This Thread at the Amsterdam Museum aan de Amstel.

Carmen Hogg (MSc) is a style anthropologist, content creator and writer. She is moderating this Talk.

New VR experience Abner Preis at Amsterdam Museum

21 May, 2 pm - 4.30 pm

Visual artist and storyteller Abner Preis, together with co-creator Zoe D'Amaro, presents his new immersive VR storytelling experience at the Amsterdam Museum aan de Amstel. In the work Blooming in a Ring of Fire, women of different ages and backgrounds share their stories.

The VR experience can be viewed at the Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel from 21 May. On that day, there will be an event to launch the work between 14:00 - 16:30. During the launch event, everyone is welcome. Visitors can listen to speeches and music, try out the VR Experience and there will be a paper flower-making workshop.
This project was co-sponsored by the Mondrian Fund, Plan International and the National
Postcode Lottery.

Female Gaze Tour

28 May 2023, 11.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m.

In this Female Gaze tour series, the Amsterdam Museum and various guest tour guides reflect on the many women in the art world who have often not received the attention they deserve in the past. In this edition, Emmeline de Mooij (Feminist Crafts Party) gives her perspective on the exhibition Continue This Thread.

The Feminist Handicraft Party is a political feminist artists' movement that Emmeline de Mooij started together with Margreet Sweerts to bring restoration between ourselves and the world around us through textile repair. In the interactive meetings of the Feminist Crafts Party, textile is used as a medium to study, repair, unlearn and adjust, literally and figuratively. In this way, the party presents the underexposed history of women in relation to textile production.

Amsterdam Museum during Amsterdam Art week

31 May to 4 June 2023

The 11th edition of Amsterdam Art Week will take place from 31 May to 4 June 2023. The Amsterdam Museum is participating. Keep an eye on our website for the programming.