Fourth edition of exhibition Collecting The City: Stories about Heron Forest, The Seafront and Museum around the Corner

A new edition of Collecting the City on show. For the fourth time, museum and city join forces to bring stories of Amsterdam into the limelight. This time, the participating partners are Kazerne Reigersbos, Ongekend Zeedijk and Museum om de Hoek.

Stories from the city

For the exhibition Collecting the City #4 as in previous editions, the Amsterdam Museum, together with partners from the city, went in search of different stories and perspectives from the city. From cultural centre Kazerne Reigersbos, a group of young makers presented a vision of the future of their neighbourhood. In the mini-exhibition Unprecedented Sea Dike residents, entrepreneurs and artists of the Zeedijk will explore the question of to whom Amsterdam's inner city belongs and reflect on the many stories to be found about the centuries-old Zeedijk. Museum om de Hoek will also be present again during this edition. This time with neighbourhood stories from the North and West districts.

''Collecting the City edition 4 tells the new stories of old familiar places. Familiar to residents and entrepreneurs, but perhaps unknown to museum visitors. The various partners take us into their neighbourhood and their neighbourhood museums to give us more insight into where they are now as a neighbourhood community, what they are up against and where they get a lot of inspiration. But most of all, they tell us what they do for their neighbourhood and why we should think about it more often and for longer.''
– Gonca Yalçiner, head of education and participation at the Amsterdam Museum

Reigersbos Barracks

The Kazerne is a cultural centre and incubator in Reigersbos, a neighbourhood in Amsterdam Zuidoost. People are given the opportunity to come together here, with a focus on talent development, entrepreneurship and neighbourhood participation. This also attracts many young makers and artists. Eight of them have united under the name Future Tellers. In the Kazerne exhibition, they introduce themselves and show their vision of their neighbourhood, Reigersbos. Accompanied by various partners and artists, they will engage with local residents for the duration of the exhibition and work together in the museum to create an art installation, which will continue to grow for the duration of the exhibition.

"The neighbourhood I come from has a lot of untapped potential. I see a lot of opportunities and I want to show them to a wider audience with Future Tellers."
- Deshaun Sordam, Future Teller (aged 23)

Unprecedented Sea Dike

Zeedijk is one of Amsterdam's oldest streets. Because of its location at the port, it has always been a place of arrival. This makes it a place where different ages and cultures come together. Herring Arie, the Surinamese, Jewish and Chinese communities, the queer and jazz scene, young creative entrepreneurs - all feel at home here. Yet here too, the question reigns: for how long and to whom does the city centre actually belong? Co-curator Ravenna Westerhout explores this in the exhibition Unprecedented Sea Dike together with artists Susan Kooi, Neil Fortune, Tja Ling Hu and Eveline Renaud. The exhibition is a sequel to the co-creation project ONGEKEND.ZEEDIJK that took place in 2021 and 2022 in cooperation with the City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 750, Aanpak Binnenstad, NV Zeedijk, BIZ Zeedijk, W139 and the nearly 100 entrepreneurs, residents and visitors spoken to for this project.

"With local residents, entrepreneurs, creatives and (young) Amsterdammers, we set out to create an urban identity based on the Zeedijk's unknown stories. After all, who does the city belong to? What is the story that needs to be told? And how do we let (young) Amsterdammers feel ownership of that story again?"
- Ravenna Westerhout, initiator ONGEKEND.ZEEDIJK

Museum around the corner

During this fourth edition of Collecting the City Museum around the Corner is once again a collaborative partner. In this edition, three neighbourhood museums introduce themselves and share special stories from their neighbourhood. Bellamy BuurtMuseum gives a glimpse of the Bellamybuurt in Amsterdam-West with warm neighbourhood feeling. Atelier Volten, based in Amsterdam Noord, shows a number of leading works by Noordeling sculptor André Volten (1925-2002), 21 of which can be seen in public spaces in Amsterdam, and the Jordaan-based Pianola Museum delves into the history of the self-playing piano. These three different stories from Amsterdam North, centre and West invite visitors to dive into the neighbourhoods themselves in search of more.

About Collecting the City

Collecting the City is the place where the Amsterdam Museum collects and presents the vibrant city of Amsterdam, in cooperation with various parties and groups in the city. Within this project, neighbourhood museums, networks, local artists and enthusiastic residents share stories and objects they think would fit in a museum about Amsterdam. During each edition of the exhibition, new makers are invited to showcase their ideas. Think of an innovative perspective on the past, a beautiful or painful moment in the present or a new future vision of the city. Permanent partner is the foundation Museum om de Hoek, to which 23 neighbourhood museums from Amsterdam belong.

The exhibition Collecting the City #4 can be seen from 23 February 2024 to 5 January 2025 at the Amsterdam Museum aan de Amstel (Amstel 51). The exhibition has been made possible by the VSBfonds, the Cultuurfonds, Amsterdam 750, Kazerne Reigersbos, Museum om de Hoek and Zeedijk. The Amsterdam Museum is structurally supported by Main Beneficiary Gemeente Amsterdam, Founder VriendenLoterij and Main Partner Education ELJA Foundation.