On the Good Neighbours Market last Sunday in Nieuw-West, the Street Art Museum Amsterdam brought joy and colours by organising a workshop for kids. In order to bring neighbours closer together, the Good Neighbours-initiative was found by two residents of Amsterdam West. Last Sunday the first real time market was executed, leaving space for small businesses or ideas form people living in Amsterdam West to show themselves among neighbours. The Street Art Museum Amsterdam stood between market stalls with home-made food, jewellery, postcards and more. The Mexican graffitero and street artist Ricardo Moste, was there together with Anna and Diana to introduce all the kids to the fun of painting, on paper and with spray cans.
Below you can get an impression of this cheerful and summery day through the pictures or read a small interview with Anna (founder and director of SAMA) about her experiences of the day.
So, Anna, you were at the Good Neighbours Market last Sunday. How did you experience it?
It was very exciting, it was the first time we had a quality neighbour market event. It was a little bit hipster, which was nice. It was true multi-culti, not the usual three Turkish stalls and three Moroccan stalls. There was Columbia, there was Surinam and Israel, there was Italian vintage and a Mexican artist. It was very, very interesting and nice. Of course the location is fantastic, Hotel Buiten is one of our favourite spots in the area. They are building an new building so it was really nice to be there to put spotlight onto the development.
Can you elaborate on what SAMA’s relation to the neighbourhood is?
We are the neighbourhood; our artworks are around the neighbourhood. We work with many schools, we know a lot of people and a lot of volunteers that normally work at these events. We were asked to be the ‘clowns’. We did not have a stall; we were not selling anything, but we created an opportunity for kids to play with creativity and illustration. So we had a ‘Paint-it-like-Banksy’ workshop, which is basically free for all, using spray cans, markers and stencils.
