Amsterdam’s first and only street art museum will tells its story using immersive technologies to preserve ephemeral art into eternal memory.
Using virtual reality to preserve our collection will be a game-changer in the world of street art. Join us from the start in this first-in-the-world immersive experience!
Since 2012, Street Art Museum Amsterdam has built a collection of nearly 300 artworks (and counting!) by internationally acclaimed artists. Initially met with suspicion and resistance, our project is now loved by locals and tourists alike, attracting over 10,000 visitors per year. SAMA is more than haphazardly created graffiti, however; SAMA’s collection has been conceptualized and created in collaboration between the museum, carefully selected artists, and the local community, resulting in a collection that tells their stories, brightens the streets, and preserves the region’s intangible heritage.
Always looking to the future, SAMA is adopting virtual reality as a tool for digital preservation of the collection, in keeping with a decade of museological research examining ways to increase inclusivity and accessibility to museums, both physically and intellectually. VR will allow SAMA bring the museum to visitors anywhere in the world through a unique immersive and interactive experience of the artworks in their intended settings, surrounded by the noise and bustle of the community as it exists in 2019. As the only true street art museum in Amsterdam, SAMA is excited to use VR to record and preserve our collection which is, by nature ephemeral, as it comes under increasing threat of destruction.
“It is incredible to see how progress in XR technologies is enabling grassroots initiatives such as this street art ecomuseum to affordably reach the goal such as the first ever street art VR catalogue online by a grassroots street art museum to promote marginalized neighbourhoods, whilst continually using street art as a tool to dialogue for inspirational and emancipatory goals.”
Dr. Gabriele Romagnoli, founder of GR Talk, XR coach and official advisor for the
San Francisco AR/VR Association.
With help from MediaCollege Amsterdam and Amsterdam Impact Hub, SAMA was the first in the world to bring a virtual reality camera in the lift with the anonymous artist, Bastardilla, as she painted the monumental artwork “Memories,” to create SAMA’s first virtual reality capsule. SAMA has since screened the video at conferences and events including CAMOC conference “Towards a City Museumwatch” (Lisbon, Portugal), CreArt Encounter 2019 (Aveiro, Portugal), We Make the City Festival Amsterdam 2019, SDG Action Day 2019 (Netherlands), VR Days Amsterdam 2019 (Netherlands), Techgrounds Conference 2019 (Netherlands), and AWE Conference Munich 2019 (Germany), generating continual support. SAMA’s existing network of private, public, and municipal supporters, technological and marketing coaches are just one part of helping the museum achieve its goal of a full virtual reality collection. With a demonstrated track record of innovation already acknowledged over the last several years by peers and international media including CreArt, ICOM/CAMOC, Amsterdam Impact Hub, Amsterdam We Make the City Festival, Drum Magazine, and Mobile Marketing, SAMA is excited to step into the future of openly accessible art and culture.
Public screenings of our VR capsule
For further information please visit our kickstarter campaign at