As we are leaving the mild, carefree fun and rather fortunate 2019, SAMA’s team is ready to tackle the titillating challenges in the wise, practical, ambitious and quick-witted 2020. And aren’t we ready for the New Year?! We are thrilled to have up-graded the entire team, from top to bottom.
The new Board of Trustees is chaired by Freek van Duijn, who has agreed to his 2nd term, and supported by Thera Knap https://www.linkedin.com/in/thera-knap-a395671a/ as a treasurer, and Mariëm Zian https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari%C3%ABm-zian-87485896/ as an executive secretary. Both ladies have been warmly welcomed by the operational team for their experience in the cultural sector; after all, the bigger the harvest, the more powerful is the machinery that is needed to collect it.
The mission, vision and strategic steps forward have changed dramatically in the last two years, triggered by the widespread growth and popularity of street art across all layers of society, changes in politics and city management policies, in order to stay with the times. The tasks also grew into research, consulting and preservation, rather than pure production in the name of the community. We have created a legacy which is slowly fading away, and now is the time to document it.
Therefore, the Foundation is splitting its resources into 2 departments:
collection management, which will focus on archiving the collection as well as all supporting materials represented in physical art works, books, into AXIEL library for submission as an official museum registration, formalising the relationship with the city and other cultural foundations
collection application, which will cover all national and international projects and educational programs associated with the SAMA collection, as well as new productions and innovation
The new Collection Management Team has also been shaken, not stirred, with the amazing Anne Boermans https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemarije-boermans/ taking over my role as Managing Director. I am thrilled to be working alongside Anne because, like me, she has a background in the advertising world and corporate high-tech, which means she grasps my pace and has a similar work ethic. Anne is also bringing something on board that I cannot give to SAMA -- broad experience in Amsterdam’s culture sector, native Dutch language, and a lot of wisdom in product development and getting it to the market. We are all happy to hear that she equally believes in SAMA’s added value in Amsterdam Nieuw-West and city’s heritage in general. Anne is a well travelled and curious person and is a true lucky strike for us.
Anne will be supported by the research team consisting of our more than 1 year experienced Vitória Ramirez Zanquetta and Jesse Scott. Vitória has been part of the Master in Museology from Reinwardt Academy and has accepted the position of Freelancer Museology Advisor with SAMA. Our team thinks it is important that we have a stable heritage expert on board who can finish the full collection registration and oversee the publishing of the catalogue by the end of the year. Jesse, whilst still working on transitioning from working as an educator and historian to art historian, is committed to another year at SAMA as a volunteer to assist Vitória, and continue his ‘baptism by fire’ in producing, documenting, registering and archiving the artworks in our street art collection. Both young professionals are going to also work on a few international projects, such as Europe for Citizens STreetART project, Magic Dozen exhibition, Radiona’s TechGarden focusing on street art and technology in order to build communities, in addition to others which we shall announce later in 2020. Furthermore, the Research Team has successfully received the funding for completing the SAMA Catalogue in Axiell from Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the project which will start at the end of January 2020.
They will be aided by Aimable Nsabimana who received his leave to remain in the Netherlands in October and is sticking around as Administration Manager for another year. Aimable is already responsible for most of the internal administration before it is submitted to our financial consultant, and having him for more time once again adds stability to the organisation. Aimable also does tours in French, Dutch and English, helps on productions and workshops, and as of next year will be supervising data entry into Axiell and catalogue management.
The social media, website and new branded content will be made and managed by Louise Masoni, who accepted her internship placement starting in March 2020. Louise is in the middle of her Business Master's degree at Esdes Business School, in Lyon, France, speaks French, English, Spanish and basic Portuguese, is a fan of video making and photography, plays musical instruments and sports - basically, perfect!
Denizhan Kemaloğlu from Ordu University, Fine Arts Faculty Painting Department, in Turkey will be assisting with tours and educational workshops for local Turkish communities, whilst practicing and improving his English following Erasmus+ program.
Dianne Riley is continuing her journey in 2020 as a volunteer, concentrating on workshops, participatory research, street art tours and residents engagement.
Irina Ermolaeva stays with SAMA in her advisory role as an art historian and practicing artist.
Anna Stolyarova, the founder and perennial rebel, shall be heading the Collection Application Team and working on international projects and conferences, as well as writing Strategic and Creative Plans alongside the new Managing Director.
We shall be still strengthening the Board of Trustees team, with 2-3 additional candidates, so if you are pondering or know someone who has ±40 hours per year and would like to be part of the Board of Trustees - please write to answers@StreetArtMuseumAmsterdam.com for the attention of Freek van Duijn, The Chairman.
We have also committed to working with a few steady partners, so the roller-coster times of changing consultants has come to a hopefully long stall.
The branding and SAMA story telling work went to Nina QUAX Creative Studios. The small but very impactful and dedicated team is very well rounded, understands SAMA vision and can translate it into engaging and fabulous imagery. It was not an easy task in the first year or so, but the creative team very creatively managed to solve every one of our problems giving us the look you cannot forget, whilst keeping the funky-punky essence in tact.
The INTK team, up-dated with Sanne Koopmans, has got the annual contract for Google Ad-Words Grant optimisation and are looking forward to increasing the traffic to SAMA online real estate by 30%. Working with a professional team was smooth, and understanding of each other’s strength gave an extra boost to enhancement of the web- and google business sites.
Masja Austen remains to be SAMA’s loyal finance and administration consultant and is celebrating her 5th year with us. Masja single-handedly has put SAMA on a stable track of receipts and VAT management, annual financial reporting and funding reporting, as well as ANBI status management.
Together all of the aforementioned people helped SAMA Street Art Collection not only get on the map but also to begin the formalisation of our relationship with the city.
Street Art Museum’s collection started in 2012 with the small yet very emotional artwork - The Prophecy of Bastardilla, as we used to call it. Since then the museum has produced more than 300 pieces, exhibiting the entire range of styles and practices of what was to become known as “Street Art”. Fuelled, guided and educated by the leading practitioners of this contemporary artistic craft our initially an ‘all-girl team of do-gooders’ grew into a fully registered non-profit foundation. We create original content, mastermind exhibitions, speak at conferences, contribute to academic and scientific research, fundraise, represent the city in the international programs, design workshops and experiences, generate jobs and income for local people, and obviously influence the changes in the city. When people arrive to Street Art Museum Amsterdam, many of them are expecting an abandoned factory covered in graffiti or a brick box filled with canvases. Our collection is not a zoo. I like to refer to it as a Safari Park, where wild runs in its natural habitat. Because I live here, my friends and their children grow here, and everything is changing. Here, in Amsterdam Nieuw-West.
The new team is off to a good start, as the 8 years of the collection had finally provided a stable base for research on the tangible and intangible heritage of the city of Amsterdam:
- hosted 20+ schools totaling to just over 1000 students and teachers
- shared the collection with 2000+ individual visitors
- appeared in 20+ international publications and city guides
- delivered 4 academic research papers/ lectures nationally and internationally
- masterminded 20+ team building sessions for businesses
- successfully received 10+ funding for national and international projects
- presented VR for Heritage solution at 3+ national and international events
- raised the bar with 80,000+ monthly visits to our web presence