Many New Agreements between Art Institutions from Amsterdam And New York

The Amsterdam delegation of the arts and cultural mission to New York returns to the Netherlands with specific results. Productions and art from New York will soon be presented in Amsterdam. Startups from the creative industry and the cultural sector see opportunities for business in New York.

More than 60 institutions from Amsterdam visited ‘New Amsterdam’ from September 5 until September 10. On the schedule were, among other things, a fact finding mission at New York museums, workshops focused on fundraising, city marketing, cultural education, diversity and innovation in the music industry. Startups attended courses on business in the United States and spoke to investors.

Alderwoman for arts and culture Kajsa Ollongren had a governmental meeting with her colleague Alicia Glen, Deputy Mayor of New York, responsible for Economic Affairs. They discussed jobs in the creative industry and the importance of arts and culture in spreading tourism. Ollongren speaks of a successful mission:

“It was interesting to see that nearly all disciplines from arts and culture where represented on this unique mission. Internationalization is a two way street of supply and demand. The agreements with New York give the public in Amsterdam the chance to see and visit new forms of art. And the cultural sector from Amsterdam enlarges the stage on which it acts. It was a useful trip for large and small institutions alike that already led to beautiful results. And I expect that the city will keep benefiting from this in the coming years. I think our sector returns to Amsterdam much stronger.”

Results:

• Cooperation between the New York Public Library & Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam. The agreements between NYPL and OBA are, amongst other things, English e-content, international collections and exchange of knowledge of education and social services. Furthermore, both library directors will continue a conversation with architect Francine Houben about her Eye Opener Fund. This fund promotes library innovations by supporting projects that reinforce the cultural, economic and social role of libraries

httP://www.oba.nl/nypl.html

• Red Hook Labs & FOAM: Youth from Amsterdam and Brooklyn will cooperate through photography. Foam and Red Hook Labs will organize multiple projects in which youth from both cities will be challenged to photograph themselves and their environment. This way, youth will be introduced to photography while meeting peers outside the borders of their own country. The cooperation will already start in September, when work by three photographers from the Red Hook Labs Gallery will be shown at Unseen Photo Fair.

http://www.foam.org/nl/over-ons/press-office

• Craft in Focus Festival NY: cooperation between Industry City Brooklyn, Popular Mechanics & Ambacht in Beeld Festival. The festival will be organized for the first time in June 2017 in the buildings of Industry City in Brooklyn. Craftsmen from the United States and the Netherlands will work together during three days. They will also attend lectures and masterclasses. The festival focusses on crafts and the exchange of knowledge based on shared cultural past of Amsterdam and New York. The magazine Popular Mechanics is media partner of the festival and reaches 7.8 million readers every month. Industry City in Brooklyn is a business complex for the creative and design community.

http://ambachtinbeeldfestival.nl/press-release/

• B.Amsterdam, an incubator for technological and creative industry, signed an agreement with Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. The Amsterdam based company will develop a business complex in the coming years as B.NY. The city council of New York City appointed B.NY as the official incubator for European startups.

https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/business/startupamsterdam/news-overview/b-amsterdam-to-open-new-york-location

• New York Philharmonic in Concertgebouw: the New York Philharmonic will open the Mahler Festival in May 2020, organized by The Royal Concertgebouw. Under guidance of Jaap van Zweden, who will become chef-conductor in 2018, the New York Philharmonic will perform Mahlers First Symphony during the opening concert. For the Orchestra this means performing for the first time with the new chef-conductor in the Netherlands and the first time during a Mahler Festival in Het Concertgebouw.

https://nyphil.org/whats-new/2016/september/mahler-festival-2020-announced

• Governor’s Island NYC & the Showmans Fair from Amsterdam will collaborate. The idea is that Showman’s fair will come to Governor’s island every two years, most importantly with a 120-meter-long table. “De Tafel” is a dining table, stage, catwalk and kitchen in one and seats 400 at once. Not only food is served at “De Tafel,” but theater, music and dance as well. The Showmans Fair is an initiative by Mobile Arts, also known for De Parade organized yearly in Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht and Amsterdam. Ollongren handed a model of the table to representatives of Governor’s Island.

http://mobilearts.nl/projecten-binnenland/the-real-showmans-fair/

• Cooperation between the NYC Municipal Archives & het Stadsarchief Amsterdam. The cities New York and Amsterdam have a shared past. Documents can be found in the archives that say a lot about the daily life of the inhabitants throughout centuries. Because of this cooperation, academics are able to study the connections between the documents and retrieve stories that were unknown until now.

http://www.archives.nyc/newamsterdamstories/levy/

• Theater show Om in de Overwinning te Geloven goes to New York. The Dutch actress Thirsa van Til will perform a solo show for an American audience on November 30^th. The show will be at Theaterlab New York, an institution focused on new and experimental work. Om in de Overwinning te Geloven is produced by the Dutch organizations Urban Myth and Studio Dubbelagent.

www.urbanmyth.nl

• Cooperation between the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) & Amsterdam Art Weekend. Both parties signed a partnership agreement during the mission. Artists and curators connected to the NYFA will visit in November to work on the Amsterdam Art Weekend. NYFA is known for activities focused on arts and culture in neighborhoods.

http://www.amsterdamart.com/activity/7-11-sep

• Cooperation between the Center for Contemporary Opera & Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. On October 15, the world premiere of “Odysseus’ Women & Anaïs Nin” by theater director Jorinde Keesmaat will take place in New York. Several weeks later, on December 9, the production will premiere in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam. Keesmaat has a residency in New York as guest director of the Center for Contemporary Opera, during 2016-2018. She will create four productions, of which “Odysseus’ Women & Anaïs Nin” is the first.

https://www.dutchcultureusa.com/blog/3208/jorinde-keesmaats-opera-anas-nin-odysseus-woman

• The Denim Days festival will be presented in New York for the first time in 2017. Denim Days is a festival that connects designers, producers and consumers in the denim industry during multiple days. The Denim Days have already been organized multiple times in Amsterdam. During the New York edition, the City of Amsterdam can present itself internationally as the center for denim industry in Europe.

www.amsterdamdenimdays.com

• The international premiere of the Rainbow Dress. The Amsterdam Rainbow Dress is a powerful visual statement that draws attention for LGBTQ rights. During the mission, The Rainbow Dress was exhibited for the first outside of Amsterdam in the Lincoln Center in New York. The work of Mattijs van Berge and Oeri van Woezik is made from the flag of the City of Amsterdam and 71 flags of countries in which homosexuality is forbidden. Each time a country changes their legislation the flag will be replaced by a rainbow flag. This happened recently with the Belize flag. This flag is replaced and will be hanging in the Amsterdam Museum.

www.amsterdamrainbowdress.com

• Amsterdam Marketing – NYC & Co. Amsterdam and New York City will be cooperating closer on city marketing. Amsterdam Deputy Mayor Kajsa Ollongren and New York City Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen agreed on more intense cooperation to keep both cities ‘livable, lovable & profitable.’ New York and Amsterdam will exchange more knowledge and experience and cooperate on spreading visitors, the role of arts and culture in city marketing and other solutions such as interventions in public areas. A conference will take place in Amsterdam in 2017 where experts from New York and Amsterdam will share knowledge about the themes with each other and other European cities.

www.iamsterdam.com