Amsterdam Museum hopes to become a ‘relevant city museum’ in a new location

The new home of the Amsterdam Museum aan de Amstel is still busy cleaning and doing things. Many of the works of art from the Amsterdam Museum have never left the house. Like the paintings of the Regents. “It will take some getting used to for the ladies,” laughs Margriet Schavemaker. “In the Burgerweeshuis they naturally had a specific meaning. And here they suddenly hang between completely different works of art.”

There are also objects that have been in storage all their lives. Such as a bone in a glass dome of the 19th-century national hero Van Speijk, who blew himself up with his boat during the uprising of the Belgians. “Looks a bit rancid, but is of course beautiful to exhibit,” says Margriet.

Recent artworks

In addition to old paintings and objects, there are also more recent works of art and utensils on display. “We also want to shake things up a bit,” says Margriet.

An entire section is devoted to Amsterdam Noord, for example, made by the Verdedig Noord collective, which opposes the gentrification of the district and stands up for the original inhabitants. “There is a Canta here, the vehicle of the Northerner. And there is also a hairdresser’s shop and a snack bar. This is how you experience the disappearing North.”

The new home of the Amsterdam Museum can be found at the Amstel 51 in Amsterdam.

Also in Culture Club a portrait of the Amsterdam singer-songwriter Van Wyck. You could call Christien Oele, as Van Wyck is really called, a late bloomer. In 2018 she made her debut as Van Wyck with An Average Women. She is now fifty and will release her fourth album in April. “I have been involved with music all my life, but I only started playing the guitar very late. And with the guitar I also started writing many more songs and I have increasingly found my voice,” says Van Wyck.

Her new album is called The Epic Tale of a Stranded Man† “It’s about a man who washes up on an island and who no longer knows who he is,” says Van Wyck. “It is a concept album, so not just a collection of random songs. The songs are related and together they tell the story of this man, a woman he encounters and the strange island where it takes place,” explains Van Wyck.

name of her grandmother

Christien borrowed the name Van Wyck from her grandmother. “Grandma van Wyck was a very cheerful Rotterdam girl who loved poetry, but she had always been a nurse,” says Christien. “I thought Van Wyck was a beautiful name. My first record An Average Woman is also a bit of a tribute to women like my grandmother. Women who lost their name through marriage and whose life stories often remained untold”. Van Wyck is a tough and proud name. “And Van Wyck is also doing much better abroad than Oele”, Christien laughs.

Christien is not only a serious and dedicated musician, she also loves to swim. Recently she also swims in the winter in the IJ in Amsterdam. “I like to jump in everywhere I go where there is water,” says Christien. “At first I only did that in the summer, but during the lockdown period I also saw people enter the water here in winter. Then I started doing that too. It gives such an intense feeling, as if you completely disappear in that moment. You can’t think of anything else.” Is there a similarity with singing and making music? “That’s what I like best. That you stand on stage and become one with your audience, that you take off a little together and forget everything about your cock.”

The album The Epic Tale of a Stranded Man van Van Wyck will be published on April 8. Van Wyck will perform in the coming months in North Holland and the rest of the Netherlands†