Author: Anneleen van der Kolk

The Amsterdam City Archives, located in historic building De Bazel is the historical documentation center of Amsterdam, housing 50 kilometers of archives, a historical topographical collection with millions of maps, drawings and pictures, a library and extensive audio, film and photo archives. All these archives show how today’s city was made in the past. During WeMakeThe.City you can visit the treasure chambers of the City Archives for free. Don’t forget to have a look at the City Bookshop!

Street Art Museum Amsterdam (SAMA) creates, explores, documents and preserves the growing democratic movement of Street Art and is one of the first recognized street art museums in the world. Featuring over 150 works, SAMA’s collection is ever-growing; frequently introducing internationally acclaimed artists to Amsterdam Nieuw-West’s streets. All works are site-specific, each with a story to tell. From the colossal work of Stinkfish , to the small Woodies by BunnyBrigade; SAMA’s collection is a collection worth seeing.

During the weekend of WeMakeThe.City, guided tours through the SAMA collection takes you to the green belts and along the blue canals of Nieuw-West. Local guides will show you around through museum’s collection and share the stories behind each artwork. Based on experience we have prepared a small menu of available street art experiences and your alternative visit to Amsterdam.

Wander around the Zuidas, be surprised in New West, get acquainted with the many faces of North, explore the East, roam the wharf of NDSM, and check out the Red Light District from a different point of view.

11 leading Amsterdam art institutions are joining forces and showcasing the richness of the Amsterdam public space during the manifestation Pay Attention Please! in the summer of 2018. Over the past decennia the public space of Amsterdam – the space we share together – has changed significantly. Ambitious new build projects, tourism, and economic activity have transformed the face of Amsterdam for good. But not everyone is aware of Amsterdam's long and exciting tradition of art in and for the public domain. Every neighborhood has its own classics, which are sometimes cherished and sometimes debated by its locals. These works are the artist's response to the changing world they live in. They invite you to discover the stories of Amsterdam and look at society from a different angle. Pay Attention Please! is an exhibition of existing and new (temporary) works of art and interventions in public space. The works are presented through an inspiring public program, consisting of walking routes, stories, lectures and performances. More than just an exhibition, it is also a way to experience the city of Amsterdam in a new and surprising manner.

SAVE THE DATE: Festive opening weekend June 21-24

Pay Attention Please! is organized by Public Art Amsterdam, an initiative by CBK Zuidoost, De Appel, Framer Framed, GET LOST- art route, Frankendael Foundation, LAPS-Rietveld, Stichting NDSM Werf, Oude Kerk Amsterdam, P///akt, Stedelijk Museum and TAAK.

Public Art Amsterdam is a biennial manifestation in the Amsterdam public space. ‘Pay Attention Please!’ is the first edition.
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Hopp is a place where you wake up to whistling birds, a getaway from the city where you enjoy pure and natural food.

What does Amsterdam look like from the roof? You can find out by visiting roof terrace Hopp. Hopp, formerly known as Nest, reopens its doors at the Eerste Ringdijk, in a new, green guise. It will be part of our green roofs route on June 23 and 24.

It is more than just an inspiring green roof: Hopp is also the place to be for a nice beer. Better still, for many different special beers.

Hopp is a place where you wake up to whistling birds, a getaway from the city where you enjoy pure and natural food. A place to meet up after a long day at work or to visit on a Sunday afternoon with the children. Hopp is home. A home with its own garden. Where you can feel free as a bird.

Would you like to hop by on a Friday? You can, as Hopp will be part of ROEF! on June 22.

The Beach is a hub and a lab for Sustainist Design based in Amsterdam New West. Together with people and organisations we design projects that empower communities. We are led by values such as sustainability, the human dimension, and fair sharing. Designing new forms of relationships – creating a new societal tissue – and researching the underlying processes lie at the core of what we do.
During WeMakeThe.City, we offer Sustainist Design workshops in which we apply co-design design processes to topical issues. At the weekend, there will be a festival for neighbourhood makers, created together with locals: designers and makers from the Wildeman borough in Osdorp will gather, and demonstrate the connecting powers of what we call the ‘make culture’.

GET LOST is one of the art routes made by Pay Attention Please!, and it generates art in public space by connecting young, promising artists to the Amsterdam Zuidas. For the 2018 edition, artists have been invited to reflect on, and mirror the concept Code of Conduct. Their work takes the shape of a mirror which serves as a kind of reality check. In this mirror, we can observe ourselves and determine how things are constantly changing and moving.

GET LOST aims at improving the vibrancy and quality of life at Zuidas for companies and its staff, residents, and an international and young art-loving audience.

GET LOST will open in a spectacular way on June 22 at the Gustav Mahlerplein, Zuidas Amsterdam

How to design and transform the built environment in order to handle climate extremes?

The water company of Amsterdam Waternet is programme partner of WeMakeThe.City. At the festival, they focus on the huge task of including climate adaptation on a regional scale on the agenda.

Issues that will be key at the special conference of June 21 are: How to design and transform the built environment in order to handle climate extremes? Apart from the several water boards and regional municipalities, how can we get companies, societal organisations, and citizens involved in these urban tasks? In Amsterdam, a lot of experience on this topic has been gained through the programme Rainproof Amsterdam – now it is time to extend it to the region.

The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) is hard to overlook in the city, with its more than 45 thousand students. Even more so since HvA chose the City as a major theme for education and research, a few years ago. HvA will function as a programme partner on the big urban and societal issues at WeMakeThe.City, with disciplines such as Urban Management, Urban Vitality, Urban Technology and Urban Analytics, and several research fields of the lectors.

A large group of students of HvA will visit the neighborhoods and boroughs on Wednesday, June 20 for a WeMakeThe.City survey, posing the key question: What kind of city do we want to live, reside and work in? Students will also take part in all of the theme and area programmes on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 June. The lectors and researchers contribute to the theme programmes with their specific tasks and will present research findings of projects and living labs.



Around the world, we see an increased awareness that in order to tackle challenges of that scale, we need to work together.

Our cities today are facing many urban challenges. They may arise from the continuous growth of our cities, climate change or the fact we have reached the limits of non-renewable resources. Wider societal dynamics such as globalisation, migration, and digitisation affect changes in the urban economy, the social composition of neighbourhoods and the way we work.

We set the stage for the five-day WeMakeThe.City festival and through a variety of lenses we will be looking at approaches that successfully experimented with the collaboration between multiple stakeholders. We will learn how this is not just a strategy to solve problems but a way to pursue innovation.

Amsterdam has a rich history of multi-stakeholder approaches, initially meant to protect the city from being flooded by the high sea level. But over time, this has resulted in a fertile ground for collaboration, now known as the Amsterdam Approach. In 2016 Amsterdam won the Innovation Capital of Europe award, because of its urban innovation ecosystem which consists of stakeholders from public, private and non-profit sectors, working together to make the city better. Collaboration pays off and makes our future cities more resilient, successful and inclusive.

More and more people are living in and around the city, putting pressure on our cities. We face the challenge of keeping and making our cities livable, healthy and sustainable – now and in the future. For this, we need creative and innovative solutions. The creative industry and the world of science are offering just that: possibilities and new insights which we can use to bring the future here.

Scientists and entrepreneurs will present their vision of the future city at CHARGE, organized by CLICKNL, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Creative Industries Network. Do you want to know the future of energy, behaviorism and the smart livable city? Would you like to find out how you can connect with the frontrunners as a creative professional, scientist or policy maker? Come to the Parool Theater on the Knowledge Mile on June 21, get inspired by keynotes and experts and connect during an afternoon and night of madness.

Being in a city is fun. And everything is even more fun with a good beer. On June 23 and 24 you can have an adventure, visiting local breweries. Like Oedipus Brewing, a brewery located in the north of Amsterdam producing colourful beers and more.

Four years ago, four friends started brewing beer in a small apartment in the centre of Amsterdam. Now it has become an ambitious and fast-growing brewery. Oedipus does not just advocate diversity when it comes to taste: they produce 12 different beers on draft in the tasting room, as well as festivals and cultural events inside and outside the brewery.

During WeMakeThe.City, it is definitely worth visiting Oedipus Brewing and be surprised by their bottled taste sensations!