This is how ABN AMRO supports art and culture
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Art talks, connects and drives. It lets us know where we are, and where we have come from, as a society. Art brings people and groups together, evoking emotional reactions from joy and sadness, to hope and confusion. Artists disclose and present social and societal wrongdoing. For centuries, artists have helped people to exist by challenging the status quo. ABN AMRO’s Art and Culture Sponsoring focuses on sustainability and equal opportunities. This means ensuring equal opportunities for women in the art world, as well as boosting opportunities for children and young people by supporting educational programmes.
In our role as sponsor of various cultural institutions, we go beyond providing financial support. We also make effective use of our knowledge and network. And we’ve seen that by talking and connecting, sponsoring can drive positive advancement. We are working alongside partners to speed up the process of equalising opportunities in society.
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
ABN AMRO became one of the founders of the revamped Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2008. After a renovation lasting over eight years, the museum welcomed the public once more in September 2012. ABN AMRO has been a social partner to the museum since 2022, with a focus on equal opportunities for women in the art world and the Blikopeners educational programme. The museum is home to a permanent collection of modern art dating from between 1870 and 1960. It also hosts temporary exhibitions and maintains a major applied art and design collection, including everything from industrial design and applied art, to graphic design.
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Blikopeners
ABN AMRO has been the main partner in Blikopeners since 2022. Blikopeners, or ‘Eye-openers’, are open-minded young adults, who work in the museum to open the eyes of the public and staff. The Blikopeners programme was launched over 14 years ago, which means that over 150 Blikopeners have been trained to do the job.
STRAAT Museum
ABN AMRO is the proud main partner of the new STRAAT Museum. STRAAT is a museum for street art and graffiti. The museum is located in an 8,000m2 former warehouse on the Amsterdam NDSM wharf, and first opened its doors in 2021.
From Keith Haring to Banksy, street art has regularly hit the headlines in recent years. Its impact on art, fashion, design, advertising and popular culture is stronger than ever. STRAAT aims to share its passion for this radical art movement with the public, showcasing some of the biggest names and upcoming talent from all over the world. STRAAT is a street art and graffiti museum for everyone, young and old.
H’ART Museum (formerly Hermitage Amsterdam)
ABN AMRO has been the proud partner and social sponsor of the H’ART Museum (formerly Hermitage Amsterdam) since 2004. Housed in an elegantly restored 17th-century building (which has been made surprisingly sustainable with smart solutions), this museum attracts international top collections. The museum is also a model of strong social entrepreneurship, making art and culture accessible to a broad audience.
H’ART for education
ABN AMRO has been the proud main partner of H’ART Museum (formerly Hermitage Amsterdam) for Kids since 2022. We have been supporting this education program for many years. “Every child has a right to discover their artistic talent”: that’s our motto in this shared endeavour. Looking at art fosters creativity, problem-solving and the ability to explore the world with an open mind. Art inspires awe, stimulates creativity and evokes a wide range of emotions.
Singer Laren
ABN AMRO has been linked to Singer Laren since 1990. At the beginning of last century, American couple Anna and William Singer built their villa De Wilde Zwanen (the wild swans) in the Dutch town of Laren. Here they accumulated an impressive art collection, and after William’s death Anna commissioned the design and construction of a museum and a theatre annex to the villa. This venue, currently a listed private building, opened to the public in 1956. With the opening of a theatre in 2017, Singer Laren is even better equipped to offer the public a perfect blend of performing and visual arts in one location.
And in 2018, Els Blokker announced that she would donate the Nardinc Collection to Singer Laren. Merging this collection with the current collection of art at Singer Laren has enabled the museum to compile an outstanding exhibition showing the progression and fruition of Dutch modernism. The museum added an extra wing specially for this display.
The ABN AMRO Art Prize was introduced in 2004 and will be awarded for the thirteenth time in 2023. With this special prize we give emerging local and international talent in the visual arts in the Netherlands the opportunity to develop and shape their future career.
In addition to the monetary prize of €10,000, the winner is given an exhibition in the Hermitage Amsterdam museum and ABN AMRO also purchases one of their works for its collection. The jury is made up of several leading individuals in the Dutch art world.
WOMEN Inc.
There is blatant inequality between men and women in the art sector. It’s a problem that is deeply ingrained in every aspect of the sector. In 2022, WOMEN Inc. and ABN AMRO published a detailed report on the subject. In an effort to tackle the problem of inequality, ABN AMRO has joined forces with WOMEN Inc., a special interests group that has spent the last 15 years campaigning for equal opportunities for men and women in the Netherlands.
Since 2005, WOMEN Inc. has been working tirelessly to improve the position of women in the Netherlands. Their ambition is to create a society where everyone has equal opportunities, regardless of gender or sex. We are united in this joint mission to create greater equality in the arts sector, and this will be the focus of our plans in the coming years.
Festival: DGTL
The DGTL electronic music festival has worn the badge of strong social engagement for years. This is especially evident in its focus on sustainability: DGTL is the world’s first circular festival. One of the ways the festival will be deepening this social engagement in the coming years is through a new partnership it is entering into with ABN AMRO. Following on from our collaboration on sustainability and circularity, ABN AMRO has been helping DGTL since 2022 to accelerate inclusivity and equal opportunities. Both organisations share the view that diversity and inclusion are key drivers of social and economic progress. A series of activations at and around the festival will focus on equal opportunities and creating socially safe and welcoming dance floors for all.
DGTL, which lasts three days, takes place every year during the first weekend of April at the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam, and attracts around 45,000 visitors.