Cultural Centers in Amsterdam
Paradiso
Explore the vibrant cultural landscape of Amsterdam through its diverse array of cultural centers. These cultural hubs offer a rich tapestry of experiences that celebrate the city’s heritage and creativity. Discover the beating heart of Amsterdam’s cultural scene as you delve into its eclectic mix of venues, each offering unique insights into art, history, and innovation.
In alphabetical order:
de Appel
The team of de Appel and the City of Amsterdam are pleased to announce that in the new year of 2024 de Appel will move to and be hosted by Tempel Broedplaats, a cultural centre in Amsterdam’s Diamantbuurt. The new location will be inaugurated by Touria Melani, Amsterdam’s Alderman for Art and Culture in 2024. In the new location de Appel will continue its ongoing cultural projects as well as launch new programmes.
Framer Framed
Framer Framed is a platform for contemporary art, visual culture, and critical theory and practice. Each year the organisation presents a variety of exhibitions alongside diverse cultural and educational programs at its main location in Amsterdam Oost, as well as its project space Werkplaats Molenwijk in Amsterdam Noord.
Mediamatic
Mediamatic is an art centre dedicated to new developments in the arts since 1983. We organize lectures, workshops and art projects, focusing on nature, biotechnology and art+science in a strong international network.
Melkweg
Melkweg stands for pop culture in the most broad of senses. Each year, hundreds of concerts, club nights, films and music films, theatre performances, expositions and multidisciplinary events together attract almost 540,000 visitors.
The venue is located in the only surviving factory building on the Amsterdam canal ring, a former sugar and, later, milk factory. This historical building houses two concert halls, a cinema, a multidisciplinary room and an exposition space, which each can be used separately or combined together.
On The Inside
‘On The Inside’ is an independent and international platform for contemporary art situated within the cultural landscape of Amsterdam’s NDSM wharf, just 10 minutes from Central Station via the free ferry.
Founded by Annemarie Galani and Henk Stallinga, ‘On The Inside’ operates as a non-profit, artist-driven exhibition space. The platform showcases curated exhibitions programmed by ‘On The Inside’ and its rotating advisory board.
Housed in a converted warehouse with abundant height and natural, filtered daylight, ‘On The Inside’ provides the perfect environment for showcasing a diverse range of media in contemporary arts, from film and large installations to photography, painting, new media, dance, sculpture, and performance.
P/////AKT
P/////AKT is a non-profit exhibition space for contemporary art that organizes and facilitates large scale solo presentations through which the audience gets the opportunity to gain insight in the thinking space of the artists. It provides a platform for exceptional, emerging artistic talents, who distinguish themselves through their unique and authentic language and who are capable of giving a different view on the current way of thinking. They are stimulated to work out new developments and are given the opportunity to present their work to a relevant audience. Furthermore, P/////AKT always asks the artists to produce new work that relates to the specific nature and dimensions of the given space and to present their own mental space as an overall presentation within the given context.
Paradiso
On March 30th, 1968 ‘Cosmic Relaxation Center Paradiso’ opened its doors. The goal was to offer an open place for creative talent. From this day, the church building on Weteringschans was a place that attracted youngsters, audiences and artists from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe and the rest of the world. In the 40 years that followed, Paradiso has become a pop venue, a club and a cultural center in one…
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The Amsterdam music venue Paradiso managed to attract a record number of more than 727,000 visitors in 2023. A total of 1,210 programs were organized at more than 20 locations in Amsterdam. The cultural temple looks back on a year with many highlights and at the same time also a number of financial challenges.
Het HEM
Het HEM is a new home for contemporary culture in a former bullet factory.
Together with the visionaries of our time, we develop multidisciplinary art programs with which we shine a different light on the world around us. A playful and free approach to both creating and experiencing art is central to us. In addition to exhibition spaces, Het HEM has a living room with library, a café-restaurant with reading table and a terrace on the water and a hi-fi music bar.
SEXYLAND World
SEXYLAND World is a club, an art house, a hangout, 2 restaurants, a hairdresser and a gallery. A labyrinth of diverse cultural, creative, and societal initiatives with a single entrance and a shared vision. The building serves as a necessary place for cultural freedom, inclusivity, and creative experimentation. No closed doors, secluded studios, or offices, but 400m² of organized chaos. You can wander from an authentic Chinese Sichuan restaurant to a youth hangout with Moroccan tea and games, from a boundless Art Castle to Amsterdam’s most beautiful terrace with Surinam fusion cuisine, from the Iranian 65+ community to a club with a different owner every day. Flexible and noisy, accessible and diverse, with high and low quality but always unpretentious.
Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond
Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond is there for Flemish artists and Dutch art lovers who want to push their boundaries. We initiate and realize programs and collaborations in our home in Amsterdam.
De Brakke Grond is the expert in the Netherlands for current innovative Flemish art. The organization in the heart of Amsterdam started in 1981 and is financed by the Flemish government. Central to our mission – formalized in 1999 – is to promote the cultural identity of Flanders, to present characteristic developments in the field of art and culture from Flanders and to promote Flemish-Dutch cooperation.
W139
W139 is a leading production and presentation space for contemporary art in the centre of Amsterdam that has been paving the way for experimentation and new modes of autonomy, self-organisation, and collectivity within the arts for 44 years.
Since its founding in 1979—when the monumental building was squatted by a collective of artists—W139 has remained embedded in an engaged and intergenerational community of makers. As an artist-driven organisation, W139 puts experimentation at the forefront—providing space for artists to take risks and realise experimental, urgent, and ambitious projects.