Stichting Street Art Museum Amsterdam

Street Art Museum Amsterdam (SAMA) was established in 2012 as a community-based contemporary ecomuseum that uses street art as a tool for dialogue between stakeholders in Nieuw-West and local and international visitors. SAMA focuses on dialogue about Nieuw-West as a forgotten neighbourhood in Amsterdam and brings the neighbourhood closer to the rest of the city  through its cultural offer.  SAMA holds a purpose-made collection of circa 300 artworks produced in the past 9 years with international and local artists in various socio-cultural contexts. The main collection of artworks is located openair in Amsterdam, accessible to all equally, and is documented and catalogued in our digital library. The supporting collection of artefacts, archives and a library are located at SAMA’s headquarters. As a cultural organisation, SAMA’s is dedicated to produce, document and preserve street art movement and its development employing participatory approaches in the eco-museum context. Next to it stands its institutional mission to produce for our target audiences exhibitionary projects with the use of SAMA’s collection, internal knowledge and archives.

Our mission and vision demarcate SAMA from other street art organisations in the Netherlands – festivals, fairs, galleries and exhibition spaces. Throughout 11 years of its existence SAMA has grown from a grassroots local initiative in Nieuw-West to an internationally acknowledged 'heritage action unit' that academically and museologically claims the space for advocating street art to be part of an Amsterdam identity and DNA. Authenticity of SAMA's institutional profile lies in its purpose-made collection and its cross-disciplinary study of street art in its placement as (in)tangible cultural heritage of the Netherlands.

Our mission is to use  the potential of the collection for the benefit of the community and the (built) environment. We enrich the cultural offerings in stigmatised neighbourhoods and enable young experimental cultural scenes to express themselves and develop. We make art accessible in public spaces worldwide by pioneering new technologies such as VR.  

SAMA believes in a world where art is accessible to all, where museums are cultural hubs for the expression and social development of the communities they are part of, and provide a platform for young people to experiment with new forms of art and technology. The employees of SAMA are driven by the conviction that equality of opportunity is essential for a well-functioning society.