Amsterdam Historical Museum

The Amsterdam Historical Museum has planned an exhibition and publication for 2012. For this project they will work together with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Pera Museum in Istanbul. By hosting this exhibition, the Amsterdam Historical Museum aims to spread knowledge about historical and contemporary links between Amsterdam and Istanbul among a wider audience. Istanbul and Amsterdam, Turkey and the Netherlands, have been and continue to serve as important bridges between Europe and Asia; major players in the international world of commerce, diplomacy, art and migration. By highlighting the connection between Turkish and Dutch history, the exhibition will stimulate mutual, multicultural understanding today. The publication that comes with the exhibition will explore the subject in more depth and ensures that the exhibition has more value in subsequent years.

The Amsterdam Historical Museum has a long tradition of cooperation with Turkish partners in Amsterdam. People with Turkish roots are the largest ethnic minority in the city, as they are in the whole of the Netherlands; hence it is of great importance both to the museum and the city of Amsterdam to include them in as many activities as possible.

Since the exhibition ‘Anatolië in Amsterdam/Amsterdam daki Anadolu’ in 1996, the permanent exhibition of the museum has been enriched with several Turkish objects. In the past years, several exhibitions have included Turkish elements and have been made in collaboration with Turkish organisations in the Netherlands, like Stichting Kulsan and the Turkey Institute. For instance: Oost, Amsterdamse Buurt (East, Amsterdam Neighbourhood) in 2004; Mijn hoofddoek (My headscarf) and an exhibition planned for october 2010: Buurtwinkels (Neighbourhoodshops). Furthermore, the AHM has given loans of their collection to the Istanbul Exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk in 2006.

Also in other projects Turkey is important for the Amsterdam Historical Museum. Projects like the ‘wezenkastjes’ (orphancupboards), where educational projects are shown in the courtyard of the museum, which is free of entrance. A recent one which included work by partly Turkish schoolchildren in Amsterdam was called ‘Mooi gemixt’ (Well Mixed), made by children with mixed cultural backgrounds. In websites like www.geheugenvanoost.nl , www.buurtwinkels.nl and www.5eeuwenmigratie.nl AHM has tried to incorporate Turkish history in a natural way in the history of the city, or in the last case, of the country. Finally, the AHM participates in language courses (NT2) for new Amsterdammers. Turkish migrants make up an important part of those groups.