Street Art Today tell us about the first street art museum

1. What's the story of street art today? How did you guys get started and what's your goal?

Street Art Today is a creative agency founded in 2014 by graffiti writer Peter Ernst Coolen. It started out as an independent blog at the time when Peter was running an art gallery in Amsterdam and he felt the need to build a space where he could promote the work of the artists who were not represented by the gallery. Through the blog, Street Art Today got its first commissions, among which a project that Peter curated for the prestigious Rijksmuseum (see here). For this project, the agency won a Dutch Street Art Award. Today the goal of the agency still is connecting companies with (street) artists. We create and take care of the organizational aspects, so that the artists can focus on their art.

2. How many people does it take to run your company?

We are a variegated group of 10 people, which includes curators, art directors, builders, marketers, project managers, researchers and editors. Our team is most likely going to grow before the opening of the museum.

3. Are you guys street artists yourselves?

Some of us yes, they are active in the graffiti and street art scene. Others have a background in different creative industries like media and streetwear. What we have in common is that we all are passionate about the art form and the powerful stories it can tell.

4. What are the most exciting trends in the world of street art?

We are very excited about making street art and graffiti commonly recognized as a global (cultural) heritage, that’s why we are building the world’s largest street art and graffiti museum. It’s a relatively new development, which encompasses from conservation and restoration of the artworks to raising awareness on what can be easily considered the largest art movement of our time. Street art and graffiti both deserve to be seen as “serious” art forms by the art world and to be included into art history canon; luckily, we are not the only ones seeing it that way.

5. How is your museum going to work? Will new art be painted over the old?

The artworks will not be painted over. We will be true to the nature of the street by building a space where things are never the same and there is always something going on (as opposite to a “white cube” museum). Other similarities with the street: our canvases are site-specific: most of them were created inside the same warehouse where visitors will see them. Many artworks were inspired by the location (either the warehouse, the neighbourhood or Amsterdam and its people). The content of the artworks is accessible also to people who have never studied arts (as opposite to some contemporary art museums, which can be quite “conceptual”) and the wide range of showcased topics reflects the variety and the discussion that is currently going on in the streets -in terms of styles, forms, social and political criticism etc.

6. What do you think about street art becoming part of the establishment? For example it used to be, and in some cases still is, illegal but now companies and governments sponsor it. Is that good or bad? Does it dilute the edginess of it?

There are so many grey walls around the world that there is enough space for (street art) project, either sponsored or illegal. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, and often the same artist works on both kind of projects. Artists obviously need an income, and it is a good thing that they get recognized (and paid) for their work. In many cases, that income supports the illegal / edgy artworks that -luckilywe are still seeing in the streets.

7. Who are your favorite up and comers?

Anyone who shows a genuine passion and a strong commitment in their work. We invited many of them to create an artwork for our museum. (the names in collection are still top-secret, though).

8. Favorite street art festivals/cities?

Our favorite street art city is Amsterdam ;) but there is a lot of good stuff happening all around the world, for example in New York, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Barcelona, Moscow, Athens, Lisbon and Melbourne, to name a few. As for festivals, in the Netherlands we have Heerlen Murals ( https://heerlenmurals.nl ), which is a good street art project, and Step in the Arena ( https://www.facebook.com/stepinthearena ), which is a festival focusing on graffiti. On a more international level, we admire Nuart festival (https://streetart.today/2019/10/03/nuart-festival-2019/ ), St+Art India, Vision Art Festival in the Alps, Meeting of Styles, Pow! Wow! (which now takes places also in the Netherlands, in Rotterdam) and we always have a lot of fun hanging out at Wynwood Miami, because there we meet a lot of old friends and make new friends. Moreover, we produce our own street art and graffiti festival in Amsterdam, which takes place on the birthday of the King. You can read more about Kings Spray festival here: https://streetart.today/category/kings-spray/

9. Any advice to young street artists?

Keep spraying, keep pushing the boundaries and never give up!

Cover Image courtesy of Nils Westergard