Storytelling in Amsterdam - Why My Home Town is a Creative Hotspot
- Kralingen
- Apr 3
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
It's a hub. That's the secret. If you've found this blog, Amsterdam is one hell of a fantastic little city. It's got everything. It got lucky with its geography, has a rich creative history in the fine arts, and is just the right size to feel like a city and also like a town where it's easy to meet people. So today, we're going to have a look at it from a storytelling and creative point of view. And what better way to do that than with its story.
The Golden Age of Amsterdam
Right now, I'm looking out my window on the longest, most outer canal of the 'belt' of the inner city called the Prinsengracht, writing this piece. In older times this was the poor man's canal, where the houses were build for servants and the lowest workers. Looking at it now, you wouldn't believe that to be true, because many of the houses look great and are still standing. Let's just say that the standards of building were somewhat higher in the old days.
The fact that even the poor man's canal belt feels so rich nowadays, is due to Amsterdam's incredibly free history on trade, religion and art. And to discuss it's history is fascinating. Back in the 15th and 16th century, as a reaction to The Renaissance, new-found freedoms, Luther's proclamations and the invention of the printing press making Bible interpretation available for the masses, a counter wave of extreme catholic tyranny washed over Europe, with the Spanish Inquisition as its most prominent example. In the seven provinces of what would later become The Netherlands however, this catholic tyranny would ultimately be stopped.
Several inventions of Simon Stevin - a flemish mathematician, inventor and philosopher - would come together to give the (later to be called...) Dutch people a decisive edge in ship building and subsequently, trade. Stevin first greatly improved the vast waterway system in the Netherlands, controlling it through sluices, spillways in parts that tended to overflow and pumping systems that by removing and replacing water, could create new landmasses. He also greatly improved the gear teeth in wind- and watermills in which was possibly his most significant invention: the power of the gears were now improved threefold.
This led to three times faster lumbering, giving the Dutch an abundance of wood that could be used to build ships. The amount and quality of ships both went up significantly, and a new trading system was put into place to make sure that investments in ships were shared... and so were their risks. Back in those days, investing in one single ship was a gamble: you never knew if they'd return from their long, hazardous voyages. Spreading the risks through shareholding - yes, the first stock market - was the answer, guaranteeing returns on investment for everyone. Thus, the first, Dutch iteration of the East India Company (VOC) was born.
Part of this heritage of course, became the horrific slave trade. Yet however dark this most terrible chapter of Dutch history is, there were significant advances in freedom too in other fields, owing to the explosion of trade that the seven provinces found themselves in all of a sudden. And those freedoms were born in the many (mostly French) thinkers and philosophers, protestants, businessmen (many Jewish) and artists driven up North by the tyranny of the catholic Spaniards. With Amsterdam happy to have them, it started its famous golden age in the 17th century.
The Creative Amsterdam of Today
Before we knew it, Amsterdam had become a hub of freedom, a reputation it would never lose. In the 80-year war with the Spanish some southern parts of the provinces were captured, yet the Northern parts of the future Netherlands held firm, ultimately relieving the southern provinces as well and forming one country. During that time, trade flourished and so did art, with Rembrandt as its prime - yet far from only - example. It is in this combination of wealth, religious freedom, art and its central geography that the groundwork was laid for the creative capital it is today.
Fast forward through the wars and conflicts against the English and French, with varying degrees of success and failure, the abolishment of slavery, the advent of democracy, women's voting rights and finally (although reluctantly) the freedom of its former colonies, The Netherlands maintained its freedom focus to this day, with Amsterdam as its symbol.
Much of it isn't necessarily born out of the goodness of our hearts mind you. The Dutch have adopted freedom mostly as a success strategy, seeing it as a superior form of societal organization, with one eye always on the profitable side of liberty. Yet although this attitude may not be born out of a moral code, the effect over the centuries has seen the Dutch become a fierce defender of liberties with a deeply mixed and international society.
Much like in those old days, Amsterdam has a very large number of expats relatively speaking, with estimates putting it at 20% or more. It is known to be LGBTQ+ friendly (although it is not perfect) and its creative industry is almost out of proportion, with varying estimates that put it about 200.000 jobs (in a city just over 800.000 people, including children) or roughly 25%, while it accounts for 35% of the total creative industry in the entire country.
It is not perfect in its artistic endeavors though. While it is famous for its dance industry, live music is not that big. There are great podiums for rock in the city that many artists come to, yet it is not a city that stimulates its own musical development much... the attention has been gobbled up by electronic - and frankly often too commercial - music. Fashion on the other hand, is thriving, a result of an also thriving Dutch Design legacy. Fine art is at an okay spot as well, with good schools and plenty of galleries. Street art too is doing well, almost single-handedly pushed into the stratosphere by the famous Go Gallery, who started it all in the city, now immortalized in a gigantic street art museum.
I could go on... but I just wanted to give you a feel for the place. As both a writer and a musician I've never had to leave this place and start somewhere new. Sure, there are plenty of moments I'd love to get out and go to other crazy fantastic spots in this marvelous world. But that's the beauty of this city: it's so central, you can go anywhere from here. And because it's so central, the world tends to also come your way. So, there you have it, a bit of a story on Amsterdam. That's all I wanted to give you with this piece.
A sense of its freedom.
Love, as always,
Rogier
Check out my book The Whole Story - The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling! And if you work here, with creative connections, get in touch for the Storytelling Masterclasses and other workshops.
