project09:Project

The skatepark inside the Kunstad has existed for 12 years, as a financially independant project and has been a co-initiator in starting the Kunstad and the culture that surrounds it at the NDSM.Their reach since 2005 has been more than 600,000 people worldwide and served 37,000 people just last year, saying much about its popularity in Amsterdam and outside.

They come unnoticed. They leave unnoticed. You can only see the mark they leave behind. The graffiti artist. The NDSM has become a space for subdued expression. The start of the artist community in itself started as a form of expression, a space for the unappreciated, but has become a community of introverts and closed doors. The graffiti artists and the skate-park users are the surviving entities from a bye-gone era. They form an open community, open to change.

The Skate-park at NDSM is the one space that attracts users in the age group of 15-25 years. Though the NDSM attracts this user group to its various festivals and other activities, the skate-park is the one activity that attracts youth groups on a daily basis, and in hundreds over the weekends. However, talks about demolition of the existing skate-park inside the Kunstad could effectively put an end to the influx of youth into the site.

A petition to save the skatepark has been officially initiated by the 'Skatepark Amsterdam' and you can support it by signing up here [[1]].