The next CreativeMornings session will be held on Friday 26th of September at the recently opened Volkshotel. Just outside the city centre in Amsterdam East, Volkshotel brings together neighbours, friends, locals and tourists. All this with a cocktail bar, rooftop club, open work spaces, restaurant, café, hot tubs and creative workrooms. And of course, Volkshotel also serves as a hotel. A place where folk meet and where working hard leads to playing harder. This way, Volkshotel intends to create meetings between like-minded people and to stimulate an environment where locals and travellers can enjoy art and culture together. We talked to Ewa Scheifes, cultural programmer and PR, to find out more about the connection between the Volkshotel and the creative community:

How do you collaborate with artists at the Volkshotel?
Creatives and artists have been involved in creating the Volkshotel since the start of the project. They’ve contributed to the branding, ideas for the hotel rooms and the kinds of materials we’ve used. The hotel has nine Special Rooms that were created by young artists and designers. There is a room inspired by the Jordaan, a Soixante Neuf room with a hanging bed or you can sleep in a carrier bike, for example. We would also like to build up a network of young, international artists that haven’t been discovered yet. This is why we started Project Unexpected, an artists-in-residency project where we invite them to sleep, eat & create at the Volkshotel. Here we can offer them a platform to share their work while meeting Amsterdam locals as well as international guests.

Volkshotel also offers workspaces for creatives. Could you tell us more about that?
Before Volkshotel opened its doors, there already was a creative hub (“Broedplaats”) in the building run by Urban Resort. They turn vacant buildings into affordable studios for artists. About 1/3 of those studios are still located in the building. This is where photographers, architects, performers and for example also the graphic designer of the Volkshotel & Canvas do their work. In the basement you can find music studios for bands like Koffie and Cirque Valentin as well as well-known Amsterdam DJ’s like Tom Trago and Homework. We actively involve the talented artists from the Broedplaats in the cultural programme of the Volkshotel.

What is your favourite place in the building?
My favourite place in the building is Badplaats, a roof terrace with hottubs and a mini sauna on the 8th floor. However the reason that I like this place so much is not for the bathing, but for the most beautiful view of the city and the Wibautstraat. And you can see what is going on at the terrace of Canvas below. Also, it is really nice & quiet up there, so it is the perfect place to enjoy the fresh air from time to time.

Thank you Ewa for this interview! See you on Friday 26th for a CreativeMornings session on Color with Kris Hermansson and Franc Cheetham. As usual, tickets will go live on Monday at 9 am!

Image and text by Naomi Den Besten