The Dutch Invasion: Dutch Art & Culture Take Over NYC!

5 DUTCH DAYS, 5 BOROUGHS
Exploring 400 Years of Dutch Art & Culture in New York City
November 12-16, 2008

5 Dutch Days 5 Boroughs, an annual festival of events celebrating four centuries of Dutch art and culture in New York City, will take place from November 12 to November 16. A full list of the participating organizations and events appears below and is available at 5dutchdaysnyc.org.

Anchored by Dutch-American Heritage Day (November 16), 5 Dutch Days 5 Boroughs features exciting cultural events at museums and historic sites in across New York City’s five boroughs. These events celebrate and investigate the cultural connections that have existed between New York and the Netherlands for 400 years, since New York was New Amsterdam. 5 Dutch Days 5 Boroughs particularly seeks to foster the presentation of contemporary Dutch art and culture at historic sites in order to highlight the connection between the City’s past and its present as a center of international art and culture.
5 Dutch Days 5 Boroughs presents an extremely varied palette of cultural events. This year’s events range from a screening of contemporary artist Matthew Buckingham’s Muhheakantuck – Everything Has a Name at the Center for Architecture, to a tour focusing of Brooklyn’s 17th-century landscape at the Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center, to a guided tour of MOMA’s Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night exhibition.

5 Dutch Days 2008 kicks off on Wednesday, November 12 at Pieter Stuyvesant’s tomb in the churchyard of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery with an open house featuring participants from every Borough and a variety of Dutch food and drink. Visitors will be welcomed in song by renowned Dutch baritone Hans Pieter Hoffman and will explore the historic church grounds, eating stroopwaffels, learning Dutch with Wijnie de Groot of Columbia University, and engaging with Dutch artist Berrie Martens as he executes an action painting for the Happy People of the World Foundation.

5 Dutch Days organizers Susan De Vries (Dyckman Farmhouse Museum), Felicia Mayro (St. Mark’s Historic
Landmark Fund), and Sean Sawyer (Department of History, Columbia University), first discussed the possibility of a collaborative effort four years ago. “We started talking about how some of the smaller Dutch-related historic sites could work together to increase our visibility. We saw Dutch-American Heritage Day as a common link and brainstormed the idea of 5 Dutch Days as a collaborative, city-wide event. We began with one site in each borough and took off from there,” Ms. Mayro explained.

Each year organizations across New York City are encouraged to plan a performance, exhibit or event during 5 Dutch Days. The organizers encourage the fostering of relationships between historic sites in New York and contemporary Dutch artists, designers and musicians. “5 Dutch Days is about heightening New Yorkers’
awareness of Dutch influence in and around their city,” notes Ms. De Vries, “and we are offering these sites an opportunity to become involved in a larger project. They have taken the idea and run with it! The diversity of events offered is a result of their creativity.”

5 Dutch Days 5 Boroughs’ supporters include The Netherland-America Foundation, The Consulate General of the Netherlands, The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, The Holland Society of New York and
participating organizations.

2008 Participants
-The Alice Austen House Museum
-The Anne Frank House USA
-Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum
-Brooklyn Historical Society
-Brooklyn Museum of Art
-Center for Architecture
-Columbia University Department of Germanic Languages
-Columbia University Department of History
-Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
-The Frick Collection
-Greater Ridgewood Historical Society/Vander Ende-Onderdonk House
-Happy People of the World Foundation
-The Holland Society of New York
-Huguenot Society of America
-ING Direct
-Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park
-Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center
-Metropolitan Museum of Art
-Museum of the City of New York
-New Amsterdam History Center
-New York Metro Chapter, American Planning Association
-New York Public Library
-”Old First,” the Reformed Dutch Church of the Town of Brooklyn
-The Old Stone House of Brooklyn
-St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund
-St. Nicholas Society of New York
-Scandinavian East Coast Museum
-Society of Daughters of Holland Dames
-Trespa Design Center
-Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum