CREA, the cultural student center of the UvA and the HvA, is celebrating its 50th anniversary from 11 to 15 October with the spectacular video projection ‘CREATIVITY RULES’ on the facade of the CREA building. The free show is a combination of image and sound (every half hour between 19:30 and 22:00).
Video projection: CREA is 45000 years old
With the video projection on the facade of the CREA building in the former diamond cutting factory ‘Maatschappij’ on the Nieuwe Achtergracht, CREA visually breaks open the gigantic facade of 60 by 12 meters. In the projection, CREA shows that creativity and the imagination form the center of its organization. Imagination is the center of the campus, the university, the college, and you could say: imagination is the heart of the city of Amsterdam. Art and culture is part of the human soul.
The projection is made on the architecture of the building. Each diamond cutting table had its own window. Because the projection exactly follows the lines, windows and doors of the building, many visual jokes and hallucinatory effects can be extracted. The facade can literally fall away or flip over, diamonds can form or explode into a thousand pieces. The projections were made by Mark Thewessen and Coen Bouman of PixelPerfectStudio. Joost van der Meer composed the music.
CREA, a contemporary cultural student center
CREA annually provides about 600 courses and workshops in the field of art and culture for more than 7000 students, alumni and employees. The Amsterdam Student Association (SKA), the CREA Orchestra and the Amsterdam Student Big Band are part of CREA. In addition, CREA organizes performances, concerts, debates, lectures and film screenings in its theater hall and music hall with more than 15,000 visitors on an annual basis.
The Creation and History of CREA
CREA was established in the late 1960s in a turbulent time when society was undergoing profound changes. The call for more democracy was the driving force behind radical educational reforms. Part of the major shifts was the belief that broad social and cultural education should be a fundamental part of everyone’s study time. A number of existing student associations that were already actively shaping this art and culture idea were bundled into one large organization where the practice of art was central: CREA was born.
10 years in the diamond polishing factory building
This year it is exactly 10 years ago that CREA moved to the monumental building of the diamond polishing factory in the heart of the Roeterseiland Campus, one of the four open city campuses of the UvA. The CREA Café has been an important meeting place for UvA and HvA- students for years.
CREA, Nieuwe Achtergracht 170