MaMA 

MaMA is a platform for visual culture and young talent – a gateway for young makers at the cutting edge of contemporary art and popular culture. MaMA makes exhibitions, books, and magazines, organises performances and events, presents and represents young artists at home and abroad, and is part of an international network. Founded in 1997, MaMA provides a platform for the expressions of new subcultures and countercultures.

MaMA’s programme is rooted in youth and popular culture and takes place in areas where broader cultural developments – social, technological, economic – become visible within contemporary art practice. New tendencies often emerge outside of the institutional context – online and offline, the private sphere and public domain. This setting is where collective activity thrives and where culture and creativity can manifest beyond institutional consent. MaMA closely follows the developments of a young generation of artists, striving to achieve this through invitation, support, and development.

Above all, MaMA is a community. MaMA works together with a large and diverse group of emerging professionals: Team MaMA. They provide feedback, solicited and unsolicited, on our content and the direction of the programme and the organisation. Many have become staff members or participated in our exhibitions and projects. Our supporters – both organisation and audience – are actively engaged, ambitious, and articulate.

For many many years now – since 1997 – MaMA has been manifesting itself as a platform for visual culture and young talent. Read all about our philosophy by clicking the question ‘What is MaMA?‘. One can imagine that all the different projects we undertake tell different stories, each characteristized by its own specific and unique style, development and tensions. We strive to present a diverse range of projects in collaboration with varied groups of people. As such, we hope that the stories behind our projects reflect the multiplicity of the modern world.

Our exhibitions and events in the showroom are an integral part of MaMA. An exhibition communicates a certain message; through the artists and artworks presented, through (promotional) visuals accompanying the exhibitions, through descriptive exhibition texts, through social media. All these elements together provide you with what is hopefully a memorable experience when encountering MaMA in the wild. In spite of this, we noticed there were too many stories left untold; ideas that were floating around in our minds, but because of organisational limitations never saw the light of day. So, in order to allow ourselves to share even more stories with you, we decided to expand our range of available storytelling-tools by developing our website www.thisismama.nl.

In broad lines our website can be divided into four segments:

• Invest, where one can read how MaMA invest in the world and how the world can invest in MaMA
• In Action, where we present all the information regarding our exhibitions and In Real Life events
• Team, where we present everyone who is part of Team MaMA
• Universe, where we reserve space for content which lends itself for digital presentation

The stories we present on/in our Universe often take the central themes of our exhibitions as inspiration and focal points. Think of essays that expand upon the theoretical groundworks which form the foundations of exhibitions, interviews with artists, videos relating to the events we organise, digital artworks, (musical) playlist centered around exhibition themes; basically anything you can think of which can be presented in a digital space.

A team of up and coming editors meets on a regularly basis to brainstorm about new stories. After each meeting, they go out into the world and gather creative content makers around them which can help produce invigorating stories. Together with the Editor-in-Chief the Editors are responsible for the stories you find on our Universe.

Are you interested in working together with an editor on a piece of online content?  Please let us know if you have any ideas for stories, ranging from columns to interviews and visuals essays to podcasts, anything is possible as long as the general themes are in some way connected to MaMA’s mission. There is financial compensation available for your contributions. Email us for more information.

MaMA understands the importance of continuous self-development, especially when it comes to a strong brand identity. In 2019, we renamed ourselves MaMA (because the only constant in life is change) Since then, we’ve come across all sorts of creative mispronunciations, including: Our name is MaMA, not “mama,” “MAMA,” “Mama,” or “M.A.M.A.”.  It’s also not Showroom Mama or Gallery Mama, while we do have a showroom where we host cool exhibitions, we are not a gallery. MaMA is more than just the showroom: like Universe for example, our online platform, you’ll find content edited and written by Team-MaMA members. 

Fortunately, we can laugh about it. A mild identity crisis is part of life, after all. Click here for our fitting soundtrack! 🙂

MaMA scouts, welcomes and coaches talent during the first years of their professional development. Emerging culture professionals are offered the opportunity to develop themselves on the job. At MaMA talent development is engrained in all activities the organisation undertakes; from exhibition programmes to educational programmes; from the marketing and PR to technical implementations. This provides emerging talents with the opportunity to manifest themselves wholesomely. It is the culture professional of tomorrow that shapes MaMA’s activities.

MaMA’s investment in talent is personal. We pay attention to individual developments and interests. We adapt our methods of guidance to the wants and needs that arise from within Team MaMA and we function as a platform where talents can showcase their creative force. This way we aim to contribute to diversification of culture production and ‘cultural confidence’. Meet Team MaMA here.

MaMA is able to invest in talent thanks to enthusiastic and adventurous partners. Sponsorships can provide that little extra push which an artist needs to reach the next phase in their professional development. By producing artistic programmes on a commision basis we share our expertise and add to the experience of Team MaMA’s talents. Or by utilising special collaborations we can add some extra spice to existing brands. For culture organisations that want to integrate education and talent development in their activities we offer tailor-made programmes.

Interested in investing in MaMA, aspiring professionals and the future? Or to start a collaboration, on any front? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

Surely! On the 14th of April 2016 the General Data Protection Regulation was introduced across the European Union. Privacy has been a research topic for MaMA throughout the years – see for example our project 9 Eyes – and we are of coursing completely adhering to the new rules and regulations. We welcome and applaud changes which enforce more ethical approaches to the handling of your data.

Below we explain how we collect and use information which you share with us on our digital channels. We reserve the right to change our privacy policy. By using MaMA’s website, you automatically agree to this privacy policy.

MaMA’s website – www.thisismama.nl

As you probably know, most websites you visit inadvertently use some of your data in order provide a browsing experience. MaMA’s website is no different – and the only data we use is critical for a smooth operating website. Privacy relates to personal data which can be traced back to you as a person. Some you supply knowingly, others are collected by the website in the background. Data which can be used to identify you as an individual is never obtained by this website, unless explicitly stated by you. Your data is never ever shared with third parties and we will never send you any information without consent. In general, our website complies with:

• The General Data Protection Regulation / de Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming (AVG) 25/5/2018
• the Personal Data Protection Act (‘Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens’, WBP) of 1/9/2001
• the Remote Purchases Act (‘Wet Kopen op Afstand’) of 21/12/2000
• Article 11.7 of the Telecommunications Act (‘Telecommunicatiewet’, TW of 19/10/1998
• the Reclame via E-mail code of 1/1/2012 by DDMA, Thuiswinkel.org and VNO-NCW, to be incorporated in the Reclame Code

Of course, our website contains links to other websites. Over these websites we – unfortunately – have no control. And thus we are not responsible for their privacy policies, though we always take the utmost care to screen beforehand every website we link for malicious intents.

MaMA’s website makes use of essential cookies. To read more about cookies, please refer to the European Union’s official website.

We also use Google Analytics to register and analyse visitor traffic to our website. This helps us make informed decisions about the kind of content we produce and what to focus our attention on. In no way can this data every be linked to you as an individual. To read Google’s privacy policy please click here.

Databases used by MaMA

Stager
Although most of our exhibitions and events can be accessed for free, we sporadically make use of ticketing software Stager. When you create an account via Stager, you will be required to provide at least a name and email. Any additional information – like your address – is optional. All the information you register in Stager can be accessed by MaMA and is stored in Stager’s database. We will never share this information with anyone. To read Stager’s privacy policy regarding entries in their database please click here. Your IP-address is registered when you make a payment through Stager, but can not be obtained by MaMA. You can log in to your MaMA Stager account at any time to change information or delete it entirely. Simply go to the MaMA Stager website and use the email and password you provided when registering the account. Having trouble logging or want to delete your account? Send us an email.

Mailchimp
MaMA sends their newsletter through Mailchimp. Signing up for our newsletter is done through a form asking for your name and email address. You are also asked to let us know what kind of emails you want to receive from us. We have access to the (essential) data you provide us through this signup form. This data is never shared with others and can only be accessed by MaMA. To change your data simply follow the link provided at the bottom of one of our newsletter. In April of 2019 our entire newsletter database was cleaned and all subscribers were asked, multiple times, if they wanted to stay subscribed. Inactive subscribers were deleted. To read Mailchimp’s privacy policy, please click here.

That’s all, folks!

All texts and images visible on thisismama.nl are protected by copyright. Without written permission the images and photos may not be published or distributed. For permission please contact us.

Permission was granted for using all images on the website. That being said, some (especially older) images might miss annotation. If there are texts or images on this website of which copyright is used wrongly, please report this. And know that we didn’t mean to do any harm!

Fore more information about copyright in the Netherlands please see this publication (in Dutch).

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If you want to read older newsletters, visit our archive by clicking here.

We do our utmost best to create fascinating newsletter for you on a monthly basis. If you have any remarks, ideas or criticisms please let our us know!