Festival Ambacht in Beeld returns to the NDSM Loods in Amsterdam-Noord this coming weekend, gathering more than a hundred master craftspeople from around the world.
Visitors can attend workshops, demonstrations, masterclasses, and lectures exploring the intersection of practical skill and innovation.
Activities range from traditional Japanese timber construction and Maroon embroidery to ceramic art from Turkey.
Festival director Wendy van Wilgenburg, who trained as a cultural and visual anthropologist, first developed her interest in practical crafts during a university project that produced an 80-minute documentary on violin construction.
Van Wilgenburg founded the festival in 2013 to counter the decline of workshops and make craft skills visible to the public. She noticed challenges emerging in the 1990s as consumers shifted to cheaper foreign imports and office jobs grew in appeal over manual work.
Suriname and the Caribbean
Each edition highlights a particular focus, with this year centering on Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean.
Van Wilgenburg noted that sharing knowledge connects communities, pointing to international participants including 87-year-old Mrs Coffie, who is flying in with her two daughters to teach paper earring making.
Amsterdam-based organisation Stichting Wasjikwa is participating for the second time to represent indigenous Surinamese heritage.
Board member Leander Vermaning explained that many members descend from the Lokono people of northern Suriname and work to preserve ancestral history, language, and traditional crafts.
Vocational training
The festival also aims to raise the profile of secondary vocational education, known in the Netherlands as mbo. In November and December, Stichting Ambacht in Beeld will follow up by running training days alongside Dutch vocational craft colleges.
Organisers say practical trade programmes are often small-scale and lack visibility among young people who lean away from purely theoretical study. Van Wilgenburg pointed out that younger workshop participants frequently start with reluctance before becoming engaged in building objects by hand.
The festival advocates for buying and restoring goods through local craft makers rather than relying on automated online purchases. Organisers say direct relationships with makers give long-term value to everyday items such as handmade furniture.
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