5 years of STRAAT Museum

Today, Thursday, October 9, we’re celebrating the fifth anniversary of STRAAT opening its doors. Honestly, we can't believe it’s been five years… Either way, we’re delighted to have reached this milestone. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of our entire team, past and present, our partners, the many, many visitors we have welcomed to our museum and all the amazing artists who have contributed to STRAAT in one way or another. We are forever grateful for your contributions.

So, what do you do when reaching a milestone like a 5 year anniversary? You look back. And when you look back at the past five years, you’re reminded of the fact that opening a museum in the middle of a worldwide pandemic was, in hindsight, pretty gutsy. The period October 2020 - January 2022 was marked by closing and reopening, and all the insecurities that went along with these weird times. Still, there were quite a few artistic highlights as well. We had exhibitions with Niels Shoe Meulman, The Jaunt x Wasted Rita and Tellas, Paradigm and Cornbread, and Pure Evil. We launched the first edition of our catalog. We had our first–chaotic–taste of Amsterdam’s iconic Museumnacht. We curated mural paintings for Art Basel Miami 2021. And we even won Best Museum the Netherlands and the Best Hidden Gem Award, based on the votes of the people and the findings of an expert jury respectively. 

2022 was like our first real year of being open. We launched our Studio Talks series, created the biggest canvas in our collection with Studio Giftig, curated massive murals on the outside of our building for Alex Senna and Fin DAC, and were invited to be a part of From Vandal to Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. Exhibitions were organized that featured the likes of Ottograph and YorkOne, Thinkspace Projects x Kayla Mahaffey and Carlos Ramirez, and more. Our Membership was launched. And we even welcomed Queen Máxima to the museum (she would return in 2024…) to hand out the Cultuurfondsprijs. We closed out the year welcoming over 120,000 visitors in total. 

2023 was a big and busy year for us… We joined forces with ABN AMRO who became our main partner. Together, we launched the Women in Street Art project, a continued endeavour highlighting female artists in our collection. Other exhibitions included Indigenous Americans: Post Colonial Expressions, LAX / AMS with Thinkspace Projects, Raise the Level with Shepard Fairey (who also painted a giant mural on our outdoor wall) and Urban Artivism. At the end of the year, we rocked SCOPE Miami, not just with a stellar booth, but also with our mural project Not So Black and White. Nearly 200,000 visitors made their way to STRAAT.

2024 was marked by loads of exhibitions. We started with our Moniker show supported by the Moniker Foundation and Massillon Museum. Other exhibitions included Take Me Down with Mando Marie, Asian Influence with Mr. S, Ryo and Alex Face, and Seth Se La Joue with Seth Globepainter. A special chapter in our young history was our DUO show, inaugurated by King Willem-Alexander and his Spanish counterpart Felipe VI. DUO. Beyond Two Visions: A Spanish Dutch Creative Collaboration closed out the Spanish royal couple’s state visit to the Netherlands, and visually explored the long cultural history of the two nations. 2024 also saw us launch the second edition of our STRAAT catalog. In total, more than 200,000 visitors set foot inside our museum. This included a whopping 14,000 students from all over the world, a great testament to the power of our ever-growing education department.

We kicked off 2025 with our Graffitecture show featuring Georgia Hill, Antigoon, Gary Stranger and SODA in our brand new Groundwork exhibition space. We also launched our Black Book Sessions event, and saw the first father-son painting come to life as part of the Origins exhibition featuring Faith XLVII, Tyler B. Murphy and Keya Tama. The summer was marked by all kinds of Brazilian vibes, featuring both the Pixação exhibition and our continued collaboration with NaLata in the form of the Brazilian Soul show. The latter is still on view until October 31. Also on show (until January 18, 2026) at the time of writing is our FAILE exhibition Between the Sheets. This exhibition also introduced a significant new addition to our permanent collection: a trio of monumental textile columns suspended from the ceiling of our main hall. And speaking of new: our five year anniversary coincides with the launch of our brand new website–nothing wrong with a little self care when reaching a milestone birthday.

As mentioned above, none of this would have been possible without the crew (past and present), our partners, everybody we’ve welcomed to our museum as visitors, and all the amazing artists who have contributed to our story. Here’s to many, many more years of celebrating street art and graffiti together!