OSCAM – Open Space Contemporary Art Museum
Where Culture, Community and Contemporary Art Meet
Tucked inside the Amsterdamse Poort shopping centre on Bijlmerplein in Amsterdam Zuidoost, OSCAM is one of the most refreshingly unconventional cultural spaces in the city. Opened in November 2017 to mark fifty years of the Bijlmer, it was created with a clear and deliberate purpose: to celebrate the extraordinary cultural diversity of a neighbourhood that mainstream Amsterdam has too often overlooked, and to make contemporary art genuinely accessible to everyone who lives, works, or passes through it.
The location is part of what makes OSCAM so distinctive. Situated between shops, restaurants, and the bustle of everyday life rather than in a purpose-built cultural district, the museum is designed to be stumbled upon as much as sought out. There are no barriers here, no imposing facades or ticket queues that might discourage a first-time visitor. Entrance is free, the space is open and welcoming, and the art meets people where they are.
A Platform for Young and Diverse Voices
At the heart of OSCAM is a commitment to the artists that larger institutions have been slow to embrace. The museum focuses specifically on young creators from a wide range of subcultural backgrounds, giving both established and emerging talents the space to present their work to a broad public. Exhibitions change regularly, ensuring that every visit brings something new, and the programme spans art, fashion, design, craftsmanship, and everything in between.
Past exhibitions have tackled questions of identity, heritage, race, fashion, and representation with a directness and energy that feel entirely at home in the Bijlmer. Shows like The Future of Fashion, From Roots We Grow, and The Black Manifesto have drawn visitors from across the city and beyond, while speak sessions, workshops, and collaborative projects with institutions including the Amsterdam Museum have made OSCAM as much a community hub as an exhibition space. The Young OSCAM Art Kitchen invites young artists and creative producers to claim space, develop their practice, and build themselves as cultural entrepreneurs, a programme that speaks directly to the next generation of Amsterdam’s creative community.
A Museum That Belongs to Its Neighbourhood
What OSCAM offers that few other museums in Amsterdam can is a genuine sense of belonging. This is not a space imported into a neighbourhood — it grew out of one, and it reflects the voices, the energy, and the ambition of the people who call Zuidoost home. In a city whose cultural institutions have historically been concentrated in the centre, OSCAM is a quiet but powerful reminder that creativity has no postcode.
