What began as a meeting around a drawing board in walk-in centre Blaka Watra grew into an extraordinary art collective. In 2025the Rainbow Soulclub will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Artists, students and visitors make art there together.
Since the Rainbow Soulclub was founded in 2005, artists Saskia Janssen and George Korsmit have been bringing together artists, students and visitors from De Regenboog Groep. It is an art and solidarity collective in which everyone can participate. Professional artists, people who are homeless, live with poverty, have an addiction, or simply need creative exchange. Drawings, paintings, texts, performances and collaborative projects emerge from the encounters at the club.
Ever-changing community
In twenty years, the Rainbow Soulclub grew into a large, ever-changing community of makers and thinkers from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds. Saskia: "Some have been involved for years, others join temporarily. It is precisely this openness that makes the project special: everyone can contribute."
Art that touches people
The anniversary was celebrated with the exhibition Re-arrangement of Priorities at art initiative W139 in Amsterdam, the venue where the collective first exhibited in 2007. The exhibition brought together works created over 20 years of collaboration and showed what grows when people continue to meet. For Saskia and George, it is important that the work is not seen as charity. With our art we want to touch something with the people who look at it, not arouse pity. Therefore, the emphasis is on making and sharing art."
Text: Nicolline van der Spek | Photography: Elodie Vreeburg