Het Gamelanhuis

Art Center · Amsterdam, Netherlands

About Het Gamelanhuis

Het Gamelanhuis, a collective of gamelan orchestras, occupies part of Pakhuis Wilhelmina, a former merchandise warehouse on the Veemkade in Amsterdam's Eastern Harbour district. The warehouse itself was built in 1892 to store goods such as tobacco, coffee, tea, and flour; it faced demolition in the late twentieth century but was saved after a group of artists occupied the building in 1988, and in 1994 the Stichting Wilhelmina foundation was formed to buy and preserve it as affordable studio space. Following a renovation completed in 2003, the building gained two dedicated halls built specifically for gamelan orchestras.

Gamelan groups have used the warehouse since 1990, initially as several separate ensembles sharing space on the building's top floor before eventually organizing under the shared name Het Gamelanhuis. Today the collective houses multiple ensembles playing different gamelan traditions, including classical Javanese and Balinese repertoire as well as newly composed Indonesian and contemporary music; named groups associated with the house include Mugi Rahayu, Wiludyeng, Gong Tirta, and Widosari. Rather than functioning as a single performing group, Het Gamelanhuis operates more as a shared home for several ensembles at different skill levels, with opportunities for newcomers to join lessons alongside more experienced players.

The building sits at Veemkade 578, 1019 BL Amsterdam, on the ground floor of Pakhuis Wilhelmina with its entrance on the water side facing the IJ. It can be reached from Amsterdam Centraal by tram 26 to the Kattenburgerstraat or Rietlandpark stops. Visitors interested in attending a concert, joining a gamelan ensemble, or renting the space for an event can contact the organization through its own website, gamelanhuis.nl, where separate contacts are listed for venue management and rental inquiries and for the Widosari ensemble's artistic direction. Given the building's history as a squatted and later foundation-preserved artist space, Het Gamelanhuis functions as much as a cultural and community institution as a conventional performance venue, and it remains one of the longest-running homes for Indonesian gamelan music outside Indonesia.

Address

Contact

• Website: https://www.gamelanhuis.nl

Category

Indonesian Art Center in Netherlands

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