New York 400th anniversary celebration
New York celebrates Henry Hudson's arrival on Manhattan Island in 1609.
It marks the voyage, exactly 400 years ago, of captain Henry Hudson who was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in order to find an alternative sea passage to Asia. After an unsuccesful attempt to find a north-eastern route around Scandinavia, Hudson with a crew of only 18 sailors crossed the Atlantic Ocean on his ship 'Halve Maen' and sailed into New York harbor in 1609. He went up the river that now carries his name as far as modern-day Albany where the river narrows, before he was forced to turn around, realizing that it could not be the passage he was looking for.
Then on October 2nd, in that same year 1609, he set foot on Manhattan (called 'mana-hatta' by the local Indians). Hudson did not stay long - two days later he set sail for Europe with the bitter taste of personal failure, for a shorter northern passage to Asia was not found.
During the rest of the century, the Hudson Valley formed the center of the New Netherland colony operations. Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement on Manhattan, was founded later to serve as a post for supplies and defense of the upriver operations. And later, much later, this humble trading post would become the great city of New York.
Amsterdam - New York - Art - Station is an artist driven initiative, conceived as a nexus for the arts, a transatlantic platform and meeting point for professional artists working in Amsterdam and New York.
Inspired by these historic events and reflecting upon its meaning in terms of political and economic relations, but also in terms of the close cultural ties which have existed between the two sister cities for 400 years, the Amsterdam - New York - Art - Station wants to recognize, revitalize and strengthen this special relationship in a number of ways - primarily by initiating, supporting or organizing relevant art manifestations and exhibitions in the public domain, and also by fostering a transatlantic discourse and interchange of artistic ideas.