Life as a creative can be very lonely sometimes, especially when you are working as a freelancer. You are in your head all day long, coming up with ideas with maybe no one around to talk about them. Having like-minded people in your life is essential. Having someone to discuss your projects with, in detail, without boring them (your friends and partners need a break from that), someone to collaborate with or get inspired by. That is priceless.
So I kept looking for places in Amsterdam to meet creative people, and it turns out the city is full of them once you know where they hide. Below are eleven I keep coming back to: art centres, storytelling stages, breakfast lectures, poetry nights and artist-run buildings. Most of the programmes are in English and several are free.
Last updated August 2026.
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Mediamatic
Mediamatic is an art centre organising workshops, lectures and art projects. You can learn something new while also meeting new creative people and maybe your next collaboration. The workshops change through the year, and the one that runs continuously is the Open Aroma Lab: a two-hour scent-blending session on Thursdays and Saturdays, with access to around 330 scent materials.
A lot of it is research rather than entertainment: Mediamatic runs Living Labs and artist residencies alongside the public programme.
Mediamatic Biotoop, Dijkspark 6, Amsterdam Noord.
Framer Framed
Framer Framed is a platform for contemporary art, visual culture and critical practice. It’s free entry, pay what you can. The exhibitions circle around the part art plays in a globalising society, and around them sits a Community and Learning programme — talks, reading groups, workshops, and communal lunches cooked by the artists themselves.
There are two sites now: the main space on the Oranje-Vrijstaatkade in Oost, and Framer Framed Noord up in Molenwijk, which leans more towards the neighbourhood and the long table.
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71 (Oost) and Zuideinde 369 (Noord). Open Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00–18:00.
De Ceuvel
De Ceuvel is a creative-oriented cafe and cultural centre on a former shipyard in Noord, focused on sustainability, art, recycling and transformation. They organise all kinds of events, from art to wild foraging and cooking. Definitely worth checking it out! Also, they have a few studio boats where you can rent an office for yourself. You would be sharing the space with other creatives. How cool is that?!
There is a community bike shop, a sauna, and a neighbour boat that hosts yoga and workshops most weeks. Check the agenda before you go; it changes constantly and a good part of it is donation-based.
Korte Papaverweg 2–4, Amsterdam Noord.
Mezrab
Mezrab is an amazing place in Amsterdam, a platform for storytelling, always inspiring and filled with interesting people. Apart from the storytelling nights, there’s live music, dance or poetry. The atmosphere at Mezrab is special, and if you haven’t been there yet, you need to arrange a visit asap!
If you want to do more than watch: the Wednesday open stage nights are where anyone can put their name down and tell a story, and there is a comedy open mic on Mondays. Almost everything is in English. It is the lowest-stakes stage in the city and the friendliest room I know. Mezrab has also opened a second space, the Other Mezrab, over in the Staatsliedenbuurt.
Veemkade 576; the Other Mezrab at De Wittenstraat 27.
CreativeMornings Amsterdam
CreativeMornings are monthly breakfast lectures for the creative community. You can join the meetings for listening to cool people talking and meeting other like-minded people. Participation is free. Requires being a morning person, so you can wake up and be able to socialise early in the morning 🙂
The talks are varied, from art to productivity, from branding to recruitment, all designed to spark creativity. Each city chapter builds its programme around a global monthly theme, and once a year the Amsterdam chapter runs Audience Takes the Stage, where three people from the community each get seven minutes.
One note on it: the Amsterdam chapter has nothing scheduled and has not held an event since mid-2025. The chapter page and the local newsletter are both still live, so sign up and you will hear if it starts again, but do not plan a Friday morning around it without checking first.
Pakhuis de Zwijger
Pakhuis de Zwijger is a platform for social innovation and creation, where artists and designers meet with scientists, policymakers, experts and citizens. The topics are in the areas of social issues, technology, economics, creative industries.
Some programmes are free, and there are events in Dutch or English; the agenda says which.
Piet Heinkade 179, on the IJ.
Zoku Amsterdam
Zoku runs a series of events that connect inspiring individuals and companies to exchange concepts, products and life lessons. From music to dinner and writing workshops.
It is a hotel, a coworking space and a small venue stacked on top of each other, and the events on the sixth-floor rooftop are open to anyone, not just guests: live music, open mic nights, workshops, silent discos and community dinners. If you cowork there, membership comes with a daily fika coffee break and a weekly community dinner. They have a beautiful rooftop.
Weesperstraat 105.
Labyrinth
Labyrinth is a restaurant, cocktail and poetry place. You can go there to enjoy the food and drinks while listening to poetry, or take the stage and present your own poetic creations. The space is very friendly and non-intimidating, and the cocktails can help you get more courage for the stage.
Sam Kingue Ebelle, a poet turned mixologist, born in Cameroon, has been running it near the Vondelpark since 2016, and the African-Caribbean soul food and the spoken-word programme clearly come from the same person. The regular nights are worth putting in your calendar: an open mic every Monday, a poetry night on the last Sunday of the month, and jazz and poetry on a Sunday evening once a month.
Amstelveenseweg 53. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Perdu
If Labyrinth is poetry with a cocktail in your hand, Perdu is poetry with your full attention. It has been a specialised poetry bookshop, a stage and a publishing house on the Kloveniersburgwal since 1984, devoted to experiments where literature meets performance and other art forms.
It requires speaking Dutch, for most of the events, though there are evenings that are not language-dependent at all. Perdu Studie also runs writing and translation workshops.
Kloveniersburgwal 86.
Vrij Paleis
Vrij Paleis is an artist-run building a few minutes from Dam Square, with studios, a workshop and a gallery, run by the people who work in it, and existing more or less to prove that there is still room for experiment inside the canal ring.
The easiest way in is Vrijpaleis OPEN, a monthly art and design fair with performances and live music, held on the first weekend of most months outside the summer. Talking to someone about their work while they are standing next to it is an amazing opportunity.
Paleisstraat 107. Check the site or their Instagram for the current opening weekend.
NDSM-werf
And if you want to see what happens when a city hands artists actual space: NDSM in Noord is ten hectares of former shipyard turned creative district, with studios, public artworks, festivals, an artist-in-residence programme and a young curator programme.
The outdoor artworks are free and there all year, a rotating programme of large installations spread across the site, so there is something to see whenever you go. One of them, NDSM Lusthof, has grown from an art project into a community garden with tea ceremonies and a group of volunteers who help look after it. Stichting NDSM-werf also runs guided art tours a few times a year, led by artist Su Tomesen with a guest artist each time (in Dutch).
To get there, you’ll need to take the free ferry from Central Station or Houthavens.
How to actually walk in
Having a list is the easy part. A few things I have learned from using it:
- Go alone. You will talk to twice as many people as you would with a friend, because you have to.
- Go twice. The second time, someone recognises you. That is the whole trick, and it is the step most people skip.
- Pick the ones where you make something. A workshop hands you a subject to talk about. A lecture leaves you standing with a coffee, wondering what to say.
- Check before you go. Half of these programmes change month to month, which is exactly why they are worth going to.
I hope this is useful and maybe I’ll see you at one of the events! For more inspiration, have a look at my article about English-taught courses and workshops in Amsterdam, or at where to shop for arts, crafts and hobby supplies if you would rather start by making something at your own kitchen table.
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