Drawing walks and exhibition in Amsterdam North
Drawing walks
During the participatory drawing walk, I, Liesje, ask participants to walk and draw with concentration. At certain points during the walk, I provide specific sensory drawing exercises. By sharing drawings, I create a dialogue about the environment among the participants. Gradually, the individuals become a single group.

In these drawing walks, I use, among other things, my drawing method, Drawalks, to connect with the environment. This is a method for observing and recording the environment through sensory experiences and (walking) drawing. The focus is often on senses other than sight—think of smell, sound, and touch.

No drawing experience is necessary for this drawing walk; participants are invited to first attentively experience their surroundings by looking, but also by feeling, listening, and smelling. Based on these experiences, the residents are asked to draw their observations on paper, challenged and supported by visual artist and teacher Liesje van den Berk.

Drawing is a way to actively experience the richness of your surroundings and connect with them. Through drawing, we get to know and understand each other better. We see in a drawing what each other’s eyes and senses perceive. One resident might see a small flower among the paving stones, another the pattern of the planted trees in the street, or the graffiti message on the wall.

At the end of the walk, participants share one of their drawings on the map of the area. These drawings will remain behind to show a piece of the walk, a memory of a moment, to the other visitors of the exhibition. We are creating a new map of Amsterdam Noord: people in urban nature. The exhibition takes place at the Kinderkunstmuseum.

Following the drawing walk, we’ll discuss our living environment. Which special places absolutely mustn’t disappear? Residents will be challenged to consider their role in the (dis)connection with each other and the environment. Is there beauty and urban nature in our immediate surroundings that we pass by daily? Can we embrace these places and nurture and care for them more? Where is urban nature lacking, or could it be expanded?

Exhibition
The exhibition is a drawing installation, constantly evolving like a city map. After each drawing walk, new drawings are added, allowing the map to continually grow. Visitors can walk around the map, look down from above via a staircase, or actively leave a trail by joining a drawing walk.

Stairs or steps will be placed around the map, allowing visitors to view the entire area from above – like a bird soaring over the city. Binoculars are available for those who want to zoom in on details.

DOOR NOORD distinguishes itself through its unique combination of participatory drawing, sensory perception, performance, and urban cartography. The DOOR NOORD exhibition forms an ongoing dialogue between individual perspectives and the collective imagination of the city. The work grows with each walk—a form that is both artistically and socially significant.

Through the drawing walks, participants are introduced to artistic skills such as observation, interpretation, and representation in an accessible way. Through sensory drawing, they learn to perceive and appreciate their surroundings differently. In the exhibition, their works are presented as valuable contributions to a collective artwork. This fosters ownership, artistic self-confidence, and a sense of connection. By having diverse participants—from children to the elderly—draw and reflect together, a creative exchange emerges that strengthens the social-artistic character of the project.