My name is Eva Pel and I am a visual artist and urban geographer living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 

My latest project is the book ‘Observations of a Celebration NL & NY 2009′. It is the conclusion of my fieldwork in New York in the summer of 2009. The Dutch government organised many festivities in New York City to commemorate the arrival of Henry Hudson in 1609 on the shores of what is now called New York City. My goal was to visit all the festivities in New York to get an idea of how the Netherlands is being represented in New York. I wanted to answer questions like: What does the Netherlands want to show to New Yorkers about our history, present and future? Which audience does the festival reach? How can we measure the 6,1 million euro investment of the Dutch government for this event? Did we make a difference in New York?

 

Curious about other people’s views on these topics I interviewed 11 Dutch and American people who where in one or another way involved in the NY400 celebrations. Interviewed are among others, the politician in charge, Frans Timmersmans; the urban shaman of New York City, Donna Henes; the director of the Dutch Theater Institute, Henk Scholten; an American historian, Roger Panetta and the architect of the New Netherlands Pavilion, Ben van Berkel. The book contains many pictures of the 2009 festivities as well as historical images from New York archives of the 300 and 350 year Henry Hudson celebrations that took place in 1909 and 1959 in New York.

 

The book ‘Observations of a Celebration NL & NY 2009′ is designed by Claudia Doms.

 

To order the book see also www.evapel.com or send an email to evapel@dds.nl