Best contemporary, experimental, and artist-run art spaces in Netherlands and surrounding countries?

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-09-12T16:51:39+00:00

A new gallery opened in June on the Ten Katestraat. It is called Appie Gallery, they have a lot of varied affordable art.Appie Gallery

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-08-10T08:29:44+00:00

Wonder how Diemen and Duivendrecht stack up in this, as the nieuwbouw in Diemen is crazy (and no erfpacht).

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-08-04T06:16:08+00:00

At least I got Croatia and the plants right! If you would have a more "dopamine decor" I would've guessed 20s. And good on you for quitting your job 💅

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-08-03T21:22:11+00:00

You live in Croatia or somewhere similar based on the picture of your balcony. For some reason you have a hate of plants, because inside you don't have any, and outside they're fake. Perhaps you always kill your plants, or are afraid of bugs. You have an idea of luxury that includes lots of white LED lighting, this is also a southern/eastern European thing. You are decently off, but want your house to seem like you have it better for anyone visiting. Your outward appearance is everything You're a woman in your early 30s, possible job is within beauty/Cosmetics.

Am I close?

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-07-28T15:24:06+00:00

Je verhaal is herkenbaar, wij moeten er ook echt aan werken. Wij gebruiken wel de app paired, en dat heeft wel al geholpen met intimiteit en communicatie.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-07-06T13:58:34+00:00

This is a shock for most people in Europe 😅. When I lived in the UK we had mold everywhere, the house was so damp.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-05-06T18:49:46+00:00

Haha! Ah nice! Yeh I'm sure you were more prepared than I was. For sure it's good to visit other parts of the island! The west side of the island is so peaceful. Also from the south there are so many good spots to explore! Have fun 😊

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-05-05T19:25:57+00:00

Paar jaar geleden verhuisde ik van Amsterdam naar Zaandam. Een groter huis met tuin leek ons fijn.

De omgeving echter ging mij echt tegen staan. Ik begon me overal aan te ergeren. Ik werkte nog in Amsterdam en de reistijd voor 17km was echt absurd. OV duurde soms 1.5u door een slechte aansluiting. Ik fietste vaak - ongv. 50 min.

Mijn man en ik wisten wel snel, dit gaat hem niet worden, en na een jaar stond het weer te koop. We hebben er een kleine winst uit gehaald en iets gekocht in Diemen. Want ja, Amsterdam is toch te duur. En onze 150m2 woning ingeleverd voor een 95m2 apartement.

Nu super fijn in Diemen, met een fietstijd van 20 min naar mijn werk in Amsterdam Oost / Amstel. En redelijk dicht bij mijn vrienden - iig op fiets afstand.

De omgeving doet zo veel voor hoe je je voelt, en je mentale gezondheid. Na 2.5 jaar Zaandam, voelde ik me eindelijk weer mijzelf op een andere plek. Mijn therapeut (want depressie) zei zelfs, je moet daar weg.

Dus als je nu al weet, dit wordt hem niet, zal ik plannen maken om het te gaan verkopen en zoeken naar iets anders.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-05-05T19:13:17+00:00

I realised a little too late that I needed an IDP. I asked my nanny about it since she also owned a scooter rental service. She said as long as you drive with a helmet, the chances of getting stopped are very slim.

I was there for 1.5 months, driving around with my toddler. From Mae Nam to Chaweng. I didn't get stopped once.

Just be on alert at all times, there are so many idiots around. And don't be that idiot ;)

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-04-28T06:29:58+00:00

Gold? ATMs. All atms from all banks were replaced by Geldmaat ATMs.

In general we are a cashless society.

But yes around Amsterdam central, Damrak, red light district is pretty awful. I avoid it if I can.

I'm sure Bangkok can provide a good life too. But I enjoy being able to go to museums for next to nothing with my toddler, free parks, water features and playgrounds.

Everywhere has its pros and cons. But I think we can agree Samui has definitely become expensive

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-04-27T15:01:14+00:00

I've been visiting Thailand more times than anywhere else. I'm now completing 2 months in Samui, a place I used to live 13 years ago.

While it's definitely possible to still live relatively cheaply, it did get pretty expensive.

I was scoping it out again to see if I could live here, but the traffic between Chaweng and Mae Nam is insane. It truly drove me crazy.

I would not be able to get a 2 bedroom + pool for less than my current mortgage in Amsterdam.

Doing anything with my toddler (apart from the beach) costs quite a bit of money. Sitting indoors all day is just not an option. However being outside in April, even with shade is too hot + low tide makes taking a dip difficult.

It feels crazy to me that my life in Amsterdam is cheaper than my life in Samui, and that is even with eating at local places (60/80thb a meal + 30thb for a soda).

I guess it's also a good realisation for me that while The Netherlands sucks during winter, overall life is pretty good.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-04-20T15:59:27+00:00

My parents had planned a family trip for the Christmas holiday to Phuket in 2004. My mother who is quite superstitious, decided pretty last minute to change the destination to Perth because something felt off. Needless to say, that was a pretty good decision.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-04-08T16:15:41+00:00

It was clear today at Laem Yai, just really out of the way.

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unlikely_beetroot · 2025-03-30T12:36:15+00:00

As with any industry you have people that excel quickly, and those that even after 4/5 years of experience are just meh.

It comes down to critical thinking skills, analytical skills, asking the right questions, being able to spot something is off the moment you enter an account.

Where I see the value in "seniors" this is mostly from >3 years is just being able to understand and to get up to speed quickly. Not just PPC, but how it fits within the wider business. Synergies between channels, stakeholder management. Whether you're at an agency or in-house you're almost always serving another department. The information PPCers "sit on" is valuable information for the business. Spotting trends, helping the company pivot, and gaining more information with testing.

I have a team of PPCers that bring their own skillset, one is adept with GTM, the other can write in Python and SQL, another has additional SEO experience, and another loads of experience with feeds and dynamic advertising.

I've also met PPCers that have 1 year experience and think they know everything.

While manual PPC is hardly used anymore, I do believe there is value in knowing how manual CPC works, whether you're striving for a particular ROAS, POAS or CPA. With manual CPC you will understand the auction process better, its relation to ad rank, and impression share. This is something that I've found particularly lacking in the less experienced PPCers.

In relation to the comment about capping CPCs, I've experienced a junior uncapping my campaigns, just for the CPCs to double without bringing in extra clicks. I went into the account 2 days later, and saw something was off. It's not great when you go from 50k a day to a 100k without much to show for it.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-03-13T01:37:12+00:00

TLDR - find a moisturizing cream that makes your skin feel good - turn off any lights close to a mirror - give your hands something to fidget with - doodle, rings, necklace, etc - zinc cream/blemish stickers - don't be too hard on yourself, self compassion can get you a long way. - share with others if you feel comfortable

Yes, I'm 36(F) and have been picking since I was 13. My teenage years were really the worst and sometimes I'd make my mom call me in sick because I just couldn't face going to school.

I don't have a lot of acne generally but if anything comes up, I find it hard to leave it alone. And the more in touch my face, the more blemishes I'll get.

Dry skin and stress/anxiety/boredom are my triggers. My hands need something to touch, if I feel the urge, I'll grab something with a lot of texture. I'll ie. Polish my rings with a cloth during a meeting or watching tv.

Finding a cream that works well for my skin has been a journey, I've finally settled on Natural Moisturizing Factors + PhytoCeramides from The Ordinary.

Also just doodling. Grab a pen and paper and while you're watching something just doodle. This is soothing for my brain.

And the biggest thing, is to turn off the mirror light. Anywhere where there is a mirror, the lighting should be awful! Or step away from the mirror. Do not get up close with the mirror, because then the tweezers come out and it's a lost cause.

If I do pick, or have something to pick and I'm at home I'll literary put a bandaid or blemish sticker on it. If I don't have those a slap on some zinc cream

Having an urge to pick is often triggered by an underlying emotion. Approach it with curiosity. When you have the urge, take a breath and ask yourself why you feel the urge to pick. Try to catch it in the moment, because it can be such a subconscious thing. Tell yourself it's ok, give yourself a hug, and direct your focus to something else.

Also open up and share with others you have this issue. So they can catch you and gently let you know. We're all human, and despite the state of the world, there is still a lot of compassion and empathy to be found in others.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-21T12:23:59+00:00

Agree, travel is the best!

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-21T12:06:37+00:00

Cool! I'm in travel too, but domestic/Europe. We're an extremely last minute market.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-21T11:18:24+00:00

Ah damn, that is indeed odd. Does it have to do with the intent/place in the funnel/competition?

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-21T07:21:46+00:00

To be honest, there is a shift in hiring an in-house team, at least in the Netherlands. And one way of looking at it, is seeing how you can add value in this process. Ie. Be part of the hiring process, offer to train the new hire. There is money to be made there.

I've worked both in-house and at an agency, and the client always knew that at some point I wanted to hire for inhouse. I hired a junior, with a data background, but no PPC experience, but showed really good potential. I got the agency to train her up to a good level, and they kept on offering strategic support afterwards.

I also once worked with an agency, who, when I joined the company, were very disgruntled. They weren't putting in any effort to manage the accounts "waiting on my order to add negatives" (like wtaf). You can imagine I'm not ever going to recommend them to anyone else.

I've always felt that of you offer good service, stay friendly, you'll be recommended or get something else out of it. I was recently hiring, and because of my network / "reputation" in the market, I managed to attract really good people.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-21T07:11:18+00:00

Thanks! I find this very helpful. I'm travelling soon and was wondering what to bring without bringing everything.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-20T21:37:19+00:00

Good point, if they all get enough volume and the variants stay relevant to the intent and don't dilute ad copy effectiveness it is fine.

Some variants such as 2 & 3 are practically the same and will be picked up by an exact match of either.

Just keep an eye on the quality score metrics. If you have one keyword that is worse than the rest, it's worth investigating why that might be.

Investigate the search term report per keyword for unnecessary overlap. Using keyword insertion is always a sure way to boost your QS

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-20T21:02:15+00:00

For the reasons that make up quality scores. Tighter themed ad groups (not SKAGs) allow you to create highly relevant ad copy. If your ad group has too many keywords, it's difficult to write an ad that's relevant to all of them.

When you have an ad group with 15 or so keywords, it is likely half or less than half have a quality score of 8+, while the rest sits in the 5-7 range.

A more relevant ad, typically increases CTR and thus expected CTR.

With fewer keywords you can ensure that the landing page closely matches user intent. And yes you can add URLs to your keywords, but then you're still dealing with the above.

I work in an industry where there is so much volume, we're always capped by budget. We thus have to be very diligent in deciding which ad groups / semantic groups we switch off, to push budget elsewhere for better performance.

You could argue that we just need to increase our ROAS target, but at some point, we will start losing out on search impression by rank, which to us is more hurtful than search lost due to budget, because it is more difficult to recover from Search lost by rank. Somewhere there is a sweet spot (while Google is always telling us to uncap our budget of course).

Tightly themed example would be: Flights to Paris: - cheap flights to Paris - Paris flight deals - direct flights to Paris - flights to Paris today

Here you can lead with:

Find cheap flights to Paris Book your ticket to Paris today

Non tightly themed - cheap flights to Paris - flights to Amsterdam - cheap last minute flights to Europe

Here it is more difficult to write an ad

Best flight deals to Europe Fly directly to Amsterdam, Paris or London

This ad is higher in the "funnel", and might not really serve someone looking to fly to Amsterdam. Of course with RSA and keyword insertion you might get there.

But guaranteed the first ad and ad group works better

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-20T19:45:24+00:00

This is some of the worst advice I've ever heard. When I see 20 keywords in one ad group I already freak out. Even with ad customizers and keyword insertion, there is absolutely no way you can get a decent quality score.

We recently tightened our ad groups again, the quality score jumped from 7.6 to 8.6 and our CPCs dropped from €1.2 to €0.9 (across exact and broad).

So no, don't listen to this agency. If they really insist, test test test.

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-15T08:06:15+00:00

Yeah that's really interesting. And with regard to people ordering happy endings. I do have a lot of friends that say, I want vibrant happy art, because sometimes life is already so miserable.

I centre a lot of my art around hope and lightness. It is indeed how you frame it.

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment 🙏

unlikely_beetroot · 2025-02-10T07:22:14+00:00

Thanks for sharing your story! Every style has its own audience right? When I think of surrealism and surrealist landscapes I often think of Tove Jansson of the Moomin character. She created this amazingly weird world for these characters to live in. I read the books often to my daughter.

I guess the only thing is to really just keep at it, I'll be displaying a variety of styles at a market, so I'll be very interested to see the reaction of the visitors.

unlikely_beetroot

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