WORM talks to Mimi van Rinsum of Art Gang

Mimi van Rinsum is the coordinator and instigator of Art Gang, a long-running social project for young people aged 16-29, mainly from Rotterdam. Art Gang is maybe best described as an easy-access initiative with a specific focus in mind (here, making art), that also makes space for young people who – for a number of reasons – felt they had no other place in which to connect, and express themselves. 

The initiative started off in WORM and now finds a place in a number of Rotterdam locations dedicated to youth activities. Art Gang is currently funded by a subsidy that is part of the maatschappelijke diensttijd (MDT), together with a group of partners, under the name Skills Court. 

Art Gang’s work is part of a wider tradition, where activities find their form and refine their purpose at WORM, for them to blossom elsewhere in the city. But Art Gang is back, for the exhibition, Viscerally Gentle, in Slash Gallery 3-6 June, 2026. We asked Mimi to explain further. 

What drove you to set up Art Gang?

I started out with Art Gang when I was going to art school in Utrecht and later the Academy of Pop Culture in Leeuwarden – and I got really interested in communities and community building – as an art-form. Whilst at Utrecht, it started to feel a bit “wrong” for me to expect that people should see my art, and have to put myself out there, in the art market. I wanted to make art that meant something in the world. I eventually went to Leeuwarden and there was a cool teacher, who did research about community art and art collectives. And he said to me that a lot of the time, institutions concentrate on the impact of art, but he was more interested in the art of the impact. And I thought, ‘this is so right’, it really made an impact on me. I started to change my thinking to, ‘what do I want to mean to people’, instead of what just my art should mean as art. And then I began to think about what I can make that will allow me to be there for others, or make something that works for them.

This approach has also done a lot for me, in making me feel comfortable in my own skin, in getting my emotions out and talking about interesting subjects.

And doing this with other people was much more fun and interesting!

And WORM allowed that idea to come into actual reality?   

Yes, that all happened when I came to do internships here. (Previous director) Janpier Brands asked me to come here, and think of an idea to do, and I said, I’d like to organise an art community for young people. And he told me to work on that while I did my internship. He put me on a bunch of community projects here and that made me realise how important community is. So I did radio shows with elementary school kids, and the Mano Eritrea project (2021-23) a band of Eritrean musicians who used a space in WORM to practice – I think they play on festivals now – but it started out with a number of people who weren’t really able to play. Well, some of them could play, but they had nowhere to practice. That initiative was just about someone – me – opening the door and asking, ‘do you need anything’, really simple things like that! I helped out with the WMO Radar Join Us group (2020-2024), too.

…And I started to realise: this space is amazing. 

How did you take these experiences into your project, which became Art Gang?

Well, I began by talking to groups and some individuals who had already done art projects with young people and I found that what was needed was something that was very stable, but also, very free. So: you need to say, very simply, there’s this night, it’s always at the same time, and you can come in whenever you want and go whenever you want, but you know it’s always there.  And that really works. I got feedback from the group and some said that before Art Gang they didn’t know how to be social and through the nights they learned that.

So consistency is key?

Yes! And I wanted that those people who came could become friends with each other, but also bring ideas to the night that I could make happen. For example, someone said they’d really like to do a karaoke night, and then we did that and we still do! It’s really popular. It’s a great way for people to get comfortable with each other. 

The apparent dichotomy between total freedom and stability. When this combination clicks, how do you drive this forward?   

I remember talking with Janpier about it and we talked about something he was interested in and I was experiencing with Art Gang, where I was a peer for the people I was organising the night for. And over time I became friends with many attendees and met up outside of Art Gang and, because I am a specific kind of person – I’m queer, I’m neurodivergent – it seemed specific kinds of people came. And I have this understanding already: for those who don’t, it’s harder to reach certain groups. I became a bridgemaker between other organisations and the Art Gang groups. And this role makes it easier for all parties to understand each other.   

Would this kind of role be difficult to carry out if there wasn’t a direct link, or affinity between you and the group?

I think yes, maybe: it certainly becomes a very different structure. I organise for other welfare organisations and it is different. They also organise youth activities. And when forty-somethings organise events for fifteen year olds, it almost becomes a teacher-student relationship. At this moment even I feel too old: I am the oldest person right now and I realise that there maybe should be someone younger taking over at some point, but it does make a difference that I’m part of the group. It’s about safety but also about structure. I’m not the one who is organising. WE are organising something, and I am the one to talk to.

This is a constant process, and you – we – are working in a world that is events-based and goal-orientated, one that always needs a result to justify the action, whether it’s ticket sales or drink sales or justifying funding… The scenarios thrown up, and their assumptions of what success is, are constantly bumping into each other, too. How do you show what you’ve gained, with your idea of success or progress, to others?

I think it is difficult because I think there is not a lot of love in subsidised places for something that is actually very constant. Just keeping people comfortable, whilst not, per se, reaching many new people, isn’t really easy to justify in that sense. But personally, I am of the opinion that community is one of the base needs that we have, and since the church has fallen away, we don’t have a place to go regularly where we can meet people. For example, a church offers a ritual and a chance to talk to other people afterwards about their own experiences, or to organise things for that particular community. Not to say that the church is amazing but it would be great to have that kind of community spirit back in wider society.   

A church gives you security… A freedom which is found in routine.

It’s great to find the freedom of who you are without the religious pressure on you – I mean, the church has had hundreds of years to figure out how to make a community, or group, work. I do think, honestly, that everyone in the world should have a place where they can freely go every week.  And I think that Art Gang is that for the specific group of people that come.

…And that’s why it’s kind of sad sometimes to try to find money for it because – when you have to justify the budget, it’s difficult. We “have to have” a minimum of twenty participants every half year; which means the participants get to meet each other and build a community and then it’s over: afterwards there’s this unspoken feeling that, ‘we can’t get to do anything with each other again’. 

The way that larger society – often through funding initiative – assumes how people act is not always true… 

I think it’s very sad: we are building something and we are not actually able to develop it. It’s still good though: there are people who come who know they will be leaving the Netherlands. So otherwise they wouldn’t come to the project and they do make friendships. But I feel that community feeling of meeting every week, or month… even a yoga class can be that.

Yoga, yes, but! What is it about art? 

It’s an interesting question in that I don’t think it’s art that attracts people, it’s art that attracts the specific people who come: if that makes sense. So: I also think that there should be many different communities that people can choose from where they can find things they like to do. It’s just because I come from an art background, so I know how to do that. And WORM has so many opportunities for making art, so it makes sense. 

…I would love every space to have the opportunity to offer different kinds of communities for whoever wants to come. Many spaces want certain people, for example people from the centre of the city. And most who come to Art Gang aren’t  – many just go to school here. One even comes in from Den Haag every week! 

And that’s not how subsidy traditionally works. But that’s something that people who don’t work with young people don’t understand. You don’t want to hang out with just anyone when you’re a teenager. You want to hang out with people you like. So you’re not just going to go to the neighbourhood places… you may want to get away from your neighbourhood! The people from your high school don’t come from the same place after all.

Do you see developments or progress, socially or creatively in Art Gang?

We focus on art but at this point some people just want to hang out. There are still many art projects people want to work on: we have a ceramics workshop, stuff like that. And people still join. But I think the mental health part of this process is actually more important now: there is a loneliness epidemic going on, and many people have said things like, ‘my psychologist has told me to be here every week’. Many love it here. Many trans or autistic people come and many say it’s the only place they can feel themselves. You can have very nice parents but there’s always something they won’t completely understand, in what you are going through. 

Not creating is just as valid…

There’s a bunch of teenagers who met in therapy, and they brought each other to the Art Gang! They just meet at Art Gang and then go to #Wunderbar. But the main thing is, they know there is a place they can go to every week and then decide what they are going to do, and I feel like they just need a place to hang out with each other that isn’t someone’s house, or outside or a place where you have to spend money. And they know their friends will be there. 

What would you call Art Gang now, knowing what you now know?

Good question! We still do a lot of art stuff. And it’s a term people use.

Tell us about the exhibition.

The expo is an MDT subsidy initiative and there is one person from the “normal” Art Gang, but there are a lot of new people working on this because it’s an intense period, where you have to spend eighty hours in total on the project,  and that is a commitment. We have been working towards an exhibition for the last three months. And the exhibitors can make art or perform. It’s a try- out for many as making art for an exhibition is obviously a completely different way of working than making art for Instagram, say.

We have two projects  running: one on Radio WORM and this exhibition, and there are so many people that sign up, because they love WORM. They bring new people, I don’t really need to advertise much anymore. But it’s a first step for many; they want to be involved but don’t know how.

WORM thanks Mimi for the interview time!

Questions and pictures: Richard Foster.