What is BMDb?
BMDb stands for Big Mural Database. It is a dataset of murals in The Netherlands. The goal is to create the most complete list of murals ever, including murals that are now gone. It’s an effort to record art history and promote the preservation of urban art. There is not one definition for when something is a ‘big mural’. The best way to see if a mural would qualify is to look at what murals are listed right now. They are all legal murals created in the public space.
Who is behind this project?
BMDb is created and updated by Jeroen (the man behind @Artsynl and the artsy.nl website). Originally from Maastricht, now living in The Hague. Passionate about (street) art, collecting and data. It all comes together with BMDb.
What are the future goals?
Short term the goal is to add many more murals. Mid term the goal is adding those hard to find murals that perhaps have already been forgotten. The long term goal is to expand the amount of data for each mural. Like adding info on the subject of the mural or size.
Can I contribute to BMDb?
Yes. BMDb will be as open as possible, without risking the quality of the data. If you know of a mural that is missing, feel free to send a DM to @Artsynl
Can I used the data?
For personal use you can use the dataset or parts of it however you like. If you are an organization or company there may be some restrictions.
What data is there for each mural?
Each mural is a record. And each record has 9 fields of data. These fields are: ID, Year, Status, Artist, Title, City, Location, Province and Note.
ID: a unique identifer. Always starts with bmdb and ends with a number. So the very first record is bmdb1. Once a mural has an ID, it never changes.
Year: this is the year the mural was created. In a few cases there are multiple years listed, only if it is unknown when exactly the mural was created.
Status: this indicates if a mural is still (mostly) visible or not. It can be either Active or Inactive.
Artist: this is the name of the person(s) or collective that created the mural. Many artists have multiple names. For example their real name and their graffiti/street art name. We will list the name the artist themselves uses the most (in the media or on their own social media).
Title: this is the title of the mural. This field will be empty if the mural does not have a name.
City: this is the city the mural is located in. Not much else to say.
Location: this is the address of the building or structure the mural is on. The address of the building is sometimes not the best spot to actually see the mural. The mural could be on the side or back of that building and best viewed from a different street.
Province: this is the province the mural is located in.
Note: this is an optional field that can be used to add extra information. For example if the mural is a portrait of someone. Or if the mural was created as part of a festival.
I have another question/suggestion/want to know more.
Send a DM to @Artsynl