AMuse: placemaker Corinne Zwarter

Occupation: Freelancer copy, content and communications
Age: 32
Proud of: The life I have created for myself, with my work, family and friends
Key in placemaking is... Embracing the neighborhood

"My name is Corinne, but they call me Coco. A friend once thought of it that way. I kind of liked it. Since then, almost everyone calls me that. The name fits well with the work I started doing. As a matter of fact, co is central to who I am and what I do: copy, content and communication. In that respect, that friend did have foresight."

"I currently live in Gein, before that I lived in Diemen. I did fall a little in love with this side of Amsterdam. It's a bit like a village. I like that village feeling in a city. Quite a few older people live in Gein. I have a neighbor who is seventy-two, another who is ninety-three. We have drinks with them once a month. How nice is that? In that respect it ties in well with placemaking; the feeling of having that local connection."

"After studying Media and Culture at the UvA, I pretty much ended up in marketing and communications. I think I started doing this because it's a way of storytelling that appeals to me. For some time now, I have only worked for mission-driven organizations. Organizations that make the world a little more beautiful, better or sustainable. They need someone who can tell their story well and from telling their stories I really get turned on."

"The more I learn and write about it, the more convinced I become that placemaking is the basis for solving a lot of problems. To my mind, so much can be solved with just having a nice neighborhood. It makes for social inclusion, sustainability, mental resilience.... Maybe we've started thinking too big, looking too broadly. It's okay to keep our perspective small. Looking at your own neighborhood, your immediate surroundings, your neighbors. We gradually lost sight of that."

"For AM, I am community manager of Steigerblok Diemen and Strandeiland Amsterdam. It's the first time I'm managing an area development. Yet it's not much different from what I've always done: telling and writing stories. This time it's just for a neighborhood. It's very much about creating a connection between people. I get a lot of energy from that. It's so important that we know how to find each other."

"Storytelling is ancient. We were already doing it as primal humans. By creating an image of someone, something becomes much more personal. For example, I recently interviewed the alderman of Diemen. Then suddenly it's no longer about “the municipality,” but about a person. I am convinced that storytelling is the essence of creating a connection between people."