Be The Change (BTC) Foundation has received funding from Mondriaan Fonds to add two
large murals to Philipsburg as a part of their @ColorMeSXM project. Artist Sander van
Beusekom, BLEND, based in Curacao will be executing one of the murals, on a three-story
high building near the Methodist Church.
To extend and continue @ColorMeSXM’s success, the BTC Foundation applied for several
grants and contacted local businesses, including Mondriaan Fonds, a public fund for visual
art and cultural heritage. “In addition, several companies, such as Seaview Beach Hotel St.
Maarten, Holland House Beach Hotel, and Winair are also contributing generously to ensure
the project’s execution. We are very grateful for this support,” shares Melanie Choisy,
President of BTC Foundation.
“Artist Sander van Beusekom has extensive experience with large-scale pieces and is well-
known for his vibrant art in Curacao. For this great space and visible location we would like
to highlight one or more persons iconic to Philipsburg. Persons you would like to see
honoured through this mural. We ask the public to share their suggestions via our facebook
page: www.facebook.com/bethechangesxm. Ideally when making a suggestion people can
give a short background of the person along with their name. You can also email your
suggestions to bethechangesxm@gmail.com.” shares Project Coordinator for
@ColorMeSXM, Laura Bijnsdorp.
The suggestions of the public will be collected for a week (February 10 – February 17). If
there the suggestions clearly favour one or two characters – these will be chosen. If there are
several popular suggestions, the Foundation will post a 24 hour poll on Facebook &
Instagram to allow the public to vote. Once selected, the artist will start working on a design.
The painting of the mural will get started in June and will take up to three weeks.
The Foundation also recently announced an ‘alleyway transformation’ in collaboration with
Plastic Free SXM. Laura: “In short, we are adding a lot of M2 of art and colour to Philipsburg
in the coming months!”
