ACU is a political-cultural center in the Voorstraat, directly in the center of Utrecht. ACU is non-commercial, independent from the municipality’s agenda, and fully run by volunteers. ACU has found its niche as it is for more than 40 years integral to Utrecht’s cultural and political scene.

ACU hosts various activities: café, vegan restaurant, DIY concerts, disco nights, political events, punk and hardcore gigs, jam sessions, benefit events, parties, movies, a library, and a meeting place for political and cultural initiatives.

There is more
ACU has stayed a movie theater, with the screenings by the Pasthei group on Sunday evening. And ACU for long has been a vegan restaurant, the first in Utrecht with the launch of Kitchen Punx in 2004, which ran until 2018. Since then there is the Thursday eetcafé, while in the weekend there is Taste Before You Waste and Barricoons (who both cook with vegetables saved from the trash). 
ACU has also stayed a place of politics, activism. and collective learning, especially again with the the Barricade and its Sunday library and activities. However, the question of ACU’s politics also remains a topic of discussion.
In 1996, at the eve of the legalization NRC Handelsblad in long article wrote about ACU as a breeding ground of radical activism: against the visit of the pope, against gender intimidation, against long-distance missiles, and in support of the Amelisweerd forest.

Work in progress
ACU is a work in progress, in terms of the physical building (from the installation of the beer tank, the upcoming renovations of the toilets and the backstage), but also in that of the collective’s self-organization.
ACU is an ongoing conversation, but sometimes this conversation is a bit of a struggle. In the early 2000s, for example, the collective saw the creation of Feministisch Verzet against sexism in ACU and also within the collective. One night, this group put up a sign above the entrance to the venue, speaking out against the patriarchy performed within ACU. The text remains (though in a watered—down version) and so does the conversation and sometimes still struggle to make ACU a safe(r) space.

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