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Artist Exchange

Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) is supporting an artist residency program for artists in Baltimore, Maryland and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The artists in the program focus on public art projects that actively invite communities to examine their unique histories and sense of place. An educational outreach program accompanies the projects, in an effort to allow the artist to dialogue directly with students as well as the general public.

The Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Comittee (BRSCC) has received several grants for this arts initiative and is soliciting funds from other sources.

Current Program

Photo of Heiplaat and Baybrook communities

HarborTraces: Baybrook <> Heijplaat

The Baltimore Rotterdam Sister City Artist Exchange Program currently features artist Steve Bradley from Baltimore with assistance from Kathie diStefano in Rotterdam.

The HarborTraces project is designed to empower members of two marginalized harbor communities, situated in two sister cities: Heijplaat in Rotterdam and Brooklyn-Curtis Bay in Baltimore (also known as Baybrook). Both communities are culturally diverse and have suffered from a loss of industry, jobs, and prospects. Both have both been geographically cut off from the rest of the metropolitan cities by waterways and major transportation arteries.

Key objectives:

  • Enhance residents’ knowledge about and engagement with local places and histories, in order to develop com- munity pride and a sense of ownership.

  • Broaden residents’ horizons by setting up exchanges between Heijplaat and Baybrook and enabling people to share experiences. The medium of art plays a crucial part in achieving both objectives.

Artist Steve Bradley has been collaborating with University of Maryland Baltimore County and Maryland Institute College of Art on community arts and education activities with Benjamin Franklin High School in Baltimore’s Baybrook neighborhood. Some parallel activities are happening in Heijplaat and an exchange is being planned between the two communities.

Components include:
  • Mapping the neighborhood’s history — Developing
    an online interactive map that documents the boom and
    bust of the community.
  • Portrait Stories — Youth engaging elders through the
    creative act of “portraiture” and storytelling, to document
    and preserve a sense of place, identity, and memories.
  • Stop-motion animation films and other arts projects.
  • Heijplaat Groen — Community projects to stimulate a clearner & ecologically sustainable neighbor-
    hood.
  • Exhibitions — of artwork generated in both neighborhoods
Websites with more information:

 

Building Cultural Bridges

With our art exchange programs, we are addressing issues that relate to globalization, cultural development of community, multiculturalism, and social change through community and contemporary art. Our efforts include educational programs, artist residencies, and commissioned artwork, aiming to foster dialogue between the people of these two unique yet complementary cities, and at the same time strengthen institutional partnerships.

This project is an outgrowth of our Reflection student postcard exchange that took place in 2006 and 2007.

Supporting Institutions

Many institutions have a connection with the Artist Exchange.
They include:

Maryland

Netherlands

 

Activities associated with the Artist Exchange have been partially funded by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts, Inc., Baltimore County Commission on the Arts and Culture, the Baltimore’s Mayor's Office, and the Center for Art and Visual Culture at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

 

Exhibition
May 9 - June 22, 2013

Oasis Places exhibition May 9-June 22, 2013

Artist Steve Bradley is featured in an exhibition at Maryland Art Place from May 9 to June 22, 2013, with a opening reception on May 9. His work is based on his experiences in the Baybrook area of Baltimore.

About this exhibition

Artist Profile
Steve Bradley

Steve Bradley received his MFA from Florida State University and is currently an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He is a trans-media artist performing in the United States and internationally, and founded art@radio based at the UMBC campus.

Steve Bradley is the driving force behind URBANtells, a collective of media artists whose work focuses on the intricacies between the architecture, cityscape and the human and cultural geography found within any city..

Steve’s faculty page at UMBC

Timeline of Activities