Arts + Culture
kunst + cultuur
We help organize and promote cultural events including music, arts, architecture, history, film, theater, and cuisine.
Current Projects
We are collaborating with curator Joy Davis, Creative Alliance and TENT in an exhibition called Walk On By with Black artists from Baltimore and Rotterdam. The Rotterdam artists to travel to Baltimore for the opening reception and community engagement programs in Fall 2024. Then, the exhibition and Baltimore artists travel to TENT in Rotterdam in Spring 2025 to reciprocate the exchange. For more information: Walk on By.
And we have been supporting an ongoing exchange for artists who work with the community with environmental sustainability themes. The program is called HarborTraces.
Examples of Past Projects
30 years of Baltimore-Rotterdam: On September 26, 2015 we hosted day-long workshops & performances for the whole family at the Creative Alliance, followed by an evening art opening reception. Event information. Maryland Institute College of Art and Rotterdam’s Willem de Kooning Academie co-teach a collaborative class about digital fabrication and smart textiles. We featured examples of the students’ work at this art exhibit. This event was part of Baltimore Innovation Week 2015.
We marked the 125th year anniversary of artist Vincent Van Gogh’s death by collaborating with the Baltimore Museum of Art on some Van Gogh-related activities for children in July 2015.
We participated in the exhibition Kin+Cargo: Exploring Baltimore’s Sister Cities at Baltimore Inner Harbor in April 2014.
Former Committee Chair Annet Couwenberg was artist-in-residence at CrossLab at Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam, where she worked on a collaborative project “Clothing as Interface: Cross-Cultural Muslim Identity.”
The committee helped launch a new art exchange program between Baltimore and Rotterdam called Reflection. The pilot project was launched in 2006 with eight schools in Baltimore and Rotterdam, and several workshops have happened since then. The project then evolved into our current exchange, called HarborTraces.
Rotterdam’s Jet Manrho (who helped launch our Reflection project) worked on a kids’ art project with Port Discovery, Baltimore’s children’s museum.
De Coolsingers, Dutch men’s choir, toured Baltimore and New York City in October 2008. The Baltimore Mayor’s office of International and Immigrant Affairs organized concerts and visits to schools and other institutions for the choir. More information.
Some other examples of cultural events we have supported include the Maryland Boychoir’s tour of Europe and Rotterdam Boys Choir’s U.S. tour. We helped set up a collaboration between the Mamyo Players (a youth theater group at Rotterdam’s Lantaren/Venster) and Baltimore’s Arena Players and Sankofa Dance Theater.
We have held special events in conjunction with art exhibits at The Walters Art Museum, and helped organize concerts by musicians like The Aurelia Saxophone Quartet from Holland and Baltimore jazz singer Ethel Ennis.
Children learn how to paint Delft-style tiles at a workshop in Baltimore’s World Trade Center, organized by committee member Marion Brecht.
Photo: © Dan Meyers
Walk On By begins its journey this September in Baltimore at Creative Alliance with an opening reception on September 26, and then travels to Rotterdam in the spring of 2025. Participating artists travel to each city during the exhibitions to experience the culture, engage with the community and artists, and create lasting connections across the Atlantic.
HarborTraces Artist Exchange
Artist Kathie diStefano from Rotterdam did a residency in the Brooklyn-Curtis Bay area of Baltimore in December 2013, and revisits Baltimore frequently since then. She coordinates workshops and exchange programs with schools in Baltimore and Rotterdam to stimulate awareness about trash and recycling.
Photo by Steve Bradley
