Artwork: K9K
TENT is moving and breaking new ground
The TENT team shares its future plans with great enthusiasm. In 2024 we will choose a new course and a new location in the city. TENT settles on Rotterdam's Coolhaven Island to build a new program from that home base. This will consist of exhibitions and activities in our own space, but also of co-productions with artists, collaboration partners and fellow citizens in other places in the neighborhood and the city, where artistic practices can be meaningful in many ways.
Artistic director Anke Bangma: “TENT has always aimed to move with developments in the changing city. Moving to a new place allows us to make new choices. We look forward to joining a district where a network of cultural and social organizations already connects with various makers, the public and residents in an inspiring way. In that environment we will occupy a special space on the street and the water, inviting for presentation, exchange and meeting. At the same time, we have consciously opted for fewer square meters of interior space than our current exhibition location. In this way we create scope for a broader approach with a more important role for collaboration, reciprocity and co-creation.”
Over the years, TENT regularly produced projects, together with makers and partners, that tap into the broader cultural and social fabric of the city. This way of working requires further development and we want to anchor it sustainably in our artistic and social mission. As a program of CBK Rotterdam, we can fully tap into the connections in the city of the other CBK programs (Art Office, BKOR/SIR).
At a time when many art institutions are struggling with the imbalance between rising housing costs, commitment to fair practice and sustainability, and their core programmatic tasks, we embrace this opportunity to proactively chart a new course.
Farewell and continuation
With these new steps we say goodbye to the Witte de Withkwartier where, as a presentation platform of CBK Rotterdam, we experienced inspiring collaborations and produced programs with many makers for thirty years: 25 years as neighbors of Kunstinstituut Melly and the 5 years before that in the Villa Alckmaer on the Westersingel . Here we joined forces with our local partners to put contemporary art on the map, first through a joint street festival and later with Kunstblock and the weekly free Art Evening. Over those years we have seen the neighborhood transform and turn into the cultural and commercial hotspot that it is today. We continue our close collaboration with Kunstinstituut Melly and MaMA: our joint education program 100% Contemporary has grown into a high-profile offering for secondary education and vocational education. In the coming years we will continue to receive pupils and students and continue to build a learning community for and with young people.
Until the end of April at the current location
We can still be found at Witte de Withstraat until April 21, 2024. The 10th edition of the Rotterdam Dolf Henkes Prize can currently be seen, with Bik Van der Pol, Bert Frings, Yoeri Guépin, Maike Hemmers, Babette Kleijn, Dirk van Lieshout, Ada Patterson and Samboleap Tol. Together with Kunstinstituut Melly we present the 25th edition of our joint series Rotterdam Cultural Histories; TENT produces this final edition with and about Tubelight—the free art magazine that was founded 25 years ago in Witte de Withstraat. We conclude at this location with new work by Robert Glas and Pris Roos.