Forest polder fox, Florentijn Hofman, Schiedamseweg, 2020. Photo: Otto Snoek
CBK Rotterdam is working on a lively art climate in Rotterdam
CBK Rotterdam works on visual art and the city. We are convinced that visual art makes the city a better place. That is why we do everything we can to make Rotterdam a lively art city.
We do this together with makers, partners and residents of the city. We are in the middle of the city and feel involved in what is going on in the city. We encourage artists in many ways to create new work and to develop a new language and joint initiatives. Together with the artists, residents and visitors of the city and our partners, we shape a dream city.
Based on the motivation, experience and involvement of residents, artists and other stakeholders, we work on a city in which we want to live together. A city in which imagination and versatility have an inescapable place. And in doing so, we focus on our core qualities, interaction and involvement.
Art exists by the grace of a free exchange of ideas - sometimes deepening, sometimes enriching, sometimes abrasive. Art offers contemporary insights and perspectives, with which people can find each other or better understand different positions. Visual art has played an important role in Rotterdam since the first day of the Reconstruction. CBK Rotterdam is committed to this: from Hoek van Holland to Nesselande, from Rotterdam Center to IJsselmonde with the aim of creating and maintaining a climate in which art in Rotterdam can continue to develop and is and remains relevant for everyone.
We are working on a lively art climate in Rotterdam through three programs
BKOR / Sculpture International Rotterdam
These programs take care of the city collection in the public space. We support Rotterdammers in their request to see important histories and people in the form of a work of art in their city. And we give artists the opportunity to help shape the communal space in the city.
Art Office
With Art Office we offer artists the space to develop their practice and to initiate activities together with others. In this way, artists can contribute to the cultural and social dynamics in the city from their perspective.
TENT Rotterdam
With our exhibition platform TENT we offer a lively stage and production house for the artists. Forms of expression and subjects that the metropolitan culture of Rotterdam produces also have a place there.
CBK Rotterdam endorses the Diversity and Inclusion Code and the Cultural Governace Code
History
The CBK Rotterdam foundation was established in 1982. CBK Rotterdam set itself the goal of putting the visual arts on the map and supporting the artist in his professional practice. In particular through the implementation of the Visual Artists Regulation (BKR) and the Percentage Regulation. The Artotheek, which was already established in the 1970s, also ended up at CBK Rotterdam.
When the BKR ceased in 1987, it was replaced by individual artist grants, an exhibition space and a public art policy was further developed (BKOR).
The implementation of CBK Rotterdam changed, but the central task remained the stimulation of visual art and the support of artists. This was partly due to the start of a Rotterdam exhibition platform on the Nieuwe Binnenweg and later Villa Alckmaer. From 1999 this became TENT. TENT took up residence at Witte de Withstraat 50 and developed into the presentation space for Rotterdam contemporary art. On January 1, 2006, CBK Rotterdam - previously a municipal branch of service - became independent as a foundation with a Supervisory Board. In 2013, CBK Rotterdam moved from Nieuwe Binnenweg to Eendrachtsstraat, and Sculpture International Rotterdam also moved into the same building.