Kunsthal Rotterdam

All you can Art is a celebration of the imagination. It is a low-threshold, non-exclusive activity that welcomes initiatives from students, (health care) partners and the public that stimulate a plurality of artistic forms and creativity. Last year All you can Art set up quarters in the Bloemhof, Hillesluis and Afrikaanderwijk districts of Rotterdam South. This year All you can Art will be based in the guest location Kunstruimte Crooswijk and the Kunsthal as it sets out to achieve new insights and connections between people, art and culture. What does this mean in our new reality, in which maintaining a distance from one another is synonymous for caring about one another? What is the impact of social distancing on making art and especially on collaboration? How can the cohesive force of art play a role in society today?

Necessity

The artists of All you can Art feel more than ever the necessity to get down to work. All you can Art has wide experience in forging links between people from different backgrounds, institutions, sectors and communities, especially for all those who cannot connect with other people online just like that. The experimental nature of All you can Art and the principle that art assumes a responsibility towards other people and society is an ideal starting point in the search for possibilities within the 1.5-metre society.

Team and partners

The team of artists Liesbeth Labeur, Elke Uitentuis, Rieneke de Vries, Elvis Chen, Roxette Capriles, PJ Bruyniks, Omar Kuwas, Dik Kreuk, Pris Roos and Quinda Verheul will be collaborating this year with many community initiatives, Rotterdam artists and partners, including the guest location Kunstruimte Crooswijk, Stichting Laurens (care for the elderly), Stichting Pluspunt (work and activity centre), Zuiderpark College (advanced secondary professional education) and Antes (psychiatry and care for addicts). 

Open workshops

The locations function as open workshops – places where everyone can meet to make art, inspire one another, engage in discussion and present their work. Artists, art academy students, students in advanced secondary professional education, Summer School students, clients of the Stichting Laurens, participants in the Antes activity programme, the refugee collective ‘We are here’, passers-by, local residents and the Kunsthal public: all are welcome. There is a special focus on people who barely come into contact with art, if at all, in their daily lives.

Exhibition

Throughout the summer the  Kunsthal will present striking examples from five years of All you can Art. The spotlight will be on many inspiring projects and remarkable encounters in this exhibition that is in a constant state of flux.

The aims of All you can Art

In the first years of All you can Art the emphasis was on the Kunsthal as a location from which links were set up with neighbourhoods, residents, partners and social initiatives in the city. In 2018 All you can Art introduced a mobile studio to connect the Kunsthal with the neighbourhoods. In the summer of 2019 All you can Art set up with a number of permanent locations in the neighbourhoods in Rotterdam South. This offered exciting possibilities that the artists exploited to the full.

With a location in Kunstruimte Crooswijk, this year we are looking for new interactions and links with social projects, initiatives and artists or collectives. Combining the successful concepts of the Summer School, an exhibition and an open workshop in the Kunsthal, external workshops with our partners and Think Tanks, workshops and pre-masterclasses, All you can Art makes an impact that is far more than the sum of its parts. After five summer editions, All you can Art is ready for the future. We are working towards a sustainable continuation of All you can Art with a permanent location and a constant presence in the city all year round.