Rotterdam theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano employs participatory techniques and theatre art to create awareness with youth and seniors about the environment through creative strategies to recycle and make smart consumer decisions in Heijplaat in Rotterdam. She did an artist residency in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay in December 2013 and returned to Baltimore in December 2014 to plan future exchange activities.

Kathie diStefano’s activities in December 2014 included:

Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center (MCEEC) — diStefano conducted meetings and workshop with Living Classrooms staff. Planning for 2 digital pen pal programs between Baltimore and Rotterdam area students. Masonville Cove also expressed interest in working on hosting a workshop for diStefano with a larger audience

Nederlandse School — diStefano met with the leaders of this Dutch language school in Bethesda, Maryland to plan Fall 2015 sustainability-themed workshops for students.

Benjamin Franklin High School — diStefano met with Kelly Klinefelter, who invited her to run a series of improv workshops in Fall 2015 for her senior English class students focusing on developing social skills and working together. diStefano also spoke with Dante de Tablan from Benjamin Franklin High School’s community center.

Filbert Street Community Garden — Jason Reed met with diStefano to discuss future collaboration possibilities with Filbert Street Community Garden and Living Classrooms. diStefano met up with Steve Bradley and he took her to meet the new managers of the garden.

Rodette (left), Filbert Street Garden Manager, meets Kathie (right) in December 2014

A week-long radio series on the Marc Steiner show looking at the Brooklyn-Curtis Bay / Sparrows Point area of Baltimore aired in May 2014 on WEAA FM. You can listen to the archived series here:

www.steinershow.org/tag/stories-of-deindustrialized-baltimore

Series was done in conjunction with students from the Post-industrial Places Project (PIPP) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). The series focuses on individuals directly affected by the deindustrialization. It includes a segment on the Filbert Street Garden: a discussion with Chanan Delivuk, Baltimore artist and graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts program in Imaging and Digital Arts at UMBC, who grew up in Curtis Bay and currently has a plot in the community garden; Gary Brown, Benjamin Franklin High School junior who is manager of the TriVeggie Food Market program, a mobile farmer’s market, at the Filbert Street Community Garden; and Stephanie Garcia, Americorps intern with the Filbert Street Community Garden.

The Garden Gala: Bringing the Green Back to Filbert Street

Date: Sunday, May 18, 2014

Time: 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Location: 2640 St Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21218

Event information and tickets

Filbert Street Garden is a educational community garden in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay (Baybrook), the neighborhood that has a sister relationship with Heijplaat in Rotterdam. The garden has been under the aegis of Jason Reed, a participant in our Harbor Traces December 2013 artist residency. Filbert Street Garden volunteers and UMBC students (under the guidance of UMBC professors Stephen Bradley and Nicole King) are organizing a fundraiser for the garden.

The purpose of the gala is to raise money to create the new garden manager position for this important Baltimore non-profit organization. Curtis Bay residents need a garden because the area is a food desert, which means there is limited access to fresh produce locally.

Visit the Garden Gala Facebook page for ongoing updates about this event.

Date: Monday April 28, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Location: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Dresher Center Conference Room (216 Performing Arts and Humanities Building)
Admission: Free

UMBC professors Steve Bradley & Nicole King present their collaborative research “Mapping Baybrook,” an interdisciplinary exploration of place that uses digital mapping to illustrate research on the history and culture of an industrial community in Baltimore referred to as Baybrook — a merging of the names of two neighborhoods, Brooklyn and Curtis Bay. The story of Greater Baybrook reflects the tenacity of a community striving for sustainability in the boom and bust of U. S. industrial development.

This community is also a subject of Harbor Traces, Baltimore-Rotterdam committee’s ongoing artist exchange that pairs this area of Baltimore with a parallel neighborhood in Rotterdam called Heijplaat. Artist Steve Bradley has been instrumental in this exchange over the past couple years. Today’s talk is a good opportunity to hear more about his activities in Baybrook.

Admission is free.

Hosted by CIRCA (the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts).

During December 9-19, 2013, the Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) brought Rotterdam theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano to Baltimore for an artist residency, as part of the ongoing HarborTraces artist exchange.

Kathie diStefano employs participatory techniques and theatre art to create awareness with youth and seniors about the environment through creative strategies to recycle and make smart consumer decisions in Heijplaat in Rotterdam. During Kathie’s December artist residency in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay, she collaborated with Jason Reed, a garden educator and Open Society Institute Fellow, to conduct a series of projects and workshops for community residents, teachers, and students.

A reception was held at the Chesapeake Arts Center on December 17, 2013 to celebrate the residency. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake delivered remarks at the reception.

Photo from the December 17, 2013 residency. From left-to-right: Steve Bradley, Rachel Sengers, and Annet Couwenberg from the Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee; Honorable Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake; Rotterdam artist Kathie diStefano; Tiny Christiensen from DC Dutch (Nederlandse Vereniging)

Kathie diStefano’s activities in December 2013 included:

• Kathie worked with art, drama, and English classes at Benjamin Franklin High School (BFHS). Kathie did workshops with the students, to create an ecological-themed theatrical performance. She also showed some students a film about our society’s wasteful consumption habits called “The Story of Stuff,” which made a big impression on many of the kids.
• Kathie met with the principals of Benjamin Franklin High School and Curtis Bay Middle School/Elementary and networked with the staff.
• At Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center (a campus affiliated with Living Classrooms), Kathie conducted workshops with children, and environmental education workshops for local school teachers with a theatrical twist.
• Kathie supported students at BFHS in their efforts to call attention to plans to build an incinerator in the community.
• Meetings and workshop with Curtis Bay Elementary/middle school, which is trying to get a drama club started.
• Filmmaker Exsul Van Helden from the Baltimore-Rotterdam committee filmed some of Kathie’s presentations. He also interviewed Kathie for a film he is making about women who emigrate to different cultures.
• Kathie met with Young Audiences, an organization that works to bring artists into Baltimore’s public schools.

Photos

Kathie conducting a workshop for  school children in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay.

Kathie with Living Classrooms staff of Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center

Kathie conducting an environmental education workshop using the medium of theatre/play for Baltimore teachers, hosted at Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center

Quotes

“I have genuinely enjoyed having the both of you at our school and in our class. I hope that this is the start of an ongoing partnership and friendship. Thank for all that both of you do!”
— Chris Wilson, English/Drama Teacher, Ben Franklin High

“My students are so enriched by their work with you.  Thanks for sharing your gifts with us.”
— Kelly Klinefelter Lee, English Teacher, Ben Franklin High School

“Kathie’s presentation was eye opening! I had no idea how similar people’s perceptions of garbage in Rotterdam was to citizens in Baltimore. It was awesome when we had to get up and work together to undo the tangled mess we had become.”
— Kate Amberger, Curtis Bay Elementary School

In 2012, artist and UMBC professor Steve Bradley conducted weekly art engagement activities at Benjamin Franklin High School (BFHS) in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay neighborhood (also known as Baybrook).  Under his guidance, high school students made short animated movies with the help of UMBC university students.  Filmmaker Exsul Van Helden from the Baltimore-Rotterdam committee and his Stevenson University students produced a documentary about the dynamic collaboration  that evolved between the high school and university students. The documentary also talks about some of the other activities that happened in 2012, such as Dr. Nicole King’s cultural mapping activities in Baybrook.

stevenson u-BFHS-UMBC from Steve Bradley on Vimeo.