Theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano from Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts 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. Ms. diStefano visited Baltimore in October 2016 to plan several upcoming exchange projects.
MECU Foundation provides grant for Baltimore Sister Cities educational programs for spring 2017 semester
Baltimore, MD USA — September 2016
MECU Foundation Inc. has awarded Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. a $3,000 grant to support sister cities educational projects. The grant goes towards several projects, including the Baltimore-Rotterdam “Operation Trash” exchange project with Bard High School Early College Baltimore and Benjamin Franklin High School and several schools in the Netherlands in spring 2017, to create a virtual exchange and social digital platform to teach sustainability, trash reduction and recycling concepts.
CSX provides grant for Baltimore-Rotterdam program at Benjamin Franklin High School
Baltimore, MD USA — July 17, 2016
CSX has provided a $1,000 grant to Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts via Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister Cities for the “Operation Trash” exchange project in spring 2017 designed to educate high school students at Baltimore’s Benjamin Franklin High School (BFHS) and connect them with Wolfert van Borselen high school in the Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Improvisational theatre techniques and remote learning techniques will be used to teach students about sustainability, trash reduction, recycling, and to inspire them to become environment stewards for their communities.
Rotterdam Artist/Educator planning theatre workshops for Baltimore schools
Baltimore — April 17, 2016
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. diStefano’s organization Avalanche Arts (Dutch name: Stichting Lawine) has completed several exchange projects between Baltimore and Rotterdam and is planning more.
Avalanche Arts is planning several projects designed to educate students about sustainability and environmental stewardship:
- Pen Pal Project linking Baltimore high school students with counterparts in the greater Rotterdam area (More info)
- Improvisational theatre workshops for Baltimore public high school students (info below)
Rotterdam artist receives WWF grant to set up pen pal exchanges between Baltimore and Rotterdam area schools
The Netherlands chapter of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) has awarded a grant to Rotterdam theatre artist/educator Kathie diStefano, Avalanche Arts (Stichting Lawine), to link students in Baltimore with Dutch high school students in the greater Rotterdam area. This ‘Pen Pal Project’ will use social media to build awareness for environmental issues in both countries.
Participants will begin by looking critically at their own trash behavior and how this affects their communities as well as global waste problems. Students will be asked to “think globally and act locally” to help reduce litter and increase recycling in their communities.
Students in the two cities will share stories and compare findings regarding trash problems and recycling challenges in Dutch and American neighborhoods.
The Baltimore-Rotterdam Pen Pal Project builds on a pilot exchange completed in 2015 with Baltimore’s Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center and a school near Rotterdam, and on previous environmentally-themed art educational projects with children and community residents in the Baybrook area of Baltimore and Heijplaat area of Rotterdam, completed by Avalanche Arts in collaboration with Baltimore artist/educator Stephen Bradley.
The Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (a member of the Baltimore Sister Cities 501(c)(3) association), supports these exchanges. Baltimore and Rotterdam have been sister cities since 1985. The committee encourages engagement between the two cities to creatively learn, work, and solve problems together through reciprocal exchanges and projects.
Rotterdam artist gives trash/recycling workshops at Nederlandse School
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 is returning to Baltimore area in fall 2015.
On 3 October and 10 October 2015, she is giving workshops at De Nederlandse School in Bethesda. This is for kids who speak Dutch or are learning Dutch. These workshops are open to kids that are not students of De Nederlandse School; there is a fee for non-students. The two Saturdays are stand-alone workshops – kids can attend one or both. Suitable for a wide variety of ages. Using the medium of theatre & play, kids will learn about sustainability, trash/recycling, and ecology themes. This event is produced in conjunction with DC Dutch.
More information:
www.dcdutch.org/events/operatie-afval-speciaal-voor-kinderen
Rotterdam artist at Sept 26 Baltimore Sister Cities Celebration
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 is returning to Baltimore area in fall 2015.
On September 26, 2015, she will give a workshop about trash and sustainability topics at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance as part of the daylong celebration of the 30th anniversary of Baltimore’s sister city relationships with Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Xiamen, China. The daytime activities include performances and workshops for kids & adults; the evening features a reception.
More information about the Sept 26 event: baltimoresistercities.org/anniversary2015
Rotterdam artist plans follow-up residency in Baltimore in Fall 2015
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 is returning in September-October 2015 for another residency in this neighborhood. This is in conjunction with the 30th anniversary celebration of the Baltimore-Rotterdam sister city relationship. We are currently seeking funding to support these activities.
Preliminary list of activities for 2015:
Sep 26 — Workshop during the daylong celebration of 30 year Baltimore-Rotterdam anniversary at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance
Oct 5–9 — Weeklong series of theater improv workshops for Benjamin Franklin senior high school students
Oct 3 & 10 — Sustainability workshops for students at De Nederlandse School (a joint project with DC Dutch)
October — Workshops with Filbert Street Community Garden
October — Planning sessions for pen pal exchange with Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center (affiliated with Living Classrooms) and a school near Rotterdam
Fall — Bring a sculpture from Rotterdam to be installed in Baltimore (a mirror copy of a sculpture in Rotterdam harbor) in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the sister city relationship. C. Steinweg has generously offered to ship the sculpture to Baltimore. C. Steinweg is a logistics provider headquarted in Rotterdam specializing in the international transportation, handling & warehousing of non-ferrous metals & soft commodities; they are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their Baltimore office this year. More information about the sculpture is here: sealsculpturerotterdam.pdf
Kathie diStefano conducting a workshop for Baltimore schoolchildren in December 2013
Baltimore Traces: Communities in Transition
Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Chesapeake Arts Center, 194 Hammonds Lane, Brooklyn Park MD 21225
Admission: Free
UMBC professors present their collaborative research in two Baltimore communities with a shared legacy of industrial development: Brooklyn-Curtis Bay (Baybrook) and Sparrows Point. The event features Mapping Baybrook, a media-based documentation of projects in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay and a film screening of Mill Stories: Remembering Sparrows Point Steel Mill. Members of Sparrows Point and Brooklyn-Curtis Bay communities also discuss the challenges they face and possible futures.
The Brooklyn-Curtis Bay 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 Brooklyn-Curtis Bay
For more information, visit baltimoretraces.org
Rotterdam artist visits Baltimore in 2014, to plan 2015 residency
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