From Wednesday 4 May, All you can Art – the in-depth collaboration between Kunsthal Rotterdam and Instituto Buena Bista Curaçao – will take up residence at the Pauluskerk Rotterdam for a period of six weeks. The Pauluskerk offers a safety net to the city’s most vulnerable people. On three days a week, various All you can Art artists will be present at the church to work on an organically growing exhibition together with Pauluskerk visitors. The goal of the art project is to make connections between different people who may or may not be familiar with the Pauluskerk. This past Sunday, the artist and All you can Art co-initiator David Bade launched this unique collaboration by making a special action painting during the weekly service at the Pauluskerk.

For a number of years now, All you can Art has taken the Kunsthal as its point of departure for venturing into Rotterdam neighbourhoods with a mission to give everyone – and we literally mean everyone – an opportunity to make art, learn, and discover together. All you can Art has been showing how art is able to play a connecting role in society for more than seven years. The Pauluskerk has also had an arts and culture programme for some time now. A successful collaboration in the autumn of 2021 – the project ‘Art sleepover’, during which art from the collection of the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency spent the night at the Pauluskerk – sparked a desire for a more long-term involvement of the All you can Art artists in the church.

CONNECTING WITH EACH OTHER AND THE CITY
Making art together will lead to valuable insights and new dialogues and helps the visitors of the Pauluskerk – varying from people who are homeless and people who are undocumented to vulnerable youths and elderly people – connect with each other and with the city of Rotterdam. Over the coming weeks, Rotterdam residents will also be explicitly invited to drop by at the Pauluskerk and participate in the art project, which revolves around the theme ‘Safe Space’.

JOIN IN!
For three days a week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the artists Tirzo Martha, Goretti Pombo, and Rieneke de Vries will work with visitors according to the master-apprentice principle at the Open Studio located in the church hall – a place for all people to come together and make art, inspire each other, and interact. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the organically growing exhibition that will be on show up to and including Friday 10 June.

? Marco de Swart