Practical Information

Address
Level 2, Waalhaven Oostzijde 1
3087 BM Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Hours
Sundays, 13:00–18:00
Or by appointment

Contact
shimmerrotterdam@gmail.com

Newsletter
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Notes on Exhibition Proposals
Shimmer does not accept unsolicited exhibition proposals, and we do not rent out our space. However, we do collaborate with a wide range of partners, institutions, museums, biennials, and peers, across local and international contexts. If you are interested in exploring a potential collaboration, we welcome your message.

Notes on Consultancy
We offer consultancy services to funders, institutions, and cultural actors navigating an increasingly complex cultural environment. Our services include ethical foresight briefs, scenario-based programming strategy, and governance tools. We specialise in high-trust consultancy, and have a combined experience of 37 years of experience in the arts, if you are interested in commissioning a brief, entering into a long-term advisory relationship, or learning more about how Shimmer can support your institutional positioning, please get in touch with the subject line: Consultancy Inquiry.

Notes on Internships
We receive more internship applications than we can currently accommodate. If you wish to apply, please explain clearly why you are interested in Shimmer’s model and how it resonates with your own practice and future. We pay particular attention to artists working curatorially, and curators actively rethinking the role and methods of the field.

Notes on Accessibility
Shimmer is located on the second floor of a former industrial building. Unfortunately, the building is not yet wheelchair accessible due to the absence of an elevator. We are actively seeking solutions to improve access. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us in advance so we can do our best to accommodate your visit.

Notes on Public Transport
Shimmer is easily reachable by public transport. From Rotterdam Central Station, take Metro Line D or E toward Slinge/De Akkers. Disembark at Zuidplein, then transfer to Bus 68 or 72 in the direction of Waalhaven. Get off at Waalhaven Oostzijde. The studio is a short walk from the stop. Alternatively the Bus 44 from central station to Katendrechtse Lagedijk will drop you off around 10 minute walk from the space.

Cyclists can reach us via the Maas bike tunnel; secure bike parking is available onsite.

Media and Press Inquiries
For press materials, interview requests, or media coverage, please contact us directly at shimmerrotterdam@gmail.com with the subject line: Press Inquiry. We can provide high-resolution images, exhibition texts, and institutional information upon request.

Donations
We welcome donations of any size to support Shimmer’s exhibitions, publications, and long-term vision.

For direct contributions, you can donate via PayPal:
shimmerrotterdam@gmail.com

For larger donations or potential partnerships, we’d love to speak with you in person. Please reach out, we’re always open to meaningful conversations about how your support can help shape Shimmer’s future.

About Shimmer

Founded in 2018 by Eloise Sweetman and Jason Hendrik Hansma, Shimmer has evolved into a hybrid cultural platform working across exhibitions, publishing, pedagogy, and institutional advising. We work in the space between micro-artist-run initiatives and larger institutional centres, allowing us to remain agile and rigorous, speculative yet structurally sound.

Shimmer’s style of curating moves like water: unfixed, in motion. We understand the exhibition as a choreographic score, where, through shifting rhythms, registers, and movements, artworks overlap, and ideas and generations cross over. The format of our exhibition unfolds over time, opening up and crossing conceptual, spatial, and temporal borders. We are amidst times of profound environmental, global, and mechanical change, where we need all the knowledge and crossovers we can get our hands on. On our horizon are radical shifts in what and how we mean to each other, how we come together, and how we share. With this in mind, we curate to reconsider the past, shape the future, and better accommodate us in the present. We do not confine a history, a practice, a thought, or an audience to particular categories, but give us all as much room as possible to draw alliances with artworks and each other.

Recursive Governance shapes our approach: a model of institutional reflection where learning from artworks, audiences, and collaborators is folded back into our methods. We do not separate artistic production from curatorial thinking, nor public programming from internal ethics.

We have presented works by over 200 artists and practitioners, including Nina Canell, Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Rooij, Theo van Doesburg, Liam Gillick, Ellen Gallagher, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Joseph Grigely, Ian Kiaer, Mike Kelley, Lee Kit, Liz Magor,  Charlotte Posenenske, Anne Tallentire, and Lawrence Weiner, among others.

Our activities include expanded exhibitions, research, education, guest curatorial positions, and micro-publishing through Shimmer Press.

Our programs are supported by the Gemeente Rotterdam, CBK Rotterdam, Mondriaan Fonds, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Cultuurfonds, Amarte Fonds, and Culture Ireland, along with a growing number of international and private partners. We are also sustained by our local and global communities, artists, neighbours, readers, and donors, whose generosity enables Shimmer’s long-term vision.

To support Shimmer’s future and to help us build a legacy of ethical, artistic, and cultural work, consider donating or becoming a strategic partner.

Shimmer has collaborated with a range of institutional and platform partners, including the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, UNESCO, Goethe-Institut, Mondriaan Fonds, the Dutch Embassies in Berlin and Tokyo, the Australia Council for the Arts, NADA, Frame Finland, PUBLICS, the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, Les Bains-Douches, The Community in Paris, ABA Alexanderplatz, Riga Contemporary, Akwa Ibom, Cookies, Wilco Art Books, Laurenz Space, CBK Rotterdam, De Appel, Sandberg Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Royal Academy of Art (KABK), BEAR at ArtEZ, Stichting Niemeijer Fonds, Culture Ireland, DutchCulture and the Venice Biennale.