CBK Rotterdam, the Rotterdam City Archives, and the Kunsthal are searching for the City Artists of 2026. This year, we're focusing on a topic familiar to every Rotterdammer, yet often overlooked: nightlife. What happens when daylight fades and Rotterdam lights up, slows down, or comes alive? Who moves through the streets, which places remain awake, what stories unfold while most of us sleep?
Theme: night in motion
We invite artists to observe, explore, and depict Rotterdam's nighttime. The three selected City Artists will work for four months on a series of drawings that will shape their own perspective on Rotterdam's nighttime. The results will be presented at the Kunsthal Rotterdam in late 2026 and subsequently incorporated into the City Archives collection as part of the Rotterdam Collection.
Where the night begins
Nightlife is more than clubs and neon lights. It's a layered world where euphoria, vulnerability, freedom, and invisibility converge. In the poet Vasalis's work, the bus travels through the night like a room.
In 2026, we will be looking at the night in the broadest sense of the word. This theme touches on the work of the N8W8 Rotterdam, which approaches the night as a fully-fledged part of the city: a domain where safety, inclusion, creativity, and encounters converge, and where residents, makers, and entrepreneurs connect. This may involve iconic nightlife venues closing their doors, but also new forms of community that only emerge after sunset. It may involve the return of the night bus and the travelers who populate its routes. It may involve those who work, watch, or come home late at night, and those who spend the night in places that are not home, because shelters are lacking and doors remain closed. For them, sleep is not a right that is granted, but a constant search.
Moreover, the city reveals a unique landscape once darkness falls. Eateries and night shops fill with groups of people seeking food after long hours, while others wander the streets alone. The luminous facade of Cinerama, the soft glow of the KPN building, and places like Jaffa, which remain crowded late into the night with people searching for a hot meal, combine to create an urban backdrop that only becomes visible at night. These are lines of light that redraw the city and open up routes that remain hidden during the day.
Inhabitants of the Dark
The night isn't just inhabited by humans. It's also the domain of animals: foxes along the water's edges, cats prowling through alleys, seagulls claiming the silence. Neighborhoods fade away, streets dim, while other places open up and transform. Sometimes the night is the setting for celebrations, protests, or rituals that don't take place in daylight. Sometimes nature surprises us, as when the Northern Lights suddenly appear above the skyline.
The interplay of shadow, artificial light, and reflection is ever-present, giving Rotterdam a different face. The night reveals a city we don't necessarily know. We are looking for artists who want to explore these nocturnal worlds with attention, imagination, and integrity.
Sign up
Do you want to be the City Artist of 2026 and do you have ideas about how you would approach this theme? Then send us your motivation and portfolio. Documentation can be submitted until 11:00. Friday February 13 be sent to artoffice@cbkrotterdam.nl with the subject: City Artist 2026.
Your registration consists of:
- a motivation (max. half an A4)
- a concise CV (max. 1 A4)
- images in the form of a link to your page on artoffice.info or a digital portfolio (PDF max. 20 MB)
Fee & Conditions
The fee is €3.500 per artist.
The selected City Artists will be notified by March 9th and will be listed on the websites of CBK Rotterdam, Rotterdam City Archives, and Kunsthal Rotterdam within four weeks of the deadline. Read more here. the general terms and conditions.
Images: Funzig (Funs Janssen), city artist 2021