A list of upcoming events organized or supported by Baltimore Sister Cities and our sister city committees (Changwon, South Korea; Gbarnga, Liberia; Kawasaki, Japan; Luxor & Alexandria, Egypt; Odesa, Ukraine; Piraeus, Greece; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Xiamen, China) and our affiliates. Events include:
February 1, 2025
Lunar New Year Celebration at the Walters Art Museum
Date/time: Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 11am – 4pm ET
Location: Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21202
Admission: Free
More information: Event page
Whether you were born in the year of the snake, the ox, or the monkey, everyone is encouraged to come celebrate Lunar New Year at the Walters! This year’s festival will welcome the year of the snake, representing the sixth year of the 12-year Lunar calendar cycle. The Walters Museum invites visitors of all ages to join them for a day of art-making, tours, storytime sessions, photo booth fun, food, and more! Includes performances by Johns Hopkins University Yong Han Lion Dance Troupe, Baltimore Chinese School and Korean Culture and Art of Maryland.
February 6, 2025
Children’s Lunar New Year Celebration
Date/time: Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 5-7pm
Location: Medfield Recreation Center, 1501 Woodheights Ave., Baltimore 21211
Hosted by Baltimore City Recreation & Parks.
February 7, 2025
Celebrate the Year of the Snake — Happy New Year 春节快乐
Date/time: Friday, February 7, 2025 at 5:30-6:45pm ET
Location: Bard High School Early College (BHSEC), 2801 N. Dukeland Street, Baltimore, MD 21216
Admission: Free — Bring your family and friends!
More information: Baltimore-Xiamen website
Join us for night of cultural performances, as we bring in the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Snake. Featuring Student Popup Shops at 4:30-5:30pm. Celebration 5:30-6:35 pm with the JHU Yong Han Lion Dance Troupe and the Lan Yun Blue Orchids Chinese Dance Team.
Sponsored and co-organized by the Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee (BXSCC)
February 9, 2025
ZamZam book reading and family craft event
Date/time: Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 10am
Location: Koshary Corner at R.House, 301 W. 29th Street, Baltimore
Admission: Free
Celebrate ZamZam, a new picture book written by Karen Leggett Abouraya from the Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee and illustrated by Susan L. Roth, about a little boy – Zamzam – who has grandparents in both Egypt and the U.S. The event includes a reading and a family craft activity.
February 9 – July 25, 2025
Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art
Location: Baltimore Museum of Art
Address: 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218
More information: Exhibition webpage
A selection of approximately 40 paintings, prints, and drawings from the Baltimore Museum of Art’s collection explores the role of water and landscape in defining the early modern Dutch Republic.
February 12 – May 17, 2025
‘HAUNTED KOREAS Dreaming Unification Protest Peace’ Exhibition
Artists: Mina Cheon with Kim Il Soon
Location: Asian Arts Gallery & Center for the Arts Atrium, Towson University, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
On view: Monday – Saturday 11am – 4pm
Admission: Free (donations are welcome)
View the most extensive collection of global activist artist Mina Cheon’s series of “Unification Dream” paintings, a new perspective on the flags of a unified Korea. Each of these paintings, born from the artist’s stream of unconsciousness, is a powerful peace protest, shedding light on the intricacies of communication, love, and a shared vision of a harmonious future for North and South Korea. The call for unification within the Koreas is a concerted effort to desire peace on earth, because to dream for global peace is about healing and reconciliation of tempered worlds divided.
Hosted by the Asian Arts & Culture Center at Towson University.
February 15, 2025
Film screening: Our Neighbor Miss Yae 隣の八重ちゃん Tonari no Yae-chan
Date/time: Saturday, February 15 at 1pm ET
Location: Towson University Center for the Arts, Art Lecture Hall, Room 2032, 7700 Osler Drive, Towson, MD 21204
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This 1934 classic comedy-drama—which film historian, Alexander Jacoby, called a “subtle, charming, funny and bittersweet story of family life”—depicts the intertwining lives of suburban neighbors. Warm your heart with the flirtations of young love, while empathizing with the tensions and uncertainty of a complicated marriage. (black and white) Directed by Yasujiro Shimazu. 76 minutes.
Screenings are free but registration is required. To register, find the film on Asian Arts & Culture Center’s event page or the Baltimore-Kawasaki Committee’s events page and click the registration link next to the film.
Lunar New Year of the Wood Snake Celebration
Date/time: Saturday, February 15, 2025
Location: EPICenter, 1918 Pulaski Hwy, Edgewood, MD 21040
Admission: Free but advanced registration required. Registration form
The Maryland Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives and the Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs invites you to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Join them for an event with free food, interactive children’s activities, art gallery, cultural performances, and more!
February 22, 2025
HAUNTED KOREAS Dreaming Unification Protest Peace: Artist Talk and Exhibition Opening
Date/time: Saturday, February 22, 5:30pm
Location: Asian Arts Gallery & Center for the Arts Atrium, Towson University, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
Admission: Free (donations are welcome)
More information and to RSVP: Reception Eventbrite page
Join Mina Cheon to explore the HAUNTED KOREAS: Dreaming Unification Protest Peace exhibition together and gain insights into how she creates art to advocate for positive change. Mina Cheon (PhD, MFA) is a global Korean new media artist, scholar, and educator who divides her time between Baltimore, New York, and Seoul, Korea. Born in Seoul to parents who were originally from the North, Cheon has never known a unified Korea. She has worked on North Korean awareness and global peace projects since 2004 and her specific focus on East Asia reflects the transgenerational trauma of Korea’s history, particularly division, war, and Japanese colonization.
This event is co-sponsored by the Korean American Foundation – Greater Washington and the Baltimore Changwon Sister City Committee.
Performance: Intersegmental 38 with the Baltimore Composers Forum
Date/time: Saturday, February 22, 6:30pm
Location: Recital Hall, Center for the Arts, Towson University, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
How do we cross over the border with music? How do we prompt unity? How do we compose global peace? This concert of works by diverse members of the Baltimore Composers Forum draws inspiration from Mina Choen’s series of “Unification Dream” paintings. Pieces explore the idea of crossing over the 38th parallel which runs through and connects both Maryland and Korea (DMZ). Featured composers include Jin-Hwa Choi, Se-Yeon Oh, Anna Rubin, Ha-Eun Lee, Young-Wook Lee, Keith Kramer, Garth Baxter, Janice Macaulay, Gavin Brown, Ljiljana Becker, Ian Rashkin, and Ariyo Shahry. Featured performers include Ji Eun Kim (soprano), Soyeun Jung (gayageum), Youngik Jang (guitar), Bonghee Lee (piano), and Hyo Ju Lee (piano).
Spring 2025
Egypt World of Spices event
The Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee is planning a special event in Baltimore where you can sample the flavors of Egypt! Date and more details to come.
March 2025
Architecture & urban design student trip to the Netherlands
Students and faculty from Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P), representatives from Baltimore Department of Planning, and design professionals travel to Baltimore’s sister city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands in March 2025. The trip includes design workshops, visits to design firms and architecture schools, architecture tours, lectures, the cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam, and more. Community-centered design, placekeeping, and social sustainability are the key themes for this year’s trip. Professor Cristina Murphy (SA+P) is the lead organizer/curator for this annual trip.
Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) helps fundraise, promote, and plan these exchange activities.
March 29 – June 8, 2025
Walk On By exhibition and artists exchange
Walk On By is an exhibition and a cultural exchange that connects Black artists, their diverse experiences, and artwork, across the Atlantic. Explore the Black Atlantic through the diverse stories of local artists in the historical port cities of Baltimore and Rotterdam, through exhibitions in both countries and an exchange program. Featuring works by Schaun Champion (Baltimore), Charles Mason III (Baltimore), Naomi King (Rotterdam), kolpeace (Baltimore), Djon Seedorf (Rotterdam), and Tarona (Rotterdam). Curated by Joy Davis, Visual Arts Director at Creative Alliance and founder of Waller Gallery.
Mar 29 – June 8, 2025: The exhibition is at TENT in Rotterdam; the Baltimore artists and artwork travel to Rotterdam for community engagement activities in the week of the exhibition opening.
Sep 26 – Dec 7, 2024: The exhibition was at Creative Alliance in Baltimore; the Rotterdam artists and artwork traveled to Baltimore for community engagement activities in the week of the exhibition opening.
Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) is collaborating with curator Joy Davis, Creative Alliance, and TENT Rotterdam to plan and fundraise for this project.
April 2025
Dutch urban design delegation – Research trip to Baltimore
City planners, community organizers, and researchers from Amsterdam and Rotterdam will come to Baltimore in early April 2025 for a work week. Goals for this research trip: learning how community-led visioning and urban development happens in Baltimore, and alternatives to real-estate-developer-driven development; sharing examples of community-led initiatives in Amsterdam and Rotterdam; how city government can support community-led development; how to engage/empower youth in shaping the future of their neighborhood.
This trip is a follow-on to an earlier exchange when students and faculty from Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P), design professionals, and representatives from Baltimore City Department of Planning traveled to the Netherlands in March 2024, and also serves as a follow-on to the March 2025 trip to the Netherlands.
Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) helps fundraise, promote, and plan these exchange activities.
April 9, 2025
CROSSINGS: Film Screening, Panel Discussion & Reception
Date/time: Wednesday, April 9, 5:30pm
Location: Towson University Art Lecture Hall, CA 2032, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Towson, MD 21204
CROSSINGS, a film by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, captures the groundbreaking mission of Women Cross DMZ (WCDMZ), a group of international women peacemakers who sets out on a historic journey across the Demilitarized Zone from North to South Korea, calling for an end to the 74-year war that has divided the Korean Peninsula. Witness how thirty women activists dare to tread forbidden territory to draw global attention to the unresolved war and demand a seat at the table in bringing about peace. Chat about the film and the ongoing quest to end the Korean War as the first step toward reaching peace on the Korean Peninsula, with Aiyoung Choi, Chair of the Board of WCDMZ, as well as TU Professors Sel Hwahng (Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, Health, and Sexuality) and Jeong Joo Ahn (Assistant Professor, Political Science). After the screening, continue the conversation informally during a reception at Mina Cheon’s Dreaming Unification Protest Peace exhibition in the Asian Arts Gallery.
April 19, 2025
Film screening: The Hidden Fortress 隠し砦の三悪人 Kakushi Toride no San Akunin
Date/time: Saturday, April 19 at 1pm ET
Location: Towson University Center for the Arts, Art Lecture Hall, Room 2032, 7700 Osler Drive, Towson, MD 21204
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Screenings are free but registration is required. To register, find the film on Asian Arts & Culture Center’s event page or the Baltimore-Kawasaki Committee’s events page and click the registration link next to the film.
May 2025
Asia North 2025 Exhibit & Festival
Exhibit Opening Reception and Celebration: Friday, May 2
Exhibition and Festival: May 2 – May 31
The 7th annual Asia North community exhibition and festival celebrates Baltimore’s Charles North (a.k.a. Station North) neighborhood’s constantly evolving identities as a Koreatown, arts district, and creative center. Stay tuned for more details.
Co-presented by Towson University Asian Arts & Culture Center and the Central Baltimore Partnership.
May 30, 2025
The 2025 Baltimore Immigration Summit will take place May 30, 2025, and the theme this year will be Narratives of Hope and Healing: Transforming Immigrant Integration Through Local Initiatives. Registration begins in early April 2025. A call for proposals will happen in Fall 2024.
The Baltimore Immigration Summit is a free one-day event that brings together academics, policymakers, service providers, activists, community leaders, and others working with and for immigrants and refugees in our region. Baltimore and its surrounding suburbs represent an area with a growing and diverse immigrant population, and local governments view them as essential to the region’s ongoing resurgence. We invite you to join us in learning about and celebrating the empowered immigrant communities in our region and discovering new opportunities for collaboration!
For more information and to stay up to date with registration information, please visit the webpage on Towson University’s website.
June 8, 2025
Baltimore-Kawasaki Sister City Committee’s annual picnic.
Details to come.
June (Date TBD)
The End of Summer 小早川家の秋
Location: Towson University Center for the Arts, Art Lecture Hall, Room 2032, 7700 Osler Drive, Towson, MD 21204 .
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu. 103 minutes.
Screenings are free but registration is required. To register, find the film on Asian Arts & Culture Center’s event page or the Baltimore-Kawasaki Committee’s events page and click the registration link next to the film.
July 19, 2025
Flowing 流れる Nagareru
Location: Towson University Center for the Arts, Art Lecture Hall, Room 2032, 7700 Osler Drive, Towson, MD 21204 .
This 1956 classic drama depicts women in postwar Japan through the lens of a geisha house that is struggling financially. Based on a novel by Aya Koda, the film illuminates how a “family” of women navigates tensions between tradition and modernity. (black and white) Directed by Mikio Naruse. 117 minutes.
Screenings are free but registration is required. To register, find the film on Asian Arts & Culture Center’s event page or the Baltimore-Kawasaki Committee’s events page and click the registration link next to the film.
July 21-23, 2025
Sister Cities International Annual Business Meeting
Details will be posted on the Sister Cities International website.
September 15–19, 2025
2025 U.S.–Japan Sister Cities Summit
The 2025 U.S.-Japan Sister Cities Summit (September 16-19, 2025) is a milestone event celebrating the 170th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Japan. The summit will bring together 600+ bilateral stakeholders to inspire collaboration, explore new partnerships, and empower the next generation of global leaders. All 460 U.S.-Japan Sister City partners, elected officials, citizen diplomats, and volunteers are invited to the City of Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture under the theme “Celebrating our Legacies, Empowering our Future.”
More information: Summit webpage