Exhibit Dates

Clean All the Stolpersteine will be on view in Goucher College's Roselie Sturtevant Bond '40 Art Window from February 13, 2025 to May 29, 2025. This exhibit, which is free, open to the public, and accessible to all can be viewed Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Photo of Artwork

Leah Clare Michaels, still from Clean All the Stolpersteine, 2022.

Artist Talk

An artist's talk will be held Wednesday, April 2, 2025 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Hyman Forum. Email liz.faust@goucher.edu for more information.

About the Exhibit

Clean All the Stolpersteine is a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Leah Clare Michaels, on view from February 13, 2025 through May 29, 2025. The exhibition features framed artifacts from Michaels' ongoing performance-based practice, alongside video documentation of her public acts of remembrance across Europe.

Michaels' project is rooted in her engagement with the Stolpersteine—brass memorial stones embedded in the streets of European cities, marking the last known residences of Holocaust victims. Created by German artist Gunter Demnig, the Stolpersteine project is the world’s largest decentralized memorial, with over 100,000 stones laid across Europe. In a ritual of quiet care, Michaels kneels to clean these stones, an act that transforms routine maintenance into a gesture of mourning, responsibility, and public memory.

In the gallery, framed rags used in past performances stand as artifacts of these ephemeral actions, bearing the physical traces of time and place. Accompanying these are three video screens displaying documentation from performances in Warsaw, Greece, and Italy, allowing viewers to witness the artist’s journey as she follows Demnig’s expanding project.

Through Clean All the Stolpersteine, Michaels raises urgent questions about remembrance, collective history, and the responsibility of public space in shaping memory. The exhibition aligns with her broader practice of exploring ritual, grief, and historical reckoning, situating personal ancestry within larger narratives of trauma and resilience

Leah Clare Michaels is an interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates performance, video, and installation. Drawing from her Roman Catholic, Polish, German, and Italian heritage, her practice engages with the intersections of mourning, history, and acts of witness. Her ongoing engagement with the Stolpersteine project continues as Demnig actively installs new stones across Europe.

Bond Window Gallery invites audiences to engage with the exhibition and reflect on the significance of small gestures in preserving memory. Visitors are encouraged to explore the video documentation and learn more about the artist’s practice through her website.