Congratulations to community artist Iandry Randriamondroso on the successful completion of his B’MORE Birds project!

Over the course of the last several months, Iandry has worked closely with residents of the communities along the York Road corridor between Glenwood and 43rd street to create a series of five murals depicting native birds of the Govans forest patches. Last Friday, BOPA joined corridor residents, York Road Partnership, Govanstowne Business Association, Loyola York Road Initiative, Councilman Bill Henry and the Department of Transportation in celebrating Iandry’s work.

York Rd Mural Celebraition 002 York Rd Mural Celebraition 004 York Rd Mural Celebraition 018

ABOUT THE BIRDS

Rileys Beauty

The Oriole

4331 York Road

Baltimore Orioles are bright orange birds with black and white wings that sound almost as beautiful as they look. Their smooth, whistling songs are commonly heard in orchards, backyards, and gardens. Baltimore Orioles mostly eat insects and fruit, such as raspberries and mulberries. Their sturdy, hammock-like nests are suspended from branches high in trees, woven together with grasses, hair, spider webs, twine, and wool.

Gomez Tires 2

The Cedar Waxwing

4811 York Road

Cedar Waxwings are bold colored birds with rusty brown bodies, black face masks, and orange or yellow wax-tipped tails. They are often found in flocks, filling themselves with berries from a variety of plants, such as mulberry trees and honeysuckle shrubs. They are common in residential areas, staying in Maryland all year round.

Afrik Salon

The Red-bellied Woodpecker

5017 York Road

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are common woodpeckers found in wooded areas that have a red cap, black wings, and a warm beige belly. Their large black bill is used for drilling into dead wood to pull out insects and larvae with their barbed tongues. They also drill cavities inside dead trees to lay 2-6 eggs and raise their young over a month-long period.

Academy Cleaners - South Wall

The Blue Jay

5219 York Road

Blue Jays are the local noisy neighbors in wooded residential areas, with their loud jaaaaay calls that easily distinguish them. They are pale to bright blue and white birds that eat a variety of insects, nuts, and seeds. They also sometimes eat eggs from other birds’ nests and are aggressive at the local bird feeder. Blue Jay eggs are blue to light brown, within nests placed approximately 20 feet above ground in trees.

York Rd Mural Celebraition 016

The Black-and-White Warbler

5219 York Road

Black-and-white Warblers are small, black and white striped birds that live in forests. Often seen creeping along tree branches, they eat a variety of insect larvae hidden in the wood, along with ants and beetles. They spend the winter months in Mexico and migrate up to Maryland to breed in the summer, building well-hidden nests on the ground near tree trunks.

This project was made possible by funding from the Baltimore City Department of Transportation as part of Baltimore’s 1% for Public Art Program

 

 

Forever Together / I Am Here Because Its Home by Stephen Powers

Forever Together / I Am Here Because Its Home by Stephen Powers

The first time I met Steve Powers, he climbed out of the big white BOPA family van sporting a yellow raincoat and a Guided by Voices T shirt. The world-renowned Philly-born graff-writer-turned-Fulbright-scholar was in town for a marathon of cross-city site visits and community meetings for our upcoming Love Letter to Baltimore project this fall. (Haven’t heard much about it yet? That’s because we’re still planning it!) When Housing offered up the wall space for what Steve called a “temporary forever” mural, he tacked that onto his trip.

I showed him the lift and pointed out the wall at 2454 E. Eager Street—the corner house in a row of city-owned vacants slated to be demolished later this summer.

He quickly walked passed it and all the way down Eager Street. The yellow raincoat floating behind him made him look like a mad scientist.

When he came back he asked if they were all vacant. I said they were, that we had just planned on the wall at 2454, but we could ask about the rest.

Less than 24 hours later we were signing a right of entry agreement for 35 properties; Steve ordered 10 gallons of “Ravens Purple” and a power generator for his paint sprayer and got to work. Not on painting, but on talking to the people who live next door—on Montford, on Eager, on Port—about what they love and what they hate about their city.

So began the first line of Steve ESPO Powers’s Love Letter to Baltimore: FOREVER TOGETHER / I AM HERE BECAUSE ITS HOME.

Can’t wait for the rest.

Prepping the wall for "I Am Here Because Its Home"

Prepping the wall for “I Am Here Because Its Home”

Sketching out the V in "Forever"

Sketching out the V in “Forever”

Forever Together / I Am Here Because Its Home by Stephen Powers

“Temporary is permanent and together can be forever” – Steve Powers on his temporary mural which spans from 2402-2454 E. Eager St.

 

 

 

 

The past month has been busy for our three Arts & Entertainment Districts. The Bromo Tower, Highlandtown, and Station North A&E Districts have selected their artists from Austria, Spain, and the United Kingdom for our 6-week long European Artists’ Residency this spring and summer. Bromo Tower selected the Social Design program team at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (Austria) for their TRANSIT residencies. One professor, Barbara Holub (also of the Transparadiso group) and three students will be arriving this summer. Along with the Viennese design team, Bromo Tower is going to collaborate with a number of local arts groups, as well as merchants, social service providers, the University of Maryland and other stakeholders. Highlandtown has chosen the Spanish artist group mmmm…, and is currently discussing the timeline and project outline. Mmmm… intends to create a new, iconic bus shelter for the Highlandtown neighborhood. Highlandtown is also seeking an artist to partner with the Spanish artists. Jeremy Stern, Creative Alliance’s Exhibition Manager is currently in the process of selecting the best artist to assist them while they are in Baltimore. Station North has chosen The Urban Playground Team (UPG) from the United Kingdom for its European Artists’ Residency. The UPG Team will invite young people to play the Penn Station Plaza through a residency combining elements of functional architecture and design with Performance-Parkour, street dance, street based arts and sporting disciplines. Right now, Station North is working through the process of finding local fabricators, performance artists, and others who can work with UPG to transform Penn Station Plaza.

A-Day-in-the-Life-Prodigal-Theatre-cMatthewAndrews2011

(Image: A Day in the Life Photographer: Matthew Andrews)

This coming spring is going to be full of opportunities for artists and the public to engage the plaza in Station North in play- and meaningful ways. Station North is looking forward to some thought provoking temporary installations and interactive performances. They are grateful for the cooperation and all the activities that are happening in the three A&E Districts, both directly connected to TRANSIT, as well as other programming and projects occurring within each neighborhood. The discussions have highlighted the strengths and assets of each district, as well as ways that they all can work together for the remainder of TRANSIT and in the future to overcome obstacles.

Bromo Tower received much positive press this month. The A&E District was not only featured in the February 2014 issue of Baltimore Magazine (not yet available online), but also in the AAA World magazine. The article by John Lewis in the Baltimore Magazine is entitled “Westside Bromide”, and features Jeff Daniel, President of Hippodrome Theatre as well as quotes from Vinny Lancisi, Artistic Director of Everyman Theatre, and Priya Bhayana, Director of the Bromo Tower A&E District. The AAA World magazine published a profile on the Bromo Tower District, entitled “A Towering Achievement Revitalized”. Bromo Tower also highlights the great opportunity of TRANSIT to better connect the three A&E Districts. They look forward to shaping further projects in ways that foster more collaboration and strengthen the city’s arts & cultural community as a whole.

And last but not least: Highlandtown. The Southeast CDC has announced that the owner of Baltimore’s  “Alewife”, Bryan Palumbo, will be opening another restaurant in Highlandtown in first floor of the Southeast CDC headquarters. The new establishment will be a farm-to-table restaurant with a focus on microbrews located at 3323 Eastern Avenue (the corner of Eastern & Highland Aves). The Southeast CDC is working closing with the bank across the street to jazz up their parking lot, which will be used for restaurant parking. Using recommendations from residents and merchants for this area from a Placemaking workshop, Highlandtown is studying the design of a mural, signage and lighting to promote walkability and safety between the lot and the business. Check out the article here!

Moreover, Southeast CDC, Creative Alliance, and the Painted Screen Society are working together to install a 2-story painted screen in the East Avenue-facing window of the Creative Alliance. The screen will be designed and painted by Highlandtown artist Monica Broere. The largest of the window screens measures 7′ x 7′; with the entire design reaching over 23′ high! This painted screen faces the corner of High Grounds Coffee, which, through Placemaking efforts, is adding a seating area, mural, lighting and an improved facade. Additional projects will be happening through spring 2014, including permanent outdoor seating, completion of a new mural, and improved lighting to Conkling Plaza!

Highlandtown’s lesson learned this month is: If it’s broke, fix it! Within the first month of being installed, one of their 6 new goose-neck lights was damaged by ice. They immediately called the contractor and had it repaired. So always keep in mind to have a maintenance plan before adding permanent improvements!

A number of Baltimore artist have or will be having exhibitions of their work in New York, California, Washington DC and more! Feel free to contact us if you have something coming up!

Mina Cheon will be having a solo show of her work, Choco Pie Propaganda, at Ethan Cohen Gallery in New York, January 23 – February 28, 2014. Opening reception Thursday, January 23, 6 – 8pm.

Ben Piwowar will be showing work at ArtPlace, in New Haven, CT, Friday, February 7, 2014-Saturday, March 22, 2014, in a show called Smart Painting,  curated by John O’Donnell.

Alex Ebstein will be in Implicit Horizon, at Mixed Greens in New York, in February and March, 2014.

Nate Larson recently unveiled a public art project with United Photo Industries in Brooklyn, featuring his Geolocation project, made in collaboration with Marni Shindelman of Athens, Georgia.

Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman, Geolocation Project

Ryan Hoover, Magnolia Laurie, Amanda Burnham, and Rosemary Liss are among the artists showing in The Land Has Many Parts, at the Jane Deering Gallery in Santa Barbara, CA, January 15 to February 15, 2014.

Mary Anne Arntzen will be showing at the art galleries at Salisbury University, in Colors and Things, February 6 – March 29, 2014, Opening Reception: Thursday, February 6, 6 p.m.

Gary Kachadorian will be showing work at Artisphere in Arlington, VA. Progress Report and Backgrounds will be up January 15 to February 16. He will also be showing at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn this February in a group show called Fuse-Works: Some Assembly Required.

Gary Kachadorian at Artisphere

Milana Braslavsky and Lisa Dillin will be showing together at Hamiltonian Gallery this February-  information coming soon.

Marian Glebes will be showing work at the Atkins Arboretum in Ridgely, MD, April 1 to May 30, 2014, with an opening reception Saturday, April 19 from 3 to 5 p.m.

C. Ryan Patterson is showing in SUSTAIN, a group exhibition at the Huff Gallery in Louisville, KY, January 12 – February 23, 2014

James Bouche, Hermonie Only, Raoul Middleman, John Bohl, Chris Day and Jonathan Thomas are all showing in Hoi Polloi, curated by Brian Garner of Litho Shop, at the Kaplan Gallery at Vis Arts in Rockville, MD, Wednesday, January 22  to  Sunday, February 23, 2014. Opening reception Friday, January 24 – 7:00  to  9:00 PM.

Hoi Polloi gallery view

AND of course the WPA SELECT 2014, curated by Mera Rubell, will be shown at Artisphere in March, after showing at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. Featuring Amanda Burnham, Michelle Dickson, Dave Eassa, Alex Ebstein, Cliff Evans, Sean FitzPatrick, Ryan Hoover, Jason Hughes, Tiffany Jones, Gary Kachadourian, Magnolia Laurie, Curtis Miller, Cara Ober, Rachel Rotenberg, Ginevra Shay, Jo Smail, Ryan Syrell, Alessandra Torres, and Stewart Watson

 

 

Contemporary Director Deana Haggag said it best with her facebook post, “big high five GBCA!”.  Her comment came in reference to the news that the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, with start up funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foudnation was opening up a new artist project grant program. These grants are going to be a great stepping stone for artists to take on significant projects in the public realm and community level and we cannot wait to see the impact they will have across Baltimore. We commend GBCA for this great new program. Artists can find more information on the program or to find out how to apply on the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Website.

The focus of Bromo Tower District’s ‘Transit’ project is Howard Street. Once a bustling corridor of large retail stores, many of buildings along Howard Street now sit vacant. Hope is strong that the newly-designated A&E District will spur neighborhood growth. Howard Street’s light rail line, a major north/south commuter option, passes by the Station North A&E District, through the campus of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and terminates adjacent to a MARC (commuter train) station at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Re-imagining the corridor (how it is used by riders, how it integrates into tHoward Streethe community, and how it is viewed by community residents and businesses), is an opportunity to mobilize urban planners, architects and artists, and engage community residents and businesses, to strategically transform the transit environment in the District. Utilizing ‘Transit’ the Bromo Tower District will create an accessible, unique, arts destination, and supply opportunities for dynamic and participatory arts experiences.

With those goals in mind, in the spring of 2013 The City of Baltimore, the Bromo Tower Arts & Entertainment District and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts in collaboration with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation released a call to artist or artist team to assist with the replacement of old crosswalks within District. The goals of the project were to:  install crosswalks that were distinctive and artist designed, but also compliant with traffic and safety regulations; and to improve the pedestrian experience, give better definition to downtown’s Bromo Tower Arts & Entertainment District, and add an additional public art experience in the City’s third Arts & Entertainment District.

The response to the RFP from the local arts community was extremely positive, and the District received approximately 50 complete proposals. Of course as with any project that engages the arts community, exciting and unexpected proposals are presented. This number was narrowed by a panel of community and city agency stakeholders to four designs. One for each crosswalk slated for renewal.

Bromo Seltzer Tower - Baltimore Maryland

Once selected, the District hoped that the designs would be installed by August 2013. After all, the stakeholder group had included members of the arts community and District residents, a public art project manager, as well as officials from the lead agencies responsible for project installation. As the project began to proceed, it was soon realized that subject matter experts  would also need to be engaged if the project was to move forward, including those specializing in the materials use and installation (for Thermoplast in particular) and traffic safety for pedestrians and vehicles. For all your due diligence, public projects involve a village of participants. Some you will seem obvious, others make themselves known as the project moves forward.
Additionally the initial goal of the project was to include 10crosswalks within the District. As plans moved forward, the projects total budget, which seemed robust at the outset, was consumed by costs to prepare the street for installation (an anticipated cost) and a Maintenance of Traffic cost that is associated with diverting traffic during the installation of any street construction (unanticipated). As with any public art project, be prepared to make necessary modifications to the budget, and perhaps even the projects scope.
The project moves forward, in spite of those challenges, in a more scaled version. Installation is set to conclude October 2013, in conjunction with Arts and Humanities month and will include a community event in the Bromo Tower Art & Entertainment District.

Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower in Baltimore will host an exhibit and performance of art by veterans and service members that explores the experience of serving in the military, transition and return home. The following art will be considered:

  • Paintings
  • Photographs
  • Multimedia Art
  • Clips from Documentaries, Short Films
  • Monologues, Poetry, Performance

The exhibit will open Saturday, October 5, 2013 during Open Studio Hours (11 a.m. – 4 p.m.). It will continue on subsequent Saturdays through November 2.

See full guidelines and submission info.