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BmoreArt’s Picks: July 20-26

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This Week: We are featuring online events that you can participate in from the comfort of your own couch and some that you can safely leave the house for, plus a few calls for entry to get involved locally and nationally. Stay home, stay healthy, stay engaged in the arts.

BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.

To submit your calendar event, email us at [email protected]!

 

 

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We’ll send you our top stories of the week, selected event listings, and our favorite calls for entry—right to your inbox every Tuesday.

 

 

Chaud chaleur heatwave GIF - Find on GIFER
 

 

Robots For Distant Musicians | Opening Party
Tuesday, July 20 • 2-3:30
presented by MICA Game Lab

Come learn about Robots For Distant Musicians, a project by MICA Game Lab Game Designer in Residence Yann Seznec. The robots can be controlled in real time by anyone in the world via Discord or Zoom. They can be used for freeform exploration, gameplay, or any number of other surprising interactions.

We will be showing the robots in action, giving some information on how they work and the project development, and you’ll have a chance to try them yourselves.

The event will be streamed simultaneously on Discord and YouTube. Book your free ticket to receive updates and a reminder for the event – we promise we won’t send more emails than absolutely necessary!

http://gamelab.mica.edu/

Eventbrite Event (free tickets for opening event)

YouTube livestream link for opening event

Robots For Distant Musicians Discord Server

Robots For Distant Musicians GitHub repository

http://www.yannseznec.com

http://www.twitter.com/yannseznec

 

 

Celebrating the 2021 Poetry Contest Finalists with Little Patuxent Review
Wednesday, July 21 • 7-8:30pm
presented by Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review

Celebrate the finalists in the 2021 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review!

The three finalists, another contributor to the summer issue, and LPR’s head editor will read.

Steven Hollies, the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest, is a Rockville native living mostly inside his head, a 2019 graduate of Howard Community College, and a drop-out from many other times and places. He enjoys playing volleyball, guitar, hooky, jokes, games, with words, around, along, it cool, hard to get, with fire, and the fool. Read “Body/language,” the poem that won the 2021 Poetry Contest.

Virginia Crawford, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program from CityLit Press. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. Apprentice House Press published questions for water in April 2021. She writes and lives in Baltimore. Learn more at virginiacrawford.com.

Rosemary Hutzler, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, teaches, writes, and mothers in northwest Baltimore. Growing up on an island near Seattle, she was imprinted by natural beauty, quirky houses, and iconoclastic personalities. She also lived in Maine, Connecticut, France, and Brooklyn before settling into Baltimore and its Jewish community. Her teachers have included John Hollander, Michael Collier, Mark Strand, and Gerald Stern. Her work has appeared in the Texas Observer, the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Paper, the Forward, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Read her translation of R.M. Rilke’s “Grown Woman” and her review of a republication of Ellen La Motte’s Backwash of War.

.chisaraokwu. (she/her), a contributor to LPR’s summer 2021 issue, is an Igbo American actor, poet, and healthcare futurist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many journals, including Berkeley Poetry Review, Cutthroat, Obsidian, and Tinderbox Poetry. Named a Cave Canem Fellow in 2020, she looks forward to post-pandemic travel. Read her poem “The Suicide Bomber Climbs A Mountain & Leaves A Note.”

Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts. Fetzer currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She serves on the board of CityLit Project and as head editor of Little Patuxent Review, a literary and arts journal that publishes creative work from the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Read her poem “flare.”

For more information about this event, email [email protected].

This event is part of Summer Break Baltimore, a fun, free program for all ages that encourages literacy and learning in our community.

 

 

Losing Winter | Opening Reception
Saturday, July 24 • 12-3pm
@ Maryland Center for History and Culture

Summertime in Maryland means scorching heat and high humidity. What better way to cool off than to experience winter in July by visiting the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s newest exhibition: Losing Winter? From noon to 3 PM, meet featured artist Lynn Cazabon and MCHC Curator of Film & Photographs Joe Tropea in the gallery to learn more about the making of the exhibition. In the courtyard, watch a live ice sculpture carving and enjoy refreshing snowballs/ice cream from Kona Ice (1-2 PM only).

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
A frozen lake, a buried street, shoveling feet of snow as it begins to fall again—these special winter experiences serve as landmarks in our life and memory. Yet with each year, we find such moments are disappearing. At the heart of this participatory exhibition and art project are Marylanders’ memories about the winter season, collected by featured artist Lynn Cazabon. These recollections intersect with individual lifetimes and places found in the film and photograph collections at MCHC and UMBC Special Collections. Memories and images intertwine, providing a window into personal loss in the face of a changing climate.

Visitors to the exhibition will walk through the decades of winters past, from images of Maryland’s 1899 blizzard, to “Snowmageddon” in 2010. Home movies and weather reports from the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s from MCHC’s archive will be on view, including a report from Oprah Winfrey as a WJZ reporter interviewing ice skaters at Memorial Stadium.

Losing Winter was inspired by artist Lynn Cazabon’s own childhood growing up in Michigan and chilly winters that froze Lake St. Clair. Cazabon worked with MCHC’s staff to conduct participatory workshops throughout the winter and spring of 2021 to gather Marylander’s memories of winters past for inclusion in the Losing Winter exhibition. The exhibition will also include a preview of the Losing Winter mobile app showing the collected memories within an augmented reality interface. Visitors to the exhibition can contribute their own memories to the project by recording a memory using their own mobile phone and submitting it.

Cazabon explains, “Losing Winter uses the season of winter as a lens through which to learn about the personal and cultural impacts of climate change on the scale of individual lifetimes. The historical photographs and films in the exhibition provide a context for these memories, showing winters in Maryland over the past 100 years.”

 

 

Make Good Trouble Protest Panel Artists Retrospective
Saturday, July 24 • 3-4:30pm
@ Reginald F. Lewis Museum

Join the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in commemorating the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd  from an artists perspective. Join photojournalist Kyle Pompey and  mural artists, Reggie Lewis, Jacob Patton Ado, Sara Austin and Philip West, whose works are featured in “Make Good Trouble: Marching for Change” exhibition. They  will reflect on the creation of their works, their involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement and the importance of art as a tool for activism and a vehicle for amplifying the voices of the oppressed.  This artist conversation will be moderated by Museum curator, Carol Rhodes Dyson.

Included with Museum Admission.  Click HERE to RSVP.

 

 

Small Quiet Things | Opening Reception
Saturday, July 24 • 4-6pm | Ongoing through August 21
@ Gallery Blue Door

What sorts of stories do bees tell each other when they dance? Do rabbits dream? Do buildings have memories? These fleeting thoughts and others like them are the basis for my recent drawings and prints. The work continues my use of narrative as a means of explaining my fears and anxieties for the natural world as well as trying to determine my place it. This has become especially important over the past year as the world simultaneously became very large and very small.

Intensely layered images are used to create visual depth as well as layers of meaning. The decorative patterns, inspired by traditional Amish and Mennonite quilt stitching patterns, connect the work to my cultural heritage. The process used to create and hand-cut the shapes is similar to the meticulous skill needed for quilting and serves to make the connection even stronger. There is a tension created between traditional forms presented in a contemporary context that forms an important element to the work and to my story.

The use of animals and other images closely tied to the realm of fairy tales continues the connection to the domestic, to a space where it is safe to explore ideas that are dangerous or alarming. The layered meaning and accessible imagery provide the opportunity for conversations about the beauty of traditional folk forms, contemporary interpretations of fairy tales and the impact our actions have on the fragile world around us.

Jodi Hoover is an artist, teacher, and librarian working in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work explores storytelling as a (sometimes unreliable) way to explain the dangerous, beautiful world.

Hoover holds a Master of Fine Art degree from Towson University and a Master of Library Science from University of Maryland, College Park. She teaches book and printmaking workshops and has exhibited work throughout the United States. Recently her work won a Juror’s Choice award in the Art on Paper exhibition at the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis and was included in the 32nd Annual National Print and Drawing exhibition at Notre Dame of Maryland University.

“Intensely layered images are used to create visual depth as well as layers of meaning. The decorative patterns, inspired by traditional Amish and Mennonite quilt stitching patterns, connect the work to my cultural heritage. The process used to create and hand-cut the shapes is similar to the meticulous skill needed for quilting and serves to make the connection even stronger. There is a tension created between traditional forms presented in a contemporary context that forms an important element to the work and to my story.”

 

 

Muscle Definition | Opening Reception
Saturday, July 24 • 5-8pm | Ongoing through September 4
@ Critical Path Method

Every culture has its version of the ideal body—a place where aesthetics and politics merge and the power of a place can be expressed symbolically. Muscle Definition is a group exhibition that brings together a selection of paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper, that present a spectrum of visions and attitudes about the body and its representation.

Participating artists include: Richard Baker, Stephanie Barber, Janet Bruhn, G.G. Derviz, Graham Durward, Jillian Dy, Bernard Gilardi, Clarity Haynes, Melissa Hopson, Anthony Iacono, E’wao Kagoshima, Mike Linskie, Bob Mizer, Clifford Owens, Micahel Pellew, Ada Pinkston, Vlad Smolkin, Jennifer Sullivan, Henry Taylor, Noi Volkov, Eric Wesley.

There will also be a selection of historical works, including: an engraving from Buffon’s “Histoire Naturelle” (1778), an 18th Century Italian ink drawing, a Russian chromo-lithographic war cartoon (1914), a Tibetan Medical Thangka painting (mid 20th c), and a signed gelatin silver print of Cal Ripken Jr. (1980’s).

 

 

The BIG Show on Stage
Saturday, July 24 • 8pm
@ The Creative Alliance

FREE FOR MEMBERS (in-person & virtual)
$5 General Admission (in-person & virtual)

The Big Show On Stage is a chance for our members to show off their talent in front of the Creative Alliance community. We know there are many hidden (and not so hidden) talents in our member community and expect performances ranging from song, variety arts, poetry readings, full band performances, amazing individual talents and so much more. You must be a member to register to perform. Performances should be one selection, up to 5 minutes in maximum length.

The BIG Show on Stage & Closing Night of The BIG Show Exhibition: JUL 24

Performer Registration (including what can be provided to performers): REGISTER

If you have questions regarding The Big Show on Stage, contact Josh Kohn, Performance Director at [email protected]

——

We are just starting public operations back up and are only doing a select few shows this summer as we find our footing. This will be one of those special select events. As such, and in accordance with Baltimore City COVID Public Health guidelines, this show will be capped at less than 50% of our capacity. While the bar will be open, we are requiring that our audience remain masked when not consuming beverages, regardless of vaccination status.

Even at this reduced capacity, physical distancing will be very limited, as we are a small space. You will likely have patrons sitting directly next to, in front of, and behind you, at a distance of less than 6 feet. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

 

 

 

Calls for Entry // Opportunities

 

Carly Rae Jepsen Call Me Maybe Quote (About call me, gif, love, maybe)

 

Banneker-Douglass Museum is Hiring!
deadline July 31

Looking for an exciting opportunity to work with the state of Maryland’s official museum of African American history and culture?

We are looking for a part-time marketing and communications assistant. The strongest candidates will have experience with communications and marketing, graphic design, and social media, management.

Please send resumes to [email protected] no later than July 31st.

 

 

World in Motion | Call for Submissions
deadline August 8
sponsored by SE Center for Photography

Motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position over time. As photographers we are drawn to motion- natural, mechanical, human and animal. Show us your interpretation of motion, literal or figurative.

Our juror for the The World in Motion is Michael Pannier. As Founder and Executive Director of the SE Center for Photography in Greenville, SC, Michael is a frequent speaker on the business of fine art photography, exhibition curator and juror, and portfolio reviewer. Michael opened his first gallery over 30 years ago and has been active in gallery ownership, management, design and training ever since.

35-40 Selected images will hang in the SE Center’s main gallery space for approximately one month with the opportunity to be invited for a solo show at a later date. In addition, selected images are featured in the SE Center social media accounts (FB, IG, Twitter) and an archived, online slideshow. A video walkthrough of each exhibition is also featured and archived.

 

 

2022 Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship Application
deadline August 8
sponsored by Hamiltonian Artists

Hamiltonian Artists is excited to announce the jurors and open applications for the 2022 – 2023 Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship program. The Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship serves as a steppingstone for visual artists who have an active practice and are seeking assistance in creating a sustainable professional art career. It seeks to create a stimulating environment for continued artistic and professional growth. Fellows are selected by a group of five independent jurors. The jurors for 2022 are Tim Doud, Wassan Al-Kudhairi, Jonathan Monaghan, Terence Washington, and Isabel Manalo.

The Fellowship remains a two-year opportunity that will now focus on providing professional development for working artists through a project-based model. Fellows will work to develop a single major project over the two years with guidance provided by mentors, Hamiltonian staff, peers, and other professional guests. Hamiltonian Artists will provide expertise and resources to frame development from project idea to exhibition. Together, we will help define the future of the field while providing the skills, knowledge, and resources to ensure the sustainability of independent artists as art professionals. Artists from anywhere are eligible to apply. Ideal candidates exhibit artistic vision and are at a point in their artistic career where they will significantly benefit from the professional development Hamiltonian Artists can provide.

Through a comprehensive suite of internal and public programming, field trips, one-on-one attention and support, and exhibition opportunities, all Hamiltonian Fellows gain valuable insight into contemporary art opportunities, while learning how to manage and promote their careers. They enjoy heightened visibility and access to grow their professional networks over the course of the two-year program. Fellows are expected to take active roles in their professional development, as well as that of the other Fellows in the program while also contributing to the DC art community at large.

The application submission deadline is midnight of August 8

We will host an online Q&A on July 22 at 12:30 pm

Register Here: hamiltonianapplicationqna.eventbrite.com

 

 

CALL FOR MARCHING FLOATS AND STAGE SCULPTURE 2021
deadline August 9
sponsored by The Creative Alliance

22nd Great Halloween Lantern Parade

Drawing over 12,000 fans, The Great Halloween Lantern Parade has been a beloved Baltimore tradition since 1999. The parade is a community-made, artist commissioned spectacular evening and is always held outdoors in Patterson Park on the last Saturday before Halloween (Oct 23th, rain date Oct 24th). Working with our neighboring schools and community groups, Creative Alliance will produce over 2,000 lanterns that people of all ages will carry in the Parade to create an evening of light-filled wonder.

What We’re Looking For:

Marching Floats:
We are asking artists and community groups to create NEW, BIG, BRIGHT, FUN, MOBILE objects over 10’ feet tall, and less than 6’ wide that are lightweight and can be carried by you and your posse! We’re looking for Baltimore-based artists to create illuminated floats that celebrate our values of CREATIVITY and FUN for the return of our magical walking parade! Special consideration will be given to creations that reflect themes of RE-EMERGENCE and RE-BIRTH and are BUILT TO LAST.

Stage Sculpture:
In addition to marching floats, this year we are asking artist and community groups to submit proposals for a BRIGHT, SPECTACULAR, LIT-UP, STATIONARY stage sculpture to bring some creative magic to our Festival Stage! Our vision for this sculpture is a large & magnificent, eye-catching piece that looks great during the day and lights up at night! Special consideration will be given to designs of symbols that embody RE-EMERGENCE and RE-BIRTH (a giant butterfly, for instance, would be awesome). The Stage Sculpture must be self-powered. The Stage Sculpture must be able to be assembled and deconstructed on-site day of the festival by the Artist’s own team. Remember, there will be plenty of children around, so please make sure your structure is both safe and secure! Dimensions should be large enough to see from 100 feet away, but small enough to fit on a 16 x 16 stage.

This is about COMMUNITY. If your creation is part of a community effort, that’s great! We expect artists who have been awarded to help promote the Parade by submitting designs, photographs, or videos of their building process and to be available for television or newspaper interviews. Designs should be able to withstand the weather in late October, which can be cold, rainy or windy.

 

 

The 2021 Rubys Artist Grants | Call for Applications
deadline August 15
sponsored by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation

The Rubys were established in 2013 to provide project-based support for individual artists. The goal of the program is to provide meaningful support to individual artists to allow for the creation of new work. The Rubys supports the notion of risk-taking (in practice, content, process, and/or outcome) and equally values artistic integrity, strong ideas, feasibility, and communal meaning. The program is open to artists at any stage of their career and favors projects that have significant creative work left to accomplish.

UPDATES for 2021:

  • In previous years, the Rubys Artist Grants required that project proposals included a public component to occur at some point during the grant period. For 2021, the public component requirement is optional, due to the uncertainty of public gathering limits. If you find that you can and want to create a public event (safely) for your project, then you may include ideas in your application proposal; though this is not required.

 

PORTRAITS project | Call for Entry
deadline November 1
sponsored by The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

(GMCW) is seeking artwork to be used as part of the PORTRAITS project to be premiered in June 2024.

PORTRAITS will represent through visual art, music, and dance, the spectrum of sexual, gender, racial, ethnic, and cultural identities. Paintings, drawings, and photographs are welcome. The artworks may be a portrait, or a scene depicting an aspect of the human experience, including identity expression and historical references specific to the LGBTQ+ community. Selected artworks will be used as projections as part of a live performance, brought to life aurally by music, and visually by GMCW’s 17th Street Dance ensemble to be presented in June 2024. Music for PORTRAITS will be commissioned by composers inspired by the artworks selected for the project.

Artists may submit works from their existing portfolio, or the artist may submit a sample or sketch of a proposed work to be developed should the artist/work be selected. If the sample/sketch is selected for the project, the completed work will then be due September 1, 2022.

All selected artists will give permission for their work to be included as part the PORTRAITS exhibit and project to be used in perpetuity in performance as part of the PORTRAITS composition. The artist will also give permission for the artwork to be displayed electronically in perpetuity as part of the curated exhibit on GMCW’s website. Other than the usage described here, the artist will retain ownership and rights to their piece.

Compensation to the artist is $2,500 per piece.

To be considered, please complete the submission form at www.gmcw.org/portraits-project/ no later than November 1, 2021. Multiple works or sketches may be submitted. Artists will be notified of selection by December 17, 2021.

Questions: Please contact [email protected].

 

 

The Young Saturday ‘Visiter’ Awards
deadline September 15
sponsored by Baltimore National Heritage Area + Poe Baltimore

***NOTE: this Young SVA is a category separate and apart from the Saturday ‘Visiter’ Awards open to adults. Please visit http://SaturdayVisiterAwards.org to be taken to the main page. Unless you are a High School Student in Maryland, do NOT use this form to submit an entry.***

The Young Saturday ‘Visiter’ Awards (SVAs) are a new honor, presented by Poe Baltimore and the Baltimore National Heritage Area, recognizing High School students in Maryland who create artistic works inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. The prizes honor media, art, performance and writing that adapts or is inspired by Poe’s life and works, created by a High School student (grade 9 – 12 or equivalent during the 2021-22 School Year) in the State of Maryland.

Works in any medium and genre (including digital or web-based works) are eligible. Entries are not limited to writing; graphical works, film, comics, music, live performance etc. may all be eligible. Only works created or performed by an individual who is a Maryland High School Student (grades 9-12 or equivalent during the 2021-22 School Year) are eligible to be entered. Works published or created in a language other than English are eligible, but at this time the work must provide English-language subtitles.

Entries may be submitted by any student artist, producer, publisher, author or any member of the creative team. Only works created by the student are eligible: ensemble teams may not include non-student members except in an advisory role; if the student contributed to a greater ensemble work, only the portion created/performed by the student will be considered. (Should you have questions about eligibility before submitting, please contact the Awards administrator [email protected])

Nominees for the Young Saturday ‘Visiter’ Awards will be announced at The International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards October 2, 2021, and the award presented later, October 30, 2021, during a virtual ceremony. One award will be presented in each of two categories: Adaptation of Poe’s life and/or writing; Original works inspired by Poe’s life or writing.

For a complete description of eligibility and requirements, please see the “Young SVA Guidelines for Entry” at https://poefestinternational.com/young-sva. We advise you to prepare your entry form in a separate document and paste responses into fields as you will NOT be able to save your progress.

 

 

header image: Reginald F. Lewis Museum

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