Map Baltimore’s Future then Thread History in Place

Necessity of Tomorrows BMA Mark Bradford + FutureSite Mapping

BMA Visioning Home Mapping with participant signs

Necessity of Tomorrows BMA Mark Bradford + FutureSite Mapping

The Necessity of Tomorrow(s): Mark Bradford—Making a Path + FutureSite Mapping

Saturday, November 11, 2017, 12pm-3:30pm
Free, Reservations Required
Location: Union Baptist Church
1219 Druid Hill Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21217

How do you make a path to power where none exists? How do you assess a community’s needs and create access for a community to self-determine?

Back in September I had the honor of collaborating with the Baltimore Museum of Art on creating and leading an interactive mapping activity for the “Visioning Home” workshop. Participants challenged the entrenched narratives about Baltimore neighborhoods and envisioned possible futures through group discussions, exploring the museum’s collection, and posting their ideas as signs on a colorful floor map. Now we are about to do it again – this time as part of the BMA’s new series, The Necessity of Tomorrow(s), featuring luminary artist Mark Bradford. Bradford will be in conversation with BMA Director Christopher Bedford exploring how the artist grapples with “making a path,” and other key questions in his artistic practice and community-based work. Afterwards, I will be leading FutureSite – a collaborative activity to map the future of Baltimore City.

Free. Click here to learn more and reserve your spot: http://bmatomorrows.org

Threading History in Place Bromo District Walking Tour

Threading History in Place: Bromo District Walking Tour

Sunday, November 12, 2017, 11am-1pm
Tickets: $15 each (tour only)
Rain date is Nov. 18.
Meets at 315 W Fayette St, Baltimore, MD

You are invited to the final walking tour of my 2017 season: Threading History in Place.

Explore invisible public spaces and storied buildings that reflect the history of Baltimore’s fashion industry, department stores and garment district and learn about past and present efforts that shape the neighborhoods contained within the Bromo Arts and Entertainment District. Tour begins and ends at Everyman Theatre, where attendees may stay for the 2pm performance at an exclusive discounted rate. Produced in partnership with Everyman Theatre, Bromo Arts and Entertainment District, and Market Center Merchants’ Association.

Click here to purchase tickets: http://everymantheatre.org/bromo-district-walking-tour

48 Hours of Five Points Engagement

NPS Five Points Denver - Graham speaking

NPS Five Points Denver - Graham speaking

Taking place within and around RedLine‘s 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art and Conversation, the New Public Sites – Five Points Denver walking tours and immersive gallery map installation provided a range of opportunities for learning about and activating the power of public space within a truly beautiful, challenging and inspirational neighborhood. New Public Sites is indebted to RedLine, participants, and all of the guest speakers who through their time, space and energies made our roving spaces of radical pedestrian action possible.

Click here to see photos of the tours and gallery installation!

The project was informed by a range of interviewees and guest speakers. Interviewees included Tyrone Beverly, Beverly Grant, Lyz Riley, PJ DAmico, George Perez, Hadiya Evans, Julie Rubsam, Nikki Pike, and Celia Herrera. Guest speakers who generously donated time and energy sharing their Five Points experiences and projects included Centro Humanitario organizers Nancy Rosas and Judith Marquez, Blair-Caldwell Librarian Terry Nelson, long-term resident and RTD Title-VI Specialist Shontel Lewis, Five Points Fermentation owner Asia Dorsey, and The Temple Director Adam Gordon. I would also like to thank the entire RedLine staff for their hard work making these space of collective participation possible; including Louise Martorano, Libby Barbee, Whit Sibley, Geoffrey Shamos, Robin Gallite, and Misha Fraser.

– Graham

New Public Docu of 2015

As the future of 2016 grows from burgeoning horizon, I wanted share a few updates on recent current projects. Last year proved exceptional for my public art mission to interpret, critique, activate and improve the public space of our everyday lives.

SiteLines Current Install - 01

SiteLines Exhibit

I had the great privilege of staging my first true solo show with ICA Baltimore at Current Space last spring. With the support of a Rubys Grant, my show SiteLines was the culmination of a series of radical walking tours I organized in 2014 seeking to understand overlooked public spaces in and around some of Baltimore’s highway foleys and pedestrian malls. It so happened that the show opened just as the Baltimore Uprising began to take shape in the streets.

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SiteLines Tours

The day of the first major Freddie Gray march, I led 44 participants on my Crossing the Highway to Nowhere tour. As I talked about West Side struggles against top-down planning, a helicopter hovering over the nearby protest split off and followed us as we gathered at the edge of Route 40. After crossing the highway our group began to head back to the gallery, only to run directly into the Freddie Gray march. To join was urgently appropo. On that day a modest crowd of Radical Pedestrians merged with a much larger force of walking movement in our city.

Here is what a few others had to say: ArtFCity, Bret McCabeGBCALandscape Architecture Magazine, and BmoreArt.

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The Ragged Edge of Rockville

After SiteLines, I  was invited to develop a New Public Sites project exploring the invisible sites, contradictory features and historical spirits embedded in downtown Rockville for Come Back to Rockville, a two person show with Naoko Wowsugi at VisArts curated by Laura Roulet. Naming my project, “The Ragged Edge of Rockville”, I created a gallery installation, shot new videos and staged a series of tours in and around VisArts, the Rockville Library, the Beall Dawson House and a special gravesite. Along the way we learned that Rockville twice entirely razed its downtown. What’s since emerged is an uncanny image of pedestrian urbanism embedded with the beginnings of civic spaces while hiding parking garages for car-bound shoppers. Thankfully the various redevelopment schemes spared the town’s historic Catholic cemetery – final resting place for literary icons F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, Mark Jenkins at the Washington Post took a stroll through the gallery and wrote this review.

nps-mw-map-banner-preview

New Public Sites – McDaniel / Westminster

Immediately following my Rockville drift, I began work on another New Public Sites tour and installation, this time in collaboration with McDaniel College students and residents of Union Street in Westminster, Maryland. I was honored to have “New Public Sites – McDaniel / Westminster” commissioned by curator Izabel Galliera for her group show Alternative Cartographies. Through a new map, bulletin boards and Shards of Site, we investigated the overlooked yet meaningful public spaces between an idyllic hilltop and historic neighboring streets. New Public Sites are not just in big cities, but also among rural towns and suburbs alike. Rebecca Juliette from BmoreArt still made it up and posted this on the group show.

Infinite Thanks for all the support. Let’s keep on projecting thoughts from radical walks through 2016 and beyond. Check back for updates on my forthcoming tour shattering Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Spectacle, and other delightful spring walks.

Cheers,

Graham signature teal

 

 

 

PS: Many thanks also to Baltimore Clayworks and School 33 for the opportunities to lead wanders through Mount Washington and of Baltimore City’s amazing murals.