I’m excited to share that my New Public Sites project has once again been featured by the producers of hit radio show 99 Percent Invisible. Back in 2012 99pi senior producer Sam Greenspan and host Roman Mars featured this work in episode #60, Names vs The Nothing. Eight years later I’m honored to have our New Public Ideas featured in The 99 Percent Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. If you’ve enjoyed New Public Sites concepts, walks, videos, and installations, then you will love this collection of stories and illustrations about the invisible design behind cities. You will find New Public Sites featured on pages 278-279, under “Accessible Voids: Nameless Places”. Roman Mars writes that the, “swirling spaces trapped between highways might never be parks or places for civic rallies, but perhaps they have some uses yet to be imagined by someone who sees them as something more than interstitial voids.” Order your copy through a local bookstore today! There are also a limited number of signed copies in stock at Barnes & Noble as well as participating local bookstores!
I’m honored and excited to showing and performing alongside several amazing artists as part of the Hidden Paths walking art show opening at Cardinal Space this Saturday, September 7th, 5-8pm. Todd Shalom will lead the first walk starting at 3:30pm. That afternoon I will be in the process of collecting materials via a durational wheel barrow wander from the Graham Projects HQ at The Countdown down to the gallery on North Avenue. I will use these Shards of Site to construct a cairn, live during the opening. Closing out the show I will lead a New Public Sites / TAP Druid Hill walking tour on Friday, November 8, 7-9pm meeting at the Druid Hill Madison Avenue Gate. More on that later. For now join us at the opening this Saturday! Detail below. – Graham
Hidden Paths:An Exhibition About Walking As Art
Sept. 7–Nov. 8, 2019
Artists Miguel Braceli, Susie Brandt, Graham Coreil-Allen, J$Fur, Malcolm Peacock, Ada Pinkston, Todd Shalom
Baltimore gallery Cardinal’s final exhibition of the year will take place mostly outside of its Bolton Hill walls.Hidden Paths: An Exhibition About Walking As Art from Sept. 7 to Nov. 8 will include five participatory artist-led walks around Baltimore in addition to a traditional gallery component.
The exhibition engages seven artists, mostly based or recently based in Baltimore, five of whom will lead high-concept tours of the city. Each tour is meant to make participants see their city in a new way.
“I noticed how rich Baltimore’s scene is in terms of performance art, and I started seeing artists taking walks and having that being central to the piece or being the work itself,” said Alexander Jarman, Cardinal co-founder and Hidden Paths curator. “These art works happen in real-time out in the world. Hidden Paths challenges what is an exhibition. Artists are creating scenarios, but no one is sure what will happen during the experience. We’re inviting people to go on these artist-led walks and learn from artists how to look at their neighborhoods in a different way and learn something new, whether it’s personal, political or geographical. Some people will be walking down streets they’ve never walked down before.”
To open the exhibition on Sept. 7, Todd Shalom, founder of New York City walking-as-art festival Elastic City, will lead an improvised tour at 3:30 p.m. of the Bolton Hill neighborhood surrounding Cardinal, when he will share tactics and strategies for how to show up and occupy a place and create walking art. The walk begins and ends at Cardinal, where there will be an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m.
On Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. Rubys grant recipient Ada Pinkston will lead a Post-Colonial Historical Monuments Tour and guide participants to former confederate monuments in Baltimore, culminating in a workshop at the Enoch Pratt Library.
Closing the exhibition on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. is a 90-minute tour, Arches & Access Evening Wander by Graham Coreil-Allen, who will lead participants through Druid Hill Park and the surrounding community, with a focus on the history of the park, the challenging impacts of surrounding highways on local neighborhoods and engineering behind the ongoing reservoir construction. The walk is part of Coreil-Allen’s OSI-Baltimore Community Fellowship and in partnership with The Access Project for Druid Hill Park (TAP Druid Hill).
Malcolm Peacock and J$Fur will also lead walks, and Miguel Braceli and Susie Brandt will host artist talks of their perambulatory art projects. A gallery installation of ephemera and visual material from the artists will be on view at Cardinal’s gallery space from Sept. 7 to Oct. 5, including a sound installation of ambient noises from around Baltimore by J$Fur, a zine of Pinkston’s Confederate statue project, and more.
For more information on the walks and exhibition, visit www.cardinalspace.com. Gallery hours are Wednesday 5:30-8:30 p.m. and Saturday 12-4 p.m.
Key Dates:Sept. 7-Oct. 5: Gallery Installation Gallery hours are Wednesday from 5:30-8:30 p.m. and Saturday from 12-4 p.m.
Sept. 7: Opening Tour and Reception Improvised round-trip tour by Todd Shalom at 3:30-5 p.m. Meet at Cardinal. Opening reception 5:30-8pm.
Sept. 14: Artist Talks by Miguel Braceli and Susie Brandt at 2 p.m. at Cardinal
Sept. 21: Artist-Led Walk by J$Fur at 2 p.m. Meet at Cardinal.
Oct. 5: Artist-Led Walk by Malcolm Peacock, TBD
Oct. 19: Post-Colonial Historical Monuments TourArtist-Led Walk by Ada Pinkston at 2 p.m. at Bolton Hill confederate monument (corner of Mosher St. and W. Mt. Royal Ave.)
Nov. 8: Arches & Access Evening Wander Artist-Led Walk by Graham Coreil-Allen at 7 p.m. at Druid Hill Madison Avenue Gates
This fall New Public Sites is excited to offer one new walking tour in Arlington, Virginia, Wandering the West Pike, and three classics in Baltimore City; Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift, Station North Ave, and Druid Hill Reservoir Interchange! The tours series focuses on the intersecting issues of public space access, transportation equity, creative placemaking, and how residents are shaping places through everyday actions.
All tours are free and open to the public, but spots are limited so be sure to register. The Fall 2018 New Public Sites tours are made possible with support from Arlington Arts and Free Fall Baltimore.
Free Fall Baltimore is presented by BGE, and is a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
As one of the most diverse corridors in the country, Arlington, Virginia’s Columbia Pike in many ways represents the future of American culture and urbanism. On Wandering the West Pike walking tour participants will learn about how residents new and old are adapting suburban public spaces along Columbia Pike to meet their urban needs. Join us to explore and reimagine the public spaces of Columbia Pike’s West End. Learn about transportation improvements currently under construction. Imagine future public art projects taking place along the Pike, including “The Pike” by Donald Lipski. Learn more…
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a celebrated success of waterfront redevelopment, but its spectacular looks disguise a contested past and challenging present. Join us on Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift to discover the real stories of how powerful people, visionary plans, and community movements are still transforming the former industrial wharf into a premiere public space for all. Learn more…
As a major thoroughfare in Baltimore’s premier arts district, North Avenue in seeing increasing arts, entertainment, and education development. The Station North Avenue tour explores the history of North Avenue as a transportation and cultural corridor, and the ongoing impact of creative placemaking in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Learn more…
Druid Hill Reservoir Interchange will explore the overlapping embankments and sidewalks to nowhere between the Jones Falls Expressway and the Druid Hill Park Reservoir. The tour will focus on the history of the the park and surrounding highways, and details about the current reservoir construction project. Along the way, we will also share about the community movement afoot supporting pedestrian safety improvements around the park. Learn more…
As we close out 2017 I’m thankful for the numerous neighbors, leaders, artists, and organizations I have had the honor of working with to Make Place Happen in Baltimore and beyond. From championing pedestrian accessibility around Druid Hill Park, to exploring the robust and emerging civic spaces and public art of Arlington County, to colorfully reconfiguring concrete paving for playful action, place is truly what we made of it. Public space is not just constructed out of tactile materials like pavement, landscaping, and benches, but also the intangible – knowledge, organizing, and programming. Through New Public Sites walking tours we poetically re-experienced everyday public spaces while learning from community leaders and civil servants how to affect change at the block level. Artscape showed that streets and bridges don’t have to be just for cars, but can also be spaces for ecstatic pedestrian interactions. Workshops like the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Visioning Home created spaces for inclusively mapping out creative futures for the city. I am inspired by my collaborators who believe that we can expand such temporary zones of autonomy into lasting places of accessibility, well-being, joy, and freedom.
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.
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.
These tours are made possible with support from Free Fall Baltimore and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Free Fall Baltimore is produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) and presented by BGE with additional support from The Abell Foundation, Atapco Properties, Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Greater Mondawmin is a collection of strong neighborhoods sharing an array of educational, recreational, and shopping opportunities. Unfortunately, residents are unable to safely walk or bike to our local amenities due to streetscape barriers like the dangerous highways that ring Druid Hill Park and Mondawmin Mall. Mondawmin Crossings will be an interactive walking tour exploring opportunities for improving how local residents connect with our many valuable community places.
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a celebrated success of waterfront redevelopment, but its spectacular looks disguise a contested past and challenging present. Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift tour participants will discover the real stories of how powerful people, visionary plans, and community movements are still transforming the former industrial wharf into a premiere public space for all.
Druid Hill Reservoir Construction Interchange will explore the overlapping embankments and sidewalks to nowhere between the Jones Falls Expressway and the Druid Hill Park Reservoir. The tour will focus on the history of the the park and surrounding highways, and details about the current reservoir construction project. Along the way, we will also share about the community movement afoot supporting pedestrian safety improvements around the park.
Get ready for an exciting spring of New Public Sites radical walking tours in Baltimore City and Arlington, Virginia. Mark your calendars to get lost on foot:
New Public Sites & Baltimore Heritage
I am jazzed to be offering my two most popular Baltimore tours in partnership with Baltimore Heritage. Half of all proceeds from my next Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift and Crossing the Highway to Nowhere tours will go to supporting Baltimore Heritage’s important work preserving our city’s divers built history.
If you walk halfway from the Inner Harbor to the Highway to Nowhere, you will find yourself in the Bromo District, a vibrant and ever changing arts neighborhood and employment center. As part of the Front exhibit curated by Betty Gonzales, I am leading Bromo Spectacular!, two different tours exploring invisible public spaces and artist-led development projects along Howard Street and surrounding blocks. Both Bromo Spectacular! Tours are free. Click here for details.
Saturday, April 22, 4-6pm – Bromo Spectacular – Tunneling Revival
Meet at the Metro Station entrance at 301 N Eutaw St, Baltimore, MD 21201 Followed by Front opening reception 6-9pm at Le Mondo
Now let’s say you got lost and end up walking fifty miles southwest. You would not only beat the DC gridlock, but also end up in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington is an impressively old yet historically suburban county now coursing with high-density, transit-oriented infill development. This is the wave of the future yall, so start looking forward to exploring and reimagining the urban and suburban spaces of Lee Highway, Courthouse, and Columbia Pike! Offered by Arlington Arts in partnership with Walk Arlington. Tours are free. Click here for details. Registration links below.
Since going full-time for Graham Projects I’ve had the honor of investigating, activating, and improving numerous public places in Baltimore and beyond. 2016 was a great year for making place happen with inspiring people. I am thankful.
At the invitation of the Waterfront Partnership, Melvin Thomas and I made a 103’ long Harbor Hopscotch.
My New Public Sites – Five Points Denver walking tours and immersive map installation went gangbusters at RedLine’s 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art Summit. Along the way, I was honored to share the megaphone and learn from half a dozen local speakers.
With support from BikeMore and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, my home street Auchentoroly Terrace got a temporary Footprints Crosswalk to help pedestrians better connect with the Druid Hill Park Farmers Market.
Working with an inspiring network of cultural organizers across Baltimore, I helped lead Citizen Artist Baltimore get-out-the-vote vote efforts. Bigly surprises aside, we informed local candidates of the values of our city’s diverse arts and cultural communities and educated voters on the importance of local races and ballot initiatives.
I was honored to be invited by Baltimore Heritage to join their board of historic and cultural preservation advocates. I’m excited to be working with them on saving Baltimore’s most meaningful places.
I had a fun time making water loop while redesigning Dance & Bmore’s website. May I do the same for you?
The Public Art for Central Avenue Streetscapeproject continues. Falon Mihalic and I are busy closing in on our final design for a 25’ tall, pedestrian-empowering Periscope. Stay tuned for the full announcement and renderings…
Join public artist Graham Coreil-Allen to explore and reimagine the urban and suburban spaces of Columbia Pike in Arlington, Virginia on this alternative walking tour beginning at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market. All are invited to participate as we take turns sharing our insights into the history, design and uses of everyday public spaces. The former rural toll road served as an early economic lifeline connecting Washington DC to Virginia. Columbia Pike quickly grew into a booming stretch of motorist amenities at the expense of pedestrian safety and accessibility. Wander the Pike to experience firsthand how residents and leaders are helping to transform the suburban drag into an walkable main street for all. Click here for more details on the tours.
Wandering the Pike is presented by Arlington Arts of Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of the Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources, uses the power of the arts to transform lives and build community, and provides programs and services to create an environment that encourages excellence in the Arlington arts community.
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.
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.
As we close out 2017 I’m thankful for the numerous neighbors, leaders, artists, and organizations I have had the honor of working with to Make Place Happen in Baltimore and beyond. From championing pedestrian accessibility around Druid Hill Park, to exploring the robust and emerging civic spaces and public art of Arlington County, to colorfully reconfiguring concrete paving for playful action, place is truly what we made of it. Public space is not just constructed out of tactile materials like pavement, landscaping, and benches, but also the intangible – knowledge, organizing, and programming. Through New Public Sites walking tours we poetically re-experienced everyday public spaces while learning from community leaders and civil servants how to affect change at the block level. Artscape showed that streets and bridges don’t have to be just for cars, but can also be spaces for ecstatic pedestrian interactions. Workshops like the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Visioning Home created spaces for inclusively mapping out creative futures for the city. I am inspired by my collaborators who believe that we can expand such temporary zones of autonomy into lasting places of accessibility, well-being, joy, and freedom.
