Citizens of Pigtown Wins Grant for Transformative Neighborhood Art Project
On June 27th, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and PNC Bank announced the winners for PNC Transformative Art Prize (previously known as the PNC Transformative Art Project). The award supports communities in their efforts to improve their surroundings with long-term and lasting art projects. Neighborhoods are asked to partner with artists and/or arts organizations to permanently reinvent public spaces using art.
This year’s winner were Citizens of Pigtown, Coldstream Homestead Montebello Community Corporation, Station North Arts & Entertainment District and Transmodern Age. The South Baltimore Neighborhood Association also applied for the art prize, for a piece at the soon-to-be-constructed median starting at S. Hanover and Wells St., but was not selected.
Citizens of Pigtown won a grant for $30,00 and will work with artist Rodney Carroll to erect a 35-foot tall, stainless steel, sculptural weather station featuring the neighborhood’s beloved mascot: a large pig. The sculpture will be located at the intersection Washington Boulevard and Martin Luther King Boulevard and will welcome the thousands who enter Baltimore and Pigtown daily through this busy thoroughfare.
Below is information on all of the winners from a Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts Release:
Coldstream Homestead Montebello Community Corporation – $25,000
The Coldstream Homestead Montebello Community Corporation will collaborate with community members, gardeners and artists Katey Truhn and Jessie Unterhalter to create a “Children’s Garden” at the intersection of Harford Road and 32nd Street. The garden will include a dozen 8 to 10-foot kinetic sculptures that grow upward like trees, creating a forest of color in what is now a vacant lot. The sculptures will be topped with wind-responsive mandalas that will be designed with the community through collaborative drawing workshops, and will light up with each breeze.
Creative Alliance – $10,000
The Creative Alliance will continue to produce the Great Halloween Lantern Parade in Patterson Park, engaging thousands of Southeast Baltimore residents of all ages in their luminous Baltimore tradition. A long-standing model for the activation of Baltimore’s community assets through art, the Great Halloween Lantern Parade features performances, community art making workshops, and of course, light. This year, the Creative Alliance will also expand the footprint of their community-made “Eastern Lights” installation, which uses recycled materials to light up Eastern Avenue for six months out of the year.
Station North Arts & Entertainment District – $28,000
Amy Sherald will partner with the Station North Arts & Entertainment District to install Baltimore’s tallest mural at the J Van Story Branch building, situated at the geographic center of the city. The mural, a large scale version of her oil on canvas painting, “Equilibrium,” will be visible from Druid Hill Park, the Jones Falls Expressway and throughout West Baltimore.
Transmodern Age – $10,000
Transmodern Age and artist Laure Drogoul will bring together dozens of local artists and arts organizations to produce the 11th annual Transmodern Festival – a weeklong interdisciplinary arts festival in celebration of the Equinox. The festival footprint will encompass eight blocks of downtown’s Bromo Arts District and will feature a free parade of lights, workshops, participatory art, as well as performances of music, dance and theatre.
About the Author: Kevin Lynch
Founder and Publisher of SouthBmore.com, longtime resident of South Baltimore, and a graduate of Towson University. Diehard Ravens and O's fan, father of three, amateur pizza chef, skateboarder, and "bar food" foodie. Email me at Kevin@InceptMM.com and follow me on Twitter at @SoBoKevin.
