June 7, 1952 Sun Paper "Local Art Work in Local Shop Windows"

This article discusses in more depth some of the planning behind the Baltimore Art Festival of 1952. Mrs. Lay Martin, in the hopes to stimulate local art sold the display idea to the Retail Merchants Association. The main goal was to get local artwork in the public arena's where people frequented that did not visit art musuems. This was also an effort to support art museums in Baltimore. The Retail Merchants Association had the indirect goal to dress the city up as a "gala cultural affair," a new concept in industrial centers at that time. As mentioned before, 38 retail stores displayed 313 paintings out of the 640 submitted works by locak artists. A difficulty with the exhibition was when the three judges; mentioned as art elites and city outsiders, decided that of the 640 entries only 168 met their artistic standards. The remaining 145 paintings were set to fill display windows of the retail merchants who had agreed to participate in the Baltimore Art Festival.

Already, it seems as though the relationship with Baltimore artists, and the festivals that would market the show-casing of their work would bump heads in the artistic arena of "taste," as well as execution. The Retail Association had elected outsiders to judge the artwork, and some artists left with a bad taste in their mouth because of the "elitest" attitudes this arts festival displayed.