"Art should not exist in an ivory tower..."

The Baltimore Art Festival of 1952 may have fizzled, but the Baltimore leaders still wanted Baltimore to be "on the map," both artistically and culturally.

Although 1975, was the eighth year of the Baltimore City Arts festival, 1975 broght new hope. The Mayor's Advisory Committee on Art and Culture sponsored a newer festival, that would be marketed by the MACAC. This festival was to be held in the Charles Center and Hopkins Plaza, June 26-29th. The old Bromo-Seltzer Tower was turned into an Arts Center bu the MACAC, and utilized in the campaign for the new arts festival. The Hopkins Plaza was also used to showcase art work, music, dance, and drama during the festival.

Results of Baltimore Art Festival 1952: Art Snobbery!

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.

This is a photograph of the Retail Merchants Association of Baltimore's Baltimore Art Festival, rules and requirements for art submission. Baltimore, 1952; Courtesy of MD. V.F Enoch Prat Free Library, Baltimore Arts Festival.

This June 1, 1952 article of the Sun includes a photograph of one of the windows in Baltimore's first Art Festival; Carol Wharton wrote this article.

Baltimore's First Arts Festival

In 1952, the Retail Merchants Association of Baltimore organized the Baltimore Art Festival to be held June 2-8th. The exhibition was designed by the Merchants Association to showcase the works of area artists in attractive window displays. The artists were first required to submit their paintings, and scuplture for examination by a Jury that would choose which pieces would be best for the stores participating. The artists picked to have their work displayed would also be taking part in a competition. The flyer for the event states that "The Baltimore Art Festival, will be the biggest exhibition of Maryland Art ever attempted."

The June 1, issue of the Sun discusses the art and it's distribution to 38 retail stores across Baltimore. Other groups involved in Maryland's first art festival were the Peale Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Maryland Institute, and local institutions and organizations "concerned with art."

A new direction for this blog...

Well. I have been reading, and re-reading the articles that are available in the vertical files in the Enoch Pratt Maryland Room and trying to think of a way to present my blog and findings. I feel like though Baltimore Artscape is successful as an arts festival for the city but failed in making Baltimore a place for the arts year round, or establishing a solid art community. Artscape does a wonderful job getting vendors into the city but less than 25% of the vendors by the looks of the programs (that I will post later this week) are from Baltimore. And of the few that are, many are students who move outside of Baltimore to Boston, New York, or out West after graduation from MICA. In my own experience attending Baltimore's Artscape the vendors I spoke with, or seemed more attracted to the tents of where all from out of state. I shall research this more and keep a better job on updates.

In other news... I have tried contacting a few people from the sponsorship committee and haven't had any luck. :(