The four squares of Mount Vernon Place sat eerily empty yesterday, cordoned off by a gold-painted chain-link fence.
Erected Sunday evening, the fence is the first phase of an uncommon collaborative outdoor exhibit sponsored by the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Walters Art Museum. Titled Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square, the exhibit is designed to draw attention to the Mount Vernon park.
In the next couple of weeks, more pieces will be installed in the square, and on March 29, the fence will come down to reveal interactive works of art such as a bridge made of steel and knitted rope and a sculpture that emits sounds and visual patterns. The artwork will be on display through late May.
"It's a wonderful adventure," said William Noel, curator of the Walters' exhibit Maps: Finding Our Place in the World.
"That park is a national landmark and one of the most beautiful earthen spots in America," he said. "To use that as a platform for expression of talented students within the city of Baltimore -- going through all the protocols they need to go through -- is a wonderful way of bringing attention to a world-class monument."
The park is the centerpiece of a National Landmark Historic District, which features 19th-century architecture and the imposing cylindrical monument that was the nation's first to commemorate George Washington, in 1815.
The project began early last year, when Noel reached out to MICA professor George Ciscle about spawning an off-site exhibition to run in conjunction with Maps: Finding Our Place in the World.
Ciscle teaches a seminar on exhibition development, which covers the organizational and promotional aspects of setting up an art exhibit. Last year, the class produced At Freedom's Door: Challenging Slavery in Maryland at the Maryland Historical Society.
But in the more than 10 years that Ciscle has overseen the class, they have always set up indoor exhibitions at MICA and off-site galleries.
"I thought, `What about having an exhibition that looks at the center point of Baltimore -- the nexus of the cultural community?'" he said.
The class has also traditionally worked with outside artists. This time, Ciscle opted to recruit MICA students, and enlisted the help of fellow professor Jann Rosen-Queralt. They selected 10 artists from Rosen-Queralt's art sculpture class to create pieces for the exhibition.
