American Visionary Art

If she were commanding a Broadway stage, Nadria Jennings' ballad, "Hold Me," would be the showstopper. In a sweet soprano, Jennings, 17, sings about children who have lost parents to drugs, AIDS and violence. "All they want," she vocalizes, "is love and a normal life." During a noisy rehearsal in a West Baltimore church, Jennings captures the toll of so many deadly plagues on Baltimore's children, including herself. Her father died when she was 7. When she joined the Nu World Art Ensemble, a performing arts company, three years ago, Jennings found a family, an outlet for her talent, and a way to turn tragedy into art. The work is "healing for me," says the Dr. Samuel L. Banks High School graduate.

A fire forced the evacuation of the American Visionary Art Museum yesterday afternoon and shut down a trendy restaurant known for its unusual style of Southwestern and Pacific Rim cuisine.The Federal Hill museum and its exhibit, "Love: Error and Eros," reopened about an hour after the 2: 30 p.m. fire, but the Joy America Cafe, on the third floor of the museum, would not be serving its chicken breast encrusted with Peruvian purple potatoes until lunchtime today.No injuries were reported, but about 25 customers were escorted out of the third-floor, smoke-filled dining room by security guards.

Baltimore artist Gerald D. Hawkes, who created extraordinary sculptures from wooden matchsticks, died of pneumonia Monday at Maryland General Hospital. He was 55.In the early 1970s, while recuperating in a New York hospital, Mr. Hawkes began making squares, using 19 matchsticks for each square.His next project was a lamp, then a box with drawers and finally a round coffeetable. The table, which was made with a million matchsticks, also was notable for its intricate geometric designs.In 1984, when his matchstick art was getting noticed, Mr. Hawkes was driving home one night from his job as a medical assistant at Maryland Shock Trauma Center when his car broke down on North Avenue.

A FORMER WHISKEY barrel warehouse at the foot of Federal Hill in Baltimore would be converted to one of the city's most energy-efficient buildings, with a "saw-toothed" roofline containing solar heating panels and other energy-saving features, under a plan by local architects to convert it to a $5 million addition of the American Visionary Art Museum.A preliminary design for the transformation was presented this month to Baltimore's Architectural Review Board by Cho, Wilks & Benn Architects.

With love as its subject, the American Visionary Art Museum's new show could so easily have gone off the deep end. It could have opted for steamy sex or cheap glitz or cuteness or sentimentality. But it successfully resisted all of those temptations. "Love: Error and Eros," opening today, has real class.It has its showier moments, like the 14-foot-tall fiberglass statue of the late Divine, transvestite star of John Waters movies, that greets visitors at the foot of the museum's grand staircase.

It was quite an offer: $300,000 for a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair. But the used-car dealer refused. What he wanted, nobody could pay.He lived alone in an apartment in Amarillo, Texas, and about once a year he hauled his sleek automobile out of an alarm-secured truck and, in a fury, decorated it with jewels, mementos of what he wanted: his wife, Jean. She was killed when her car was crushed under an 18-wheeler on an icy day -- Feb. 17, 1980."The car is in her memory," he said. "Every item on it has a meaning."

Tree lighting festivalThe sights and sounds of the season will fill the streets of Towson Monday, as the annual Tree Lighting and Caroling Festival begins at the Towson Courthouse Plaza. Festivities start at 6 p.m. with songs from the Towson High Brass Choir and refreshments from the Sheraton Baltimore North. At 6: 30 p.m., the tree lighting ceremony begins, as a live tree that stands against the courthouse is dressed in lights. Local politicians will speak and then flip the switch to light the night.

"The End Is Near!" may be the title of the current exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in downtown Baltimore, but the end is nowhere in sight for the museum itself.Founder Rebecca A. Hoffberger's vision of expanding the museum to include a $5 million "Center for Visionary Thought" appears close to receiving formal endorsement from city officials and community representatives, who are selecting developers for a long and narrow, city-owned parcel just south of the museum at 800 Key Highway.

With "The End Is Near!" the American Visionary Art Museum makes a new and most welcome beginning.AVAM, now 18 months old, is the only major American museum dedicated to visionary art, defined as the product of self-taught artists working outside the mainstream and driven to create by a compulsive inner vision. AVAM's third major show, and much its best to date, opens to the public tomorrow."The End Is Near!" -- occasioned by the approach of the millennium and devoted to visions both optimistic and pessimistic -- is the most focused and aesthetically consistent .. show AVAM has yet produced.

In the next 10 weeks, the American Visionary Art Museum must raise $250,000.Without the money, the gently curving museum at the foot of Federal Hill may not be able to install its next exhibition. Without the money, the fledgling institution will face a decision: go into debt or close.Fourteen months after opening in its gleaming $7 million building, AVAM -- the museum -- is an unwilling example of how hard it is for a new cultural institution to build a national audience, find allies in the intensely competitive world of nonprofit fund raising and create a clear voice for itself.

Baltimore's Contemporary Museum at 100 W. Centre St. will be transformed into an environmental think tank and laboratory when the Futurefarmers art collective from San Francisco opens The Reverse Ark: In the Wake, an exhibit exploring the social, historical and environmental history of the city's mills and textile industry, running March 26 to Aug. 22. Using the concept of an "ark" as a place of preservation and exploration, Futurefarmers will work with...

When the American Visionary Art Museum opened in 1995, founder and director Rebecca Hoffberger sought to provide a new kind of institution for Baltimore and beyond. It was not meant to be a science center that focused solely on technological achievements or a gallery that promoted art with a capital A. The goal was to create a place that explored the connections between art and science and philosophy (and social responsibility) - and to see what happens from there. An exhibit that opens this weekend shows how far the museum has come in the past 13 years.

MUSIC HE'S GOT IT ALL Country comes to the city Saturday when Kenny Chesney's Poets and Pirates tour stops at M&T Bank Stadium. The show will feature songs from his latest album, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, which is his 13th. Also slated to perform are Brooks & Dunn, LeAnn Rimes, Big & Rich, Gary Allan, Cowboy Troy and Sammy Hagar. .................... The show is at 2:30 p.m. M&T Bank Stadium is at 1101 Russell St. Tickets are $49-$99.50. Call 410-547-7328 or go to ticket master.

With blindfolds over their eyes and cameras in their hands, several dozen people fanned out around Federal Hill on Saturday with a guide and a mission to document their surroundings. Their unusual assignment was part of Seeing Beyond Sight, a series of workshops held at the American Visionary Art Museum this weekend. The host, Tony Deifell, taught photography to blind students and documented the process in a book that hit shelves this year. Since then, Deifell has traveled to several states to share the experience with the sighted.

Halloween is just around the corner, and while there's no shortage of pirate costumes, gory masks and creepy lawn ornaments, we thought we'd scare up some more creative decorations offered by area shops and museums. Here are some items we found: 1. String Witch Doll Price: $10 Where to get it: Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, 443-573-1700 Why we like it: Handmade in Thailand from one continuous piece of string, this delightful green doll is about 4 inches tall. She's topped with a felt hat and carries a little broom.

If she were commanding a Broadway stage, Nadria Jennings' ballad, "Hold Me," would be the showstopper. In a sweet soprano, Jennings, 17, sings about children who have lost parents to drugs, AIDS and violence. "All they want," she vocalizes, "is love and a normal life." During a noisy rehearsal in a West Baltimore church, Jennings captures the toll of so many deadly plagues on Baltimore's children, including herself. Her father died when she was 7. When she joined the Nu World Art Ensemble, a performing arts company, three years ago, Jennings found a family, an outlet for her talent, and a way to turn tragedy into art. The work is "healing for me," says the Dr. Samuel L. Banks High School graduate.

Baltimore lawyer and former Maryland legislator Julian L. Lapides tells a story about how he got hooked up with the American Antiquarian Society, a story involving decades-long pursuits, fascinating characters, tangents, chance meetings and, well, it's a Lapides story. The point is that the famously chatty Lapides is chairman of the board of the American history archive and research organization based in Worcester, Mass. That means he helps run AAS business and acts as host for the semiannual meeting this week, which is being held in Baltimore for the first time in the society's almost two-century history, near as anyone can tell.

CELEBRATING ART WAS IN the air at Baltimore Clayworks' Silver Anniversary Gala at the American Visionary Art Museum. Art was also on the walls and the silent auction tables and on some of the people themselves. Dr. Julia McMillan looked particularly fetching in her lime and turquoise beaded gypsy skirt. Susie and John Smith clustered with Sabina and Joe Sherman in another colorful clique. Artist extraordinaire Joyce J. Scott greeted the 425 guests at the door. Later at dinner, she and partner Larraine Whittlesey would entertain the gathering.

MUSEUMS Academy Art Museum. 106 South St., Easton, 410-822-2787. Sept. 9-Oct. 22: The Cup and Three Quarters: The Art of James von Minor American Visionary Art Museum.800 Key Highway, 410-244-1900, www.avam.org. Oct. 1 --Sept. 3, 2006: Race, Class, Gender [doesn't equal] - CHARACTER Baltimore Museum of Art.10 Art Museum Drive, 410-396-7100, www.artbma.org. Oct. 2-Dec. 31: Monet's London: Artists' Reflections on the Thames, 1859-1914 Nov. 2-27: Cram Sessions: 04 Counter-Campus Nov. 9-May 14: American Indian Trade Blankets Dec. 7-May 28: Henry Ossawa Tanner and the Influence of Paris Jan. 11-April 16: Picasso: After the War, the Final Years May 3-Aug.

Stage Rick Shelley will present nine shows of his elaborate but very small Theatre Serenissima at the American Visionary Art Museum. Page 12 Outside The Maryland SPCA holds its annual March for the Animals fund-raiser Sunday at the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus. Page 27 Scene Humorist and NPR commentator David Sedaris will speak Sunday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Page 18 Family The Enoch Pratt Free Library begins a month devoted to Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tales.