American Visionary Art Museum

Sometimes, it pays to live -- and parade -- in Charles Village.Because of the generosity of Philadelphia photographer Neil Benson and his fellow "Dumpster Divers," the American Visionary Art Museum is offering free admission tomorrow through Sunday to Charles Villagers and others in North Baltimore's 21218 ZIP code.The relationship between the City of Brotherly Love, Charm City, and the museum was launched in the spring when Benson and his team of recyclers -- the Dumpster Divers -- came to Baltimore to enter the first East Coast kinetic sculpture race, which involves creative vehicles that can move on land and float on water.

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."

Among the benefactors of the American Visionary Art Museum, which opened Friday, is Edward Adamson. Mr. Adamson, an English artist who worked as a psychiatric art therapist for 35 years, amassed a collection of some 40,000 artworks given to him by patients as a way of assuring theirpreservation.The collection has been housed in England at the estate ofMiriam Rothschild, in the village of Ashton near Cambridge, where it has been open to the public on weekends and by appointment. But it cannot remain there indefinitely, and Mr. Adamson, now 85, has been looking for a permanent home for it.Museum founder Rebecca Hoffberger has offered to take as much as the museum can accommodate for its collection, and the rest may go to an English psychiatric hospital.

Three short-term shows at the American Visionary Art Museum this summer argue for a definition of visionary art that the museum has been attempting to clarify through exhibitions and educational programs since its founding four years ago."Holy Fire: The Matchstick Artistry of Gerald Hawkes" and "Baltimore Glassman: Fresh Air Cure" both feature the work of a local artist whose career has been closely associated with the city.The third show, "Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Folk Art Environments," focuses on visionary environments created by self-taught artists around the country.

Numbers and art typically don't mix, but both were on exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum Monday. The Baltimore museum hosted a one-day seminar with PNC Bank on what artists need to know to survive and thrive on the business side of their craft. About 35 painters, musicians, writers and other artists attended the free crash course on budgeting and cash flow. Aspiring writer Carita Ellis-Espola was among them, driving an hour and a half from Harrisburg, Pa., to pick up financial tips.

With blank brick walls pierced only by rows of narrow slits like gun ports threatening invaders, the old whiskey warehouse on Key Highway at the base of Federal Hill looks like an abandoned fortress. Inside, oaken racks for storing whiskey barrels rise three stories to the roof in an intricate three-dimensional maze. The musty smell of age and disuse hangs in the air, and passing trucks flash light and shadow across the racks like a magic lantern show. But Rebecca Hoffberger steps through the heavy steel door and envisions a new museum space, open and airy and struck with cobalt light.

"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.

Twins from southern New Jersey marketed slightly deformed glass bottles recovered from a dump as "squottles." An Owings Mills candy maker offered chocolate chili pepper truffles. And a North Carolina sculptor found a buyer for her papier-mache pet made from old doll parts. Bazaart, the holiday shopping event at the American Visionary Art Museum yesterday, was intended to be the antithesis of 4 a.m. Black Friday sales on sweater vests and Thanksgiving weekend outlet sprees. "It's the anti-mall," said Andy Snair, a 41-year-old artist and designer from Baltimore and regular customer at the annual fair - part art exhibit, part flea market.

The American Visionary Art Museum is still the baby of the art world, but judging by the numbers so far, and the reception the 2-month-old facility has gotten in the press, it should have a bright future.The 40,000-square-foot museum at the Inner Harbor, devoted to the artwork of self-taught people outside the mainstream, opened on Nov. 24. In the first 41 days (it was closed four days because of the blizzard) 12,175 people have visited -- about 300 a day. Income from admissions and the gift shop totaled about $113,000.

The work of many artists grows deeper and more reflective with age, and the arc of an artist's career from youthful exuberance to mellow wisdom often is one of the characteristic expressions of the creative life. But some people don't fully tap their creativity until they reach a relatively advanced age - their 60s, 70s and even 80s. For such individuals, the belated recognition of their potential for serious artistic expression may come as both shock and cause for celebration. Such is the case with the artists presented in Golden Blessings of Old Age/Out of the Mouths of Babes, the season-long exhibition of works by outsider and self-taught artists that opens today at the American Visionary Art Museum.