Arts District

Any effort that promises to attract new residents and businesses to a historic Baltimore neighborhood could do a lot worse than make the arts a magnet for bringing people together. That's why we can't see any down side to a city proposal to create a third arts and entertainment district for Baltimore, this one on the west side of downtown. If the idea of a new cultural destination works anywhere near as well there as it has elsewhere in the city and state, the results are practically guaranteed to be an improvement over the status quo. State economic development officials are expected to decide by June 1 whether to approve Baltimore's request to designate 117 acres of downtown as the Bromo Tower Arts and Entertainment District.

When Christa Daring was a student, she rode a bus from her Waverly home and crossed North Avenue on her way to classes at the Baltimore School for the Arts. "This was always oh-so no-man's land," she said of the commercial crosstown street that is taking some convincing steps this spring as an arts district. She stood in the old North Avenue Market building, where she and fellow members of the Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffeehouse collective will be moving from Mount Vernon to a much enlarged space.

Last weekend, I visited Philadelphia and was charmed by their neighborhoods, museums and, especially, the section of Broad Street designated as the "Avenue of the Arts," with its many theaters and restaurants. Similarly designating the section of Howard Street, including the Everyman and Hippodrome theatres, will stimulate development, tourist traffic and more ("New arts district on way?" April 7). Its proximity to downtown hotels, sports venues and the University of Maryland professional schools and Medical Center will draw residents as well.

The editorial cartoon in the Jan. 24 editor of the Columbia Flier, "Tuning up Symphony Woods," makes no clear statement, except one against its quality. The being pictured "tuning up" a music note lacks any features identifying as a creature of this planet. Its face lacks a mouth, eye or nose. It seems to be the end result of a gorilla-rat love affair. The unidentified species seems to be using a tuning fork to tune the contents of a musical note. This does not portray any coherent message at all. Is the Arts District trying to make all trees in Symphony Woods be in tune?

When Christa Daring was a student, she rode a bus from her Waverly home and crossed North Avenue on her way to classes at the Baltimore School for the Arts. "This was always oh-so no-man's land," she said of the commercial crosstown street that is taking some convincing steps this spring as an arts district. She stood in the old North Avenue Market building, where she and fellow members of the Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffeehouse collective will be moving from Mount Vernon to a much enlarged space.

Baltimore's west side would become the city's third arts and entertainment district under a proposal endorsed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake for making the area more of a cultural hub. The new district would join state-designated arts districts in the Station North and Highlandtown areas as magnets for galleries, theaters, studios and other arts-related activities and investment. Such a designation also would make certain business and property owners eligible for tax breaks.

The debate over the redevelopment of downtown Columbia has often focused on how to best utilize Symphony Woods, the park setting that includes Merriweather Post Pavilion and, even more importantly to many, some of the oldest trees in the Columbia downtown. To some, including County Executive Ken Ulman just this past week, this parcel represents the "centerpiece and lynchpin" for downtown Columbia's future development. With such great expectations for the property, there has been a great deal of debate on how to use the land.

Inside the once-bustling movie theater on North Avenue, moss thrives on shattered marble walls. Broken tiles hang from the ceiling. Rainwater pours through the roof. But this derelict structure is now seen as a future centerpiece for the growing midtown arts district. A nonprofit developer, backed financially by the Maryland Institute College of Art and a private foundation, envisions the Art Deco building as the home of film screenings, music venues, artists' studios, galleries, a playhouse and a restaurant.

I am writing in support of the plan to transform Symphony Woods into an arts district. I am a life-long resident of Columbia, among the first generation to call Columbia my home town. As a child, my parents took me to the petting zoo that was in Symphony Woods. Now, I live in Owen Brown with my wife and children. This is an exciting plan, and it strikes an important balance. Putting the CA headquarters on-site provides a built-in user base for, well, every amenity in the park, from pathway to cafe.

There have been numerous open house events at the C Street Gallery, Venus Theatre Play Shack and other venues along C Street since the area was designated Laurel's official Arts District last year. In addition, members of the Laurel Arts District Committee have developed a blog and Facebook page to promote events on C Street, parts of Main Street and the few other blocks and alleys included in the arts district. Now, on June 9, committee members are taking an even bigger step to increase traffic in the Arts District by holding the first C Street Arts Festival, which they hope to make an annual event.

I am writing in support of the plan to transform Symphony Woods into an arts district. I am a life-long resident of Columbia, among the first generation to call Columbia my home town. As a child, my parents took me to the petting zoo that was in Symphony Woods. Now, I live in Owen Brown with my wife and children. This is an exciting plan, and it strikes an important balance. Putting the CA headquarters on-site provides a built-in user base for, well, every amenity in the park, from pathway to cafe.

The debate over the redevelopment of downtown Columbia has often focused on how to best utilize Symphony Woods, the park setting that includes Merriweather Post Pavilion and, even more importantly to many, some of the oldest trees in the Columbia downtown. To some, including County Executive Ken Ulman just this past week, this parcel represents the "centerpiece and lynchpin" for downtown Columbia's future development. With such great expectations for the property, there has been a great deal of debate on how to use the land.

Early in the renovations at the former Town Theatre movie house on West Fayette Street, a member of the architectural firm was hoisted on a cherry picker and spotted something beneath the grime up at the top of the facade of the century-old building. It was a single capital letter: "E. " "Everybody got such a kick out of that," said architect Diane Cho of Cho Benn Holback + Associates. "It was very kismet. " That "E," left over from the first commercial establishment on that spot in 1911, a vaudeville house called the Empire Theatre, would fit just fine for the new owner - Everyman Theatre . This week, about 18 months after work on the $18 million renovation project started, Everyman, a 22-year-old professional Equity company with an admired corps of resident actors and designers, opens its new home to the public.

The first of the 51/2-foot-tall fiberglass chickens roosts in a vacant lot beside an Annapolis restaurant, a tire's skid marks stretched across its belly and a set of X's for eyes. Apparently, the owners joke, it had trouble crossing the road. The next chicken might be a robot, a spectacle of glitter, the canvas for an underwater mural or, perhaps, a mosaic of crabs and sailboats for a twist on the classic Annapolis images the statues were designed to avoid. "If it was a boat or a fish, I wouldn't be into doing it. But a chicken is funny," artist Casey Johnson said as he surveyed Chicken Little and contemplated his own design.

Twenty years after opening its first large residence for students, the Maryland Institute College of Art plans to build a $16.5 million addition that will increase the number of undergraduates living on campus and help revitalize Baltimore's North Avenue corridor and northern Bolton Hill. College officials intend to break ground this fall on Commons II, a five-story building with 62 apartments that can accommodate about 240 students. When it opens in the fall of 2013, MICA will have on-campus housing for more than 1,000 students, up from practically none in 1991 and enough for more than half of its undergraduates.

Perky sunflowers, fragrant lavender and vibrant greenery surround a creaky wooden porch full of oddities on an Annapolis side street. A well-used plow, a porcelain wash basin and a cast-iron stove hardly seem germane to a consignment shop filled with high fashion, assorted art and tony accessories, as well as the occasional piece of vintage furniture. Owner Stella Breen-Franklin typically greets shoppers to One Petticoat Lane with an effusive "Wahoo!" and a cup of steamy tea, mint- flavored but never, ever iced, even when temperatures reach triple digits.

The first of the 51/2-foot-tall fiberglass chickens roosts in a vacant lot beside an Annapolis restaurant, a tire's skid marks stretched across its belly and a set of X's for eyes. Apparently, the owners joke, it had trouble crossing the road. The next chicken might be a robot, a spectacle of glitter, the canvas for an underwater mural or, perhaps, a mosaic of crabs and sailboats for a twist on the classic Annapolis images the statues were designed to avoid. "If it was a boat or a fish, I wouldn't be into doing it. But a chicken is funny," artist Casey Johnson said as he surveyed Chicken Little and contemplated his own design.

ON NORTH Avenue, just east of Charles Street, Renwick Bass peered through the veil of Thursday's morning fog and saw what nobody else has been able to see in this neighborhood for years: potential. Around Labor Day, Bass opened a little shopping mall in the old Department of Social Services building, and in nearly three months, the biggest payday he's had is maybe $160 in business. "And this encourages you?" he was asked. "No," he said. "But we know the problems. People hear `North Avenue,' and they're afraid."

There have been numerous open house events at the C Street Gallery, Venus Theatre Play Shack and other venues along C Street since the area was designated Laurel's official Arts District last year. In addition, members of the Laurel Arts District Committee have developed a blog and Facebook page to promote events on C Street, parts of Main Street and the few other blocks and alleys included in the arts district. Now, on June 9, committee members are taking an even bigger step to increase traffic in the Arts District by holding the first C Street Arts Festival, which they hope to make an annual event.

Gaia - a young artist who's the brains behind a massive mural project around Baltimore's Station North neighborhood - likes to say the work isn't a traditional political statement. Yet listen to him talk, and he sounds a little bit like a community organizer with an awful lot of spray paint. "What were doing here is creating a social bridge, connecting different socioeconomic backgrounds," Gaia said of the more than 20 murals and sculpture pieces scattered through the arts district and the nearby Greenmount West neighborhood.