Baltimore Museum

Philanthropist Robert E. Meyerhoff built seven galleries in a house with windows overlooking grazing horses on his northern Baltimore County farm to display a postmodern art collection that experts call one of the world's finest. Now he wants to give the public a chance to see the works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns by opening a museum in the rural setting. "We don't want it in storage," Meyerhoff said of the collection, after a Baltimore County Council meeting yesterday during which lawmakers discussed a measure that would allow the museum to operate in an area designated for agriculture.

For the Contemporary Museum , which last week abruptly announced it was suspending operations, the challenge going forward may be implicit in its name: How does it stay contemporary? The museum began exhibiting cutting-edge art in Baltimore 23 years ago, helping to create an appetite for non-traditional works. Now it hopes to re-invent itself in an increasingly crowded cultural landscape. "Things have changed from those days," said Rebecca Hoffberger, whose opening in 1995 of the American Visionary Arts Museum on Key Highway is one such change.

A man's body was pulled Tuesday morning from shallow waters of the Inner Harbor near the 1400 block of Key Highway, Baltimore police said. The body was found about 8 a.m., police said, near a stretch of Key Highway home to the Baltimore Museum of Industry. jtorbati@baltsun.com

Richard Paul Sullivan , a former chairman and CEO of Easco Corp. who had been active in Republican state politics and civic affairs, died Sunday of cancer at his Owings Mills home. The longtime Guilford resident was 79. Mr. Sullivan, whose father was president of the American Girl Shoe Co. and whose mother was a homemaker, was born and raised in Newton, Mass. After graduating in 1950 from St. Sebastian's School in Milton, Mass., he earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Students from all Baltimore County public elementary schools and their families are invited to participate in the annual Project Quality Time event 2-5 p.m. Dec. 11 at The Baltimore Museum of Art. The free event will include self-guided tours and a Free Family Sundays hands-on workshop in the museum's classroom.

If you're going to call your fund-raiser "Steamboat Landing 2001," it's a good idea to have both steamboat and landing on hand. Good thing this was the Baltimore Museum of Industry's annual shindig, because both were parked right outside the South Baltimore building. "There are only two working steam tugboats in the entire U.S., one in California, and this one. It's a historic landmark," said museum volunteer coordinator Rob Williams, referring to the 1906 tug Baltimore tied up at the dock.

In the 1990s, crowds packed the Walters Art Museum to see a touring show of artifacts from the reign of China's first emperor. They flocked as well to the Baltimore Museum of Art to see a collection from London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Those were the days of the so-called blockbusters, the traveling exhibits of high-profile art. The prevailing trend now at museums in Baltimore and across the country is to cut down on the number of touring shows. "They're expensive, and money is so tight," said Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Museum of Art. "We would have brought in two major shows in 2007-2008, but we couldn't afford it. " Museums aren't left with empty galleries, however.

Some house-warming party. The Baltimore Museum of Art shimmered in flowery splendor at the Cone Gala, celebrating the reopening of the Cone Collection. A gargantuan pair of dazzling floral creations at the BMA's front door was only the first hint of what was waiting inside. In the museum's front hall, massive spheres of flowers swung above while 600 guests swirled below. Even before dinner, partygoers satiated themselves on a visual buffet. There were tours of the newly renovated Cone Wing and its world-famous collection of art by Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, van Gogh and others.

At first glance, they might look like nothing more than the old papers Granddad stuck up in the attic, the dusty boxes about his business that no one ever took the trouble to throw out. But to the people at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, they look like treasures.For, along with the tools and machines and boats and planes that make up the visible parts of this museum's collection, has come an assortment of archival material that reveals volumes about the business and labor of this city.

Walk into the show of Romare Bearden's prints at th Baltimore Museum of Art and you are surrounded by a symphony of visual melodies. These works are rich and deep, a full orchestra playing flat out, and they envelop you with beauty.Bearden was an African-American whose work addresses the black experience in America, but its implications are much wider than that; he ranged history, mythology and the history of art, from the Trojan War and the Bible to Dutch genre painting, collage and cubism, to create images that speak to the effort to find a commonality of heritage and values in a polyglot world.

Baltimore will show off its biggest trucks Saturday and allow young residents to meet police officers, firefighters and others who drive the big rigs through city streets. The Biggest Big Truck Show brings about 20 vehicles to the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1415 Key Highway. Visitors can see, touch, even take a seat in many among the fleet of vehicles, including Big Bertha, Baltimore's largest tow truck, fire engine, motorcycles and a fireboat that will shoot up massive plumes of water.

At first glance, the Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair looks like a low-wattage shindig. To the casual observer, the occasional gallery visitor, names like Barbara Takenaga, Deborah Kass and Madeleine Keesing have little resonance. That's because few in the printmaking world are household names. But the fair, held this weekend at the Baltimore Museum of Art , has been a showcase for leading printmakers, well-known and obscure, for over 20 years. This year, over 2,000 prints from some 20 presses, publishers and dealers will be on display, for prices ranging from the affordable to the downright indulgent.

A musician, a sculptor and a multidisciplinary artist are the winners of this year's $25,000 Baker Awards, given annually to artists from the Baltimore area. The winners, chosen by a jury of national experts, are musician Nathan Bell, best known for his innovative banjo work; Alexander Heilner, whose works in photography, video, digital imaging, lighting design and sculpture include manipulated aerial images from the U.S. and Dubai; and self-taught sculptor David Knopp. The diverse nature of this year's winners is a testament to the "vibrancy of the arts community in the Baltimore area," said Jeannie Howe, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, which administers the awards.

The Gathering returns. Another season of food truck rallies kicks off on Friday night at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The event is from 5-9:30 p.m., and 14 food trucks have been cofirmed for the event. A previously scheduled rally on Saturday at Canton Crossing has been cancelled.  

One of Elizabeth Catlett's linotypes could horrify viewers by depicting the aftermath of a lynching, the rope around the victim's neck held taut by the murderers' boots. And in the next room, a statue by Catlett of a mother and child would flood viewers with the memories of a maternal embrace. Catlett's sculptures and prints became symbols of the civil rights movement while championing the dignity and humanity of ordinary people. At the time of her death Monday at age 96 in her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico, she was widely considered one of the most important African-American artists of the 20th century.

The helmet looks much the way it did when Morris Hunt wore it into a burning building on Leadenhall Street in the summer of 1965. He managed to get out, but he didn't survive. His daughter, Drue Jenkins, came to the Baltimore Fire Museum in the old station of Engine 6 on Gay Street, lifted the helmet off a shelf and put it on her head. She was just 2 years old when her father died, she said, and the helmet is "all I have left of him. " On Saturday, Jenkins and others came to the museum for Old-Timers Day, not just to reminisce about the station built in 1853 — it still has a hayloft from the days of horse-drawn engines — but to worry that the exhibition was the last.

Margery K. Reid, a retired secretary and volunteer, died of a stroke Tuesday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. She was 89. Margery McShane was born in Baltimore and raised in Bolton Hill. She was a 1938 graduate of Western High School and the Baltimore Business College. She also attended the Maryland Institute College of Art . She was married in 1945 to A. Walter Kraus Jr., who was a partner in the Miles and Stockbridge law firm. After his death in 1955, she went to work in the Maryland Judiciary's Administrative Office.

Area churches, community centers, clubs and others, in Baltimore county and city are sponsoring egg hunts and Easter-related activities for children, offering plenty of opportunities to hop on over to one near you. Arbutus Breakfast with the Easter Bunny, Violetville United Methodist Church, 3648 Coolidge Ave., Saturday, March 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. "Eggstra" special fare, bake sale and carryout items. 410-525-3191. Lansdowne Easter Bunny Breakfast, Lansdowne Volunteer Fire Department, 140 Laverne Ave. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, coffee, tea, juice and hot chocolate.