Maryland Institute College

A meticulously rendered pencil drawing of a 25-foot-tall Baltimore street lamp blown up lifesize and pinned to the gallery wall. A charcoal image of a batting cage whose chain link fencing resembles a sticky spider's web. A graphite drawing of an empty tin pail and a fluid splash of startling blue that flies through the air. These are among the magical images of Artworkers, a terrific exhibition at Villa Julie College that presents four dedicated artist-professionals...

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Isn't it, like, just awesome the way young people on American high school and college campuses have embraced and refined the new digital technology?Take the Maryland Institute College of Art, which some of its neighbors wish you would.There, just as the daffodils were coming into bloom, assorted six-foot fingers suddenly sprouted from the earth in the median strip of Mount Royal Avenue. One of them appeared to be wearing a condom. It was a subtle blending of art and science.

Barbara L. Himmelrich, a 40-year activist volunteer at The Associated, has been elected board chairman of the religious and social action agency.The new chairman, vowing to prepare for "challenges of the next century," took over her two-year job at the group's annual meeting Tuesday night before 400 people at Beth El Congregation.Known for years as Associated Jewish Charities, The Associated also said it had raised $24.6 million in its annual fund-raising drive benefiting Jewish and some non-Jewish programs.

Officials high and low will honor the man who started it all today, placing a magnolia wreath at a statue of Cecilius Calvert in downtown Baltimore to mark the 1634 founding of the Maryland colony.Few observers who watch the Maryland Day ceremony three days before the official March 25 anniversary will realize that the sculptor's model for the second Lord Baltimore had strong local connections as a former altar boy who became a titan of Hollywood before World War I.Francis Xavier Bushman, the Baltimorean whose muscular body and profile made him one of the highest-paid screen actors of his time, modeled for sculptor Albert Weinert in 1907.

Baltimore's art community rallied quickly yesterday to help re-establish 16 sculptors, woodworkers, potters and painters after their studios burned to ashes in an eight-alarm fire at the Clipper Industrial Park in Woodberry.Led by officials of the Maryland Institute College of Art and Maryland Art Place, an advocacy group for Maryland artists, a relief fund has been established and a call issued for cash donations, metal-working and carpentry tools as well as vacant studio space."Artists have nothing to sell but themselves.

Jan TwarowskiEstimator, orchard ownerJan Twarowski, a retired estimator who achieved his lifelong dream of owning an orchard, died Monday of heart failure at his farm in Reisterstown. He was 75.Born and reared in Tuczna, Poland, he attended schools there.During World War II, he enlisted in 1942 in the Polish Army which was under the direction of British forces. He fought in Italy and was decorated with the Cross of Valor.He was discharged in 1946 as a lieutenant and in 1953 emigrated to Baltimore with his wife, the former Magdalena Krzyszczuk, a nurse in the Polish Army whom he married in 1945.

Scott Grimes: of Union Bridge has been chosen as the Carroll County Arts Council's Volunteer of the Year by the county Department of Recreation and Parks. He has helped in the renovation of the council's new center in Westminster and has designed several brochures and the council's logo, which appears on all its publications.Organization's comments: "Scott does all the signage and graphics, creates backdrops for exhibits and illustrations for our newsletter," said Hilary Pierce, executive director of the council.

Hey, Baltimore, give yourself a pat on the back.You have helped save another sporting event.Baltimoreans bought back the Orioles. Others are pushing hard to get an NFL team. Now, mostly through the aid of corporate Baltimore, enough sponsorship money was raised to ensure the eighth running yesterday of the Maryland Million.This year's Million was moved from Pimlico to Laurel Race Course partly to place the sporting event more near the center of the Washington-Baltimore corridor.And, of course, that's a laudable idea.

O'Neill T. Hammond, an educator and artist, died Sept. 22 of a viral illness at his North Ann Street residence. He was 43.Mr. Hammond had been an education specialist in the Baltimore school system's office of early childhood education since 1981. He began his career in 1967 as an art resource teacher and had held administrative positions in the gifted and talented education program."He was a very caring and highly knowledgeable person in early childhood education. He had a passion for excellence and was highly respected for his wit and very fertile mind.

A sad race against time has prompted Maryland legislators t move with unaccustomed speed to assure that the name and memory of Loyola College President Joseph A. Sellinger remains before them for generations to come.This week, only the second of the 90-day session, the House of Delegates is expected to complete work on a bill sponsored by the governor that would name after Father Sellinger the formula used by the state to send financial aid to Loyola and other private colleges and universities.

The Rev. Jerome M. Hall, a Jesuit priest who once was a Peabody Conservatory and Maryland Institute College of Art chaplain, died Wednesday of internal bleeding at Georgetown University Hospital. He was 59. Born in Baltimore, he was a 1966 graduate of Mount St. Joseph's High School, where he was class president, student council president and a National Merit Scholar. He entered the Society of Jesus at age 16 in 1966. He had a master's degree in voice and a doctorate in sacramental theology from the Catholic University of America.

When it comes to singing the praises of someone, there was a full symphony in honor of Fred Lazarus, courtesy of some 200 friends and supporters. They had gathered at the Tide Point offices of Ayers/Saint/Gross to surprise Lazarus and celebrate his 30 years as president of Maryland Institute College of Art. "First of all, he's a genius. And second of all, he re-invents himself every five years. He's brought all these great innovative ideas into how art is taught," explained MICA board chair Fredye Gross, who was co-host for the party with husband Adam Gross.

Hazel T. Barrett, a retired educator and collector of African-American art who also had owned and operated a Baltimore art gallery for a decade, died Mondayof complications from Parkinson's disease at Keswick Multi-Care Center. She was 90. Hazel Thompson, the daughter of scrap yard owner, was born and raised in Somerset, Pa. After graduating from Somerset High School in 1936, she enrolled at what is now Morgan State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1940.

Grace Hartigan, the renowned artist and educator who died over the weekend at the age of 86, was a painter's painter. "The thing that's been incredible is that one way or another, I've been able to arrange my life so that I could paint every day," she told The Sun in a 2001 interview. "I have great plans to live as long as Georgia O'Keeffe," she added. Ms. O'Keeffe lived to 98, and Ms. Hartigan said she needed the time because "there's a lot of work I still want to do." Ms. Hartigan was not granted that wish, but what she accomplished over a career spanning more than six decades was little short of astonishing.

Her bold canvases made her a bright star in the 1950s New York art world, but she "sank from view faster than the Titanic" when she moved to Baltimore, The New York Times said. Grace Hartigan, who ultimately found a second career offering her wisdom and advice to generations of young painters at the Maryland Institute College of Art, died of liver failure yesterday at the Lorien Mays Chapel nursing home. She was 86. "I feel that I am an aristocrat as far as painting is concerned; I believe in beautiful drawing, in elegance, in luminous color and light," she said in a 1990 biography.

The Maryland Institute College of Art will hold the world premiere of a 36-minute documentary about Maryland artist and educator Grace Hartigan at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Brown Center, 1301 Mount Royal Ave. Grace Hartigan - Shattering Boundaries, features studio interviews with Hartigan, the director of MICA's Hoffberger School of Painting since 1965, and artists she has influenced over the years. The reservations-only event includes a question-and-answer session with co-producers Janice Stanton and Alice Shure of Amici Films, as well as a reception.

ANNEKE JANS SAUNDERS DAVIS, 77, of Baltimore, Maryland died on Thursday, September 11, 2008. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she earned a Masters' degrees from Goucher College and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Anneke was a nature photographer, teacher and leader of many local and statewide environmental organizations. She is survived by her sons Benjamin of Mexico City, Mexico and Adam, of San Rafael, California and four grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be organized at a later date.

George J. Strakes, age 84 died in Naples, FL on April 12, 2008. He was born in Chester, PA on December 4, 1923. George's family moved to Baltimore, MD when George was a teenager. George was a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art and later used the skills developed there along with a series of progressive experiences in sales and marketing to found an a

On April 11, 2008, VIRGINIA G. DECKER (nee Gent), beloved wife of the late Alonzo G. Decker, Jr., Mrs. Decker is survived by her sister, Shirley Gent Rhodes, and nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at Hunts Memorial United Methodist Church, corner of W. Joppa and Old Court on Friday, April 25 at 1:30 PM. In lieu of flowers memorial gifts may be made to Maryland Institute College of Art, 1300 Mt. Royal Ave., Baltimore, MD 21217 or Washington College, 300 Washington Ave., Chestertown, MD 21620.

It's a typical college scene: three roommates sitting on an old, beige-checkered couch, watching the third season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD and passing around a pint of Ben and Jerry's s'mores ice cream. Hair straighteners and vases of silk flowers are scattered about the room, along with textbooks and the occasional dirty dish. The students at Dulaney Crescent in Towson, however, are an experiment in campus life, part of a Goucher College pilot program that allows young men and women to share apartments.