Maryland Institute College

The tent set up on Mount Royal Avenue contained an H.G. Wells kind of universe, one where his time-travel machine had gone nuts. Marie Antoinette was mingling with '60s flower children. Civil War Southern belles rubbed shoulders with zoot-suited hipsters. Bobby-soxers, Wild West cowboys, and hippies danced to the tunes of a swing band. This "Fete of Lights 2001" celebrated the Maryland Institute College of Art's 175th anniversary, so guests were asked to dress in costumes from any of those 175 years.

For years, it has baffled and frustrated me that Baltimore, the home of Maryland Institute College of Art s, one of the country's premier schools of art and design, is a city with so few professional opportunities for artists. We virtually force our professional artists to look for job prospects and commissions in Philadelphia, New York and on the West Coast. With few commercial galleries and only a small pool of patrons interested in contemporary and emerging artists, Baltimore is uniquely positioned as an "artsy" city where artists produce high quality work for its own sake rather than for the marketplace.

Although contemporary sculptors have been knocking sculpture off its pedestal for decades now, it can still be a bit of a jolt to see some of the new ways they bring material together.An ambitious exhibit at the Maryland Institute College of Art, "Critical Mass," includes sculptors from this country and Germany. Although this is a non-thematic exhibit, there are still some common traits to be found in work that otherwise is all over the map. Most of the pieces are installation-oriented, use nonconventional sculptural material that is assembled more than sculpted, comment on environmental or consumer issues, and convey a sense of sculpture as a matter of continual process rather than neatly contained high-art product.

William J. Evitts, a noted writer, editor and historian who was a former college professor, died Dec. 14 of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 68. The son of a U.S. Department of Labor official and a homemaker, Dr. Evitts was born in Chicago and raised in Arlington, Va., where he graduated from Washington and Lee High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1964 from the Johns Hopkins University and was a Thomas Jefferson Fellow at the University of Virginia, where he earned a master's degree in 1966.

The National Symphony Orchestra performed a concert of video-game music last month at Wolf Trap in Virginia. Madden NFL 07 grossed more than $100 million in the sports video game's first week -- rivaling the initial ticket sales for The Da Vinci Code. Open Newsweek and read all about the World of Warcraft, a game your son or husband might know all too well. The video game phenomenon, an $8.4 billion industry, was just an art show waiting to happen. If you go Big Huge Games: From Concept to Game runs through Oct. 8 at the Rosenberg Gallery, Brown Center, Maryland Institute College of Art. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Madiz Gomez had a painting, a paper and an animation project to finish by today, the last day of classes at Maryland Institute College of Art. She also was practically broke. So when three people from MICA's Office of Student Affairs stopped by late at night with baskets of snacks and tangerines, Gomez gratefully accepted some chips and fruit. "Just what I need," she said. Welcome to the frenetic world of finals, where students engage in the tradition of skipping sustenance, sleep and showers while frantically trying to get projects done and kicking themselves for not starting earlier.

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.

Consider the comma. At first glance, it might seem insignificant - a period with a tail, a raindrop in the wind, respected only by grammarians. But the guardians of Baltimore's most prestigious art school think otherwise. The comma, they say, can loom very large, creating divisions where none exist, acting as a Berlin Wall of punctuation. Which is why, after a year of deliberation, the Maryland Institute, College of Art is casting the comma aside. As the fall semester kicked off this week, the word came down to returning professors and students: Henceforth, the art school in Bolton Hill will be the Maryland Institute College of Art - no comma, no pause, no division.

The man whose lyrics formed the philosophical backbone of my grad school experience, who was lead singer and muse for the '80s rock band Talking Heads, who has recorded myriad solo albums, written books, created a stream of videos, presented photography exhibitions, composed the music for a Twyla Tharp dance, shared an Oscar for the score of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, is - right now - trying to unscrew a lightbulb. David Byrne is midway up a ladder at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He's putting the finishing touches on an exhibit featuring his photography and a new visual-and-audio installation.

Dr. Theodore E. Klitzke, former dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he had also been acting president, died Sunday of complications from a stroke at Manor Care Ruxton. He was 92. Dr. Klitzke was born and raised in Chicago. He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago from 1934 to 1936 and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1939.

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.

Exhibit East Baltimore beautification See an exhibit that explores beautifying an East Baltimore neighborhood. The Maryland Institute College of Art's Super Pride Project is at the Contem porary Museum, 100 W. Centre St., $5 for adults, $3 for students. 410-783-5720 or go to contemporary.org.

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.