Mica

Regarding the article crowing about the increase of Chinese students at Maryland Institute College of Art ("MICA enjoys an Eastern influx" May 25): Does this mean that MICA allowed in all talented and eligible American students and there were many spots left over? That in a country of 300-plus million there weren't enough Americans interested in a prestigious art institute? And no deserving citizen was turned away? Of course, it's probably like those hundreds of unwanted slots that will go to illegal immigrants under Maryland's Dream Act. Apparently college admission isn't competitive anymore and our own people have no problem getting a spot where they deserve.

The surveillance state expands. The Patriot Act allows our phones to be wiretapped. Our email and Internet transactions leave a trail for some to follow. The police can access our GPS location data through our smartphones without a warrant. Retailers record our purchasing habits with painstaking detail. Apparently, Target studies those purchases to determine when customers are pregnant - in the second trimester, no less - for specialized marketing purposes. And now, there will be surveillance drones.

The making of the Oscar-nominated movie "Music by Prudence" is a tale of two schools, one in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and one in Baltimore. A favorite for best short documentary at tonight's Academy Awards, this 33-minute flight presents an affecting portrait of its tough, gifted title character, the singer-songwriter in a band of disabled youths at the King George VI School & Centre for Children With Physical Disabilities in Bulawayo. Prudence Mabhena suffers from arthrogryposis, a condition that deforms joints and cost her both her legs.

You usually head for a vending machine when you're craving a bag of chips or can of soda. But there's a one machine in Baltimore that dispenses objects such as a "Hankie Pankie," a heart-shaped engagement ring, a mini-Zombie or, for those in need of quick religious reassurance, a "Pocket Nun. " That's just some of the fare available — with a few crisp dollar bills — from the "Art-o-mat," part of a national project designed to bring fine...

Tears welled in Tywana Reid's eyes as she described a tumultuous week. "Half the time, I cry myself to sleep," the 16-year-old said. "Because I say, ‘Who is there to talk to?' " As Reid's words spilled forth, a half-dozen other high school girls from across Baltimore nodded in compassion. Such an exchange might sound too raw for any setting other than a confidential support group. But in the background, three students from the Maryland Institute College of Art captured every moment on shoulder-mounted video cameras.

For nearly two centuries, the Maryland Institute College of Art has been known for training painters, sculptors and fashion designers. But in May, MICA broadened its course offerings, and it is preparing to confer its first master's degrees on about 200 students planning careers in fields ranging from engineering to public health to computer science. The next step: an MBA program that will start next fall and provide classroom instruction at both MICA and the Johns Hopkins University's Carey School of Business.

The colorful work of Baltimore's Globe Poster Company, which began in 1929 and closed last year, will live on at the Maryland Institute College of Art . MICA announced Friday that it would acquire approximately 75 percent of Globe's collection — about 5,000 letterpress illustrations, many of them hand-carved; 350 drawers of type; and original posters Globe created for the likes of James Brown and Frank Zappa. It was one of the country's largest makers of posters in this form.

D. W. Griffith's overpowering 31/2 -hour epic, "Intolerance," gets the perfect showcase Saturday, 95 years after its premiere — a screening with live, original music during an event exploring, yes, intolerance. The Maryland Institute College of Art has commissioned a new score by Anne Watts and Boister, who will perform it at 7 p.m. in the Brown Center's Falvey Hall. It's the closing attraction in a film series linked to MICA's exhibition about intolerance, "The Narcissism of Minor Differences.

Far from clinging to their daughter, Rose He's parents urged her to pursue an art degree 7,500 miles from home. Like many Chinese families, they thought an American diploma could lead to a better job. He, a Shanghai native, could not be happier with her decision to enroll at the Maryland Institute College of Art . "In China, you keep drawing and drawing, but you don't have your own ideas," she says. She recently exchanged emails with a prospective applicant from Beijing.

A nine-block stretch of Charles Street near the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus will undergo a $28 million makeover — including new sidewalks, curbs, streetlights and trees—under a deal approved by the city's spending board Wednesday. Plans for the renovation of the street, which have been in the works for at least seven years, are expected to be completed early next year, transportation department spokeswoman Adrienne Barnes said. Construction is expected to begin next summer.

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.

The hulking white duplex at 2108-2110 Mount Royal Terrace - a vacant eyesore for 20 years - is a financial and emotional drain on neighbors, who maintain a five-block stretch of historic homes that overlooks the Jones Falls Expressway and acts as the eastern border of Reservoir Hill. But for two nights this past weekend, residents gathered on the sidewalk in front of the empty house, watching it and imagining what it would be like if someone lived there. The occasion was an exhibit by two students at the nearby Maryland Institute College of Art, who used the 120-year-old home as a movie screen, with videos projected onto the plywood that covers the first-floor windows.

When painting student Jennifer Tam studied a series of Marcel Duchamp prints of boldly colored, spinning discs, she became convinced that the enigmatic works had to be included in the big new show opening Sundayat the Baltimore Museum of Art . "Twelve Rotoreliefs," the 1935 series by the French Surrealist master, is deceptively simple. Duchamp originally conceived of the record-shaped platters as children's toys and tried unsuccessfully to sell them at Macy's. But a professor later used the reliefs to restore the illusion of three-dimensional sight to a World War I veteran who had been blinded in one eye. "Art can have value in the most unexpected ways," the 22-year-old Tam told her classmates in the Johns Hopkins University's museums and society program.

For nearly two centuries, the Maryland Institute College of Art has been known for training painters, sculptors and fashion designers. But in May, MICA broadened its course offerings, and it is preparing to confer its first master's degrees on about 200 students planning careers in fields ranging from engineering to public health to computer science. The next step: an MBA program that will start next fall and provide classroom instruction at both MICA and the Johns Hopkins University's Carey School of Business.

A 22-year-old man was critically wounded after being shot in the Charles North neighborhood early Friday morning, according to Baltimore Police. The incident occurred at 12:30 a.m., in the 1900 block of Maryland Ave., police said. The victim was standing at a bus stop when he was approached by two people, police spokesman Detective Kevin Brown said. One pulled out a gun and fired, hitting the victim twice in the back, chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The victim was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment, Guglielmi said.

The Maryland Institute College of Art announced Wednesday that it has received a $10 million gift, the largest in its history, which will be used to expand graduate programs and research. The gift was bestowed by longtime college trustee George L. Bunting Jr. and his wife, Anne Bunting. "Once again, George and Anne have redefined what true leadership can do to propel the college ahead," said Michael Franco, the college's vice president of advancement. "Not only was Mr. Bunting instrumental in helping MICA see the important role of graduate study in its future, he and his wife also stepped forward with this wonderful gift of endowment to help ensure the college will have the necessary resources to pursue this path.

"Music by Prudence," made partly with the financial and creative support of the Maryland Institute College of Art, overcame several other strong candidates, including the American labor tragedy "The Last Truck," to win best short documentary at the 2010 Academy Awards on Sunday night. Few Oscar films have packed in more profundity per minute than this tale of Prudence Mabhena, 21, and seven other disabled young musicians in Zimbabwe transcending bigotry and isolation through art and fellowship.

The French cartoon that won the Oscar for best animated short this year, "Logorama," is a giddy, nightmarish chase that wrings nonstop surprise and a horrible beauty from a vision of corporate logos and trademark characters taking over the Earth and all creation. Talk to the founders of the "Festival Image " that starts Friday at Maryland Institute College of Art -- including Sylvain Cornevaux, deputy director of the Alliance Francaise de Washington, and Laurence Arcadias, co-chair of MICA's animation department -- and you feel there was something fated about French cartoonists tackling America's advertising culture and remolding it into a vision of apocalypse.

You can't miss Todd Brizzi's artistic stamp on Harford Road in Lauraville/Hamilton. He'd just never tell you that. He'd never tell you, as he makes your coffee at Zeke's, that the company's distinctive logo is his work. Or that the company's peculiar-cool coffee-bean-in-a-crab design, its answer to the "siren" logo of a certain company that must not be named, is his as well. That "Fueled by Zeke's" bumper sticker on the Honda Accord driving by? That’s Brizzi, too. He has created the instantly memorable logos for many of the shops on this block -- the barber store Chop Shop, the knitting supply store Spinster, Great Soul Wellness Studio.

Regarding the article crowing about the increase of Chinese students at Maryland Institute College of Art ("MICA enjoys an Eastern influx" May 25): Does this mean that MICA allowed in all talented and eligible American students and there were many spots left over? That in a country of 300-plus million there weren't enough Americans interested in a prestigious art institute? And no deserving citizen was turned away? Of course, it's probably like those hundreds of unwanted slots that will go to illegal immigrants under Maryland's Dream Act. Apparently college admission isn't competitive anymore and our own people have no problem getting a spot where they deserve.