A salon-style talk and reception at BmoreArt’s Connect+Collect Gallery on Thursday, May 25th, part of a series of small private events. This talk was hosted in collaboration with the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA): a professional organization for architects in the United States that provides education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession.

The event featured a conversation with our two exhibiting artists, Alyssa Dennis and TLaloC, as well as architects, Randy Sovich and Violeta Fiorino. It was moderated by our gallery coordinator, Inés Sanchez de Lozada. 

The exhibiting artists both incorporate the language of architecture into futuristic, nostalgic, and ecologically driven visions, in drawings, prints, and sculpture. This was a free event for BmoreArt Premium subscribers, sponsors, and special guests. 

6-8 pm BmoreArt C+C Salon: Arcadia Futura
Gallery (2519 N. Charles Street)

Connect+Collect Gallery Talk with Alyssa Dennis, TLaloC, and AIA

For this episode Linda DePalma is interviewed by BmoreArt contributor Dwayne Butcher.  DePalma is a visual artist whose work explores the natural world through dimensional mixed media drawings and public sculpture. She is fascinated by the intricate structures of botanical forms, animal behavior, and biological systems to create mixed-media drawings that are both drawing and sculpture. As a public artist, she has been created many large-scale commissions in the region, such as  2014's Particle Portal a Gate for Maryland Public Health Lab  and 1991's Moon Arbor located in Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis. Linda has received numerous honors for her sculpture including A Robert Rauschenberg Foundation grant, an NEA Fellowship and a Mid-Atlantic Arts Consortium grant.  In 2014 the artist co-founded Friends of Public Art, advocating for sculpture conservation in Baltimore City. As the founding Education Director at Creative Alliance, Linda developed innovative arts programming for Baltimore City youth for 13 years. DePalma was the recipient of Creative Alliance’s Golden Formstone Award for 2015. Recently she decided to pursue her studio work full time

The artist was interviewed in her studio in Baltimore, Maryland during the Summer of 2015


"Conversations" Episode 3: Interview with Linda DePalma by Dwayne Butcher

George Figgs was born in 1947 in Baltimore.  He is a musician, actor, film historian, and visual artist. He grew up in Hampden, where the neighborhood movie theaters became his home away from home.  He is one of the original “Dreamlanders” and has appeared in a number of early John Waters productions including Pink Flamingos, Mondo Trasho, and Female Trouble. He later worked in film production and then, from 1991 to '99 George was the proprietor of Baltimore’s Orpheum Cinema, a celebrated art house theater that showed noir, foreign, cult, and underground cinema classics. In this conversation, George talks about his eclectic career, including his early years as a musician, bohemian life in Fells Point, participating in John Waters films, and how his life long obsession with cinema began. George currently divides his time between Baltimore and Toronto, Canada. Recently he has announced a new monthly film series at the Ideal Theater in Hampden. 

The interview was recorded in the summer of 2015 in George's home in the Woodberry neighborhood of Baltimore.



"Conversations" Episode 6: Interview with George Figgs by Dwayne Butcher

For this interview Nancy Murray interviews Jen Michalski.  Born in 1972 in East Baltimore, Jen is a Baltimore based author who received a BA in Literature from St. Mary's College of Maryland and her MS in Professional Writing from Towson University. She is one of the founding members of the acclaimed “510 Readings”, held at Minas Gallery and Boutique from 2008 to 2014, and the host of the reading series “Starts Here!” (sponsored by the Ivy Bookshop) at Artifact Coffee since 2014. Jen is the author of two novels—"The Tide King" and "The Summer She Was Under Water", two collections of fiction, and a couplet of novellas "Could You Be With Her Now". She has also appeared in several anthologies and is the editor of the anthology "City Sages: Baltimore". Her fiction has appeared in more than 80 publications, and she has received "Best of" awards from The Baltimore City Paper and Baltimore Magazine. She runs a literary journal, “jmww”. This interview was conducted in Baltimore in December 2015.

"Conversations" Episode 8: Interview with Jen Michalski  by Nancy Murray

For this episode of Conversations Craig Hankin interviews Doreen Bolger.

Doreen recently retired after 17 years as Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art, which is recognized nationally and internationally as a center for 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Among her many accomplishments are redefining the Museum’s artistic focus and placing greater emphasis on its world-class collection, initiating several major traveling exhibitions, expanding educational programs, began a series of exhibitions that included regional artists, and eliminating general admission fees. During her tenure, Doreen led the transformation of the BMA’s galleries for the Cone Collection of modern art and the contemporary, European, American, African, and Asian art collections to great acclaim, and also improved visitor amenities and essential infrastructure. The multi-year renovation also included the fall 2015 opening of the new Center for People & Art, which offers innovative and creative experiences for Baltimore audiences.

Doreen was born in 1949 in Far Rockaway, New York. She earned her B.A. from Bucknell University where she graduated magna cum laude. She earned her M.A. from University of Delaware, and her Ph.D. at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Doreen started her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York where she held a few positions over her 18 years there—beginning as a Research Associate in 1971 and ending as Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art in 1989. From 1989 to 1994 she became Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Museum of Art. In 1994 she became the Director of the Rhode Island School of Design, leaving in 1998 to become the director of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Currently she serves on the boards of the Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, Charles Street Development Corporation, Design Center Baltimore, and Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. Doreen is well known as a long time enthusiastic supporter of Baltimore’s emerging art scene. This interview was conducted in Doreen’s home in December 2015.

“Conversations” Episode 9: Interview with Doreen Bolger by Craig Hankin

For this episode of conversations Jack Livingston interviews “sound mechanic” Neil Feather. Neil was born in Pennsylvania. He moved to Baltimore in 1985 where he quickly became a central figure in the experimental and improvised music scene. He was a key participant in the regular performances held at the seminal Red Room, the hub of Baltimore’s burgeoning experimental sound scene. In 1999 Neil joined long time friend and collaborator John Berndt in founding the High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music, a large annual improvised music festival. Neil was awarded the 2014 Sondheim Art Prize and the 2014 Trawick Art Prize. He was included in a major exhibition “Art or Sound” in the 2014 Venice Biennale. In 2016 he was awarded a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship. This interview took place the summer of 2016 at Neil’s home in Baltimore.

"Conversations" Episode 12: Interview with Neil Feather by Jack Livingston

For this episode of Conversations Nancy Murray interviews Max Garner, a playwright, producer, and founder of Rapid Lemon Productions.  He moved to Baltimore from the DC area in the early 1990s. He joined the newborn AXIS Theatre and served as its resident sound designer for ten years. In a similar role with Run of the Mill Theater during the mid-2000s Max championed the establishment of their brainchild Variations Project as an annual festival of new and local ten-minute plays. He has designed and written for Variations through a migratory history which has included a three-year residence at Arena Players followed by the project’s current custodianship with independent company Rapid Lemon Productions. As playwright Max’s full length plays Sphere: The Thelonious Monk Story and Marvin’s Trial have been produced in Baltimore and Washington, DC. The episode was recorded in Spring of 2016 in Baltimore.

"Conversations" Episode 13: Interview with Max Garner  by Nancy Murray

For this episode of Conversations Bret McCabe interviews John Berndt. Musician, composer, artist, and general cultural explorer John Berndt has been participating in Baltimore's underground arts communities since the early 1980s. A co-founder and co-organizer of both the Red Room Collective and the High Zero festival, which helped make Baltimore crucible for local, national, and international musical improvisers and performers since the ’90s, Berndt's own curiosities have guided him into areas where philosophy and pranksterism form curious friendships, as well into musical collaborations and compositions that yield ecstatic, introspective beauty. In conversation, he's both a reservoir for anecdotes of Baltimore's left-field arts activities since the 1970s and a reflective thinker about his own creative pursuits, and where his search for unconventional sounds and ideas might be taking him. The interview was conducted in Baltimore during the summer of 2016.


“Conversations” is a podcast series on the arts and culture of the Baltimore Region produced by BmoreArt.  “Conversations” is funded by a Warhol Foundation Grit Fund Grant administered through The Contemporary of Baltimore.



"Conversations" Episode 14: Interview with John Berndt by Bret McCabe

For this episode of CONVERSATIONS photographer Connie Imboden is interviewed by Liz Donadio. Connie was first introduced to photography at the age of 17 in a class at MICA. Since then she has never turned back from using the camera as a tool to document the human body, abstracting form to intuitively express psychological states. 

Connie lives and makes work in Maryland but also travels extensively throughout the US and abroad, leading photography workshops and speaking about her work.

Connie's photographs are in the permanent collections of national and international museums as well as held in public and private collections. Over the course of her extensive career, Connie has exhibited widely in group and solo shows around the word, most recently in China. Her retrospective at Y:Art Gallery in Baltimore features photographs made over 3 decades, from early black & white prints to recent large-format color images printed on aluminum. 

In addition to her personal work, Connie is the president of the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund and a co-founder of the prestigious Baker Artist Awards. Active since 2008, the Baker Awards are dedicated to providing resources and support to artists of any discipline or background, at any point in their career.  

The interview was conducted in September of 2017 at Y:Art Gallery in Baltimore.

“Conversations” is a podcast series on the arts and culture of the Baltimore Region produced by BmoreArt. “Conversations” is funded by a Warhol Foundation Grit Fund Grant administered through The Contemporary of Baltimore. 

The “Conversations” podcast series is recorded, edited, and produced by Jack Livingston.

“Conversations” intro music by 98Owls .

“Conversations” Episode 15: Connie Imboden Interviewed by Liz Donadio

WRITERS RESIST BALTIMORE: VOICES UNITED!   Hosted by CITYLIT PROJECT 
This audio recording of that event features, in order, a welcome by the Executive Director CityLit Project Carla Du Pree and CityLit Project Board Chair Brian Lyles, followed by readings and performances by Nevasha Daya, Kay Adler, Saida Agostini, Linda Joy Burke, Andria Nacina Cole, Dario DiBattista, Fred Foote, Writers in Baltimore Schools: Jamesha Caldwell, Writers in Baltimore Schools: Rejjia Camphor, Writers in Baltimore Schools: Izell Grimes, Laura Shovan, Rienne Jahnai, Kevin Shird, Mejdulene Shomali, Edgar Gabriel Silex, Abdu Ali, Ron Kipling Williams, Tariq Touré and Derick Ebert. Following the reading there is a group conversation led by Marc Steiner.

On Sunday, January 15, 2017, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday writers gathered all over the world to participate in over 100 events under the name Writers Resist http://www.writersresist.org/ , to raise their voices in protest against the Presidency of Donald Trump. As a part of this action, eighteen writers from around the state gathered together at the EMC Collective in downtown Baltimore, MD to read from their works to raise their voices in support of inclusivity, understanding, community, connection, civility, and truth. 

Going forward these writers and many more will join an on ongoing collective movement to fight the dangers ahead, as a reactionary racist regime gains power in the United States. #WritersResist has since been transformed to #WriteOurDemocracy, providing an ongoing collective whose writers will  “put their pens into political practice.”

The spirit and mission of CityLit is to build and connect communities of avid readers and writers across Maryland. Since 2004, they have worked diligently to create programs and design platforms that give writers—all writers, and the communities they represent—a voice.

WRITERS RESIST BALTIMORE: VOICES UNITED!  hosted by CityLit

A Panel Discussion on Black Voices in Contemporary Art Criticism with ARTS.BLACK editors Taylor Renee Aldridge and Jessica Lynne

ARTS.BLACK: Panel Discussion

After finishing a course of chemo, I interviewed Alice Gadzinski at her Creative Alliance studio/ apartment on June 28, 2017.

Alice Gadzinski 1/3

June 28, 2017 at Creative Alliance in Baltimore

Alice Gadzinski talks in her studio / home with Cara Ober

Alice 2/3

Connect + Collect is a new initiative brought to you by BmoreArt's Cara Ober and Jeffrey Kent, an artist and curator based in Baltimore, designed to create awareness and momentum among new and experienced collectors, and to promote a culture of collecting in Baltimore.

Our first panel is with Art Collector, Consultant, and DC-based Lawyer Schwanda Rountree and Baltimore-based artist Mequitta Ahuja, a Guggenheim recipient whose work is in Rountree's collection. Topics to be discussed include how and why to start collecting art, how to conduct a studio visit, and best practices for building ethical, respectful, productive relationships between artists and patrons.

We welcome artists to this conversation who want to strengthen relationships with collectors, as well as those who want to build private and public collections, including curators, collectors, gallerists, and art professionals.

BmoreArt Connect +Collect Panel 1 Jan 24

For our second C+C panel on February 29, BmoreArt hosted DC-based collector Darryl Atwell, founder of Kinetic:Conversations in Contemporary Art at American University, and NY-based Independent Curator Dexter Wimberly, Founder and CEO of the upcoming Art World Conference to be hosted in NY in April 2019. That night we discussed differences between collecting art directly from artists or purchasing through galleries, how to form collecting communities and groups, and best practices for building ethical, respectful, productive relationships between artists and patrons.

Connect + Collect 2: Dexter Wimberly and Darryl Atwell

Bmoreart is a Baltimore-based online journal dedicated to reviewing and covering contemporary arts and culture. 

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