This is one stop in a series of walking tour audio clips exploring public art around Penn Station in Baltimore, Maryland. 

The next time you lock your bike up at Penn Station, direct your gaze to the left. You'll find a camouflaged piece of art acting as both a fence and a point of visual interest. 

William Leizman's work was not designed for this hidden location... but as times changed, so did the placement of his art.

Untitled (Fence) 1978

The first police Koban's were placed in Baltimore in 1994.  

The "Koban" concept was imported from Japan with the concept of physically stationing police officers in the communities they served. However, not long after Koban's were installed, the physical presence of officers was replaced by an ever expanding presence of closed circuit surveillance cameras monitored at an off-site location.

 The Koban structure sat empty for years before the Station North Arts and Entertainment District began using it to host art installations in 2013.  In 2015, after the "Baltimore Uprising", Outsider artist, Loring Cornish was asked to create a permanent installation at this Koban using his signature mirrored mosaic approach. 



Koban Police Look Out 2015

In 2014, nearly 10 years after the monumental Male Female was “splashed” down into the center of the plaza behind me, local artist Rachael London was commissioned by the Station North Entertainment District to do some “placemaking” at this site.

With a grant from ArtPlace American and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts; Rachael organized cultural programming in front of the station but she also noticed a lot of people were sitting down on the steps… So she created the Wave Bench.



Wave Bench 2014

Welcome to Penn Station.  The classical Beaux Arts architecture seems historic and iconic, but the building we see is the third to stand on this site.

The building, as we see it was once considered a modern upgrade to brick building considered less aesthetically pleasing and less traveler friendly, the brick building had replaced a smaller wooden station…

What now seems historic was once a premier symbol of contemporary reinvention, and the same can be said for the artwork located around this gateway to the City. 

Intro to Penn Station

When German Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys set out to plant 7,000 oak trees, each paired with a bassalt rock, throughout the city of Kassel, Germany, he was slowly meticulously combating the City's conservative politics and increasing urbanization... 

7,000 as a number was only a symbolic beginning. The artist always considered a ongoing scheme of tree planting extended around the world to “effect environmental and social change” an ongoing goal…

 In 2000 the University of Maryland Baltimore County began the Beuys sculpture park initiative, created an installation on thier own campus and lead the planting of oaks with bassalt stone markers across urban Baltimore.. Wyman Park Dell was one such site.

 

7000 Oaks - 2000

The Union Plateau at the corner of Charles and 29th Streets is one of the most popular and active corners of the Park.  This corner is a primary entrance with a lot of visibility to passers by. The Friends of Wyman Park Dell and the City of Baltimore have invested a lot in improving this location through renovations to the playground, a permanently installed ping-pong table that is always active and a number of brightly colored bistro tables and chairs to provide a more social space.

A main feature of this space is the large Union Soldiers and Sailors monument, yet despite it's prominent location, few seem to know what it stands for, or the story behind it. 

Union Sailors and Soldiers 1909

The monument that honors two, highly regarded, generals  of the Southern Confederacy was commissioned by private funding who left money for the statue to be created in his will. It is also a remarkable piece of sculpture by an unrecognized female artist, Laura Gardin Frazier. It is one of the only double equestrian sculptures in the united states and possibly Frazier's greatest work. The statue has also been targeted and suggested for removal by about half the members of a special commission assigned to review monuments dedicated to the confederacy…  

While the calls for removal are directly associated with it’s relationship to racist ideologies there are other ways to analyze it as an artifact.. how does someone spending t

The Parting of Lee and Jackson - 1948

Wyman Park Dell is a historic Olmstead Park.  It is iconic for it's depressed "dell" form and it's prominent location in Central Baltimore.  It serves multiple surrounding communities, and the Hopkins Homewood Campus by providing a natural environment to walk your dog, play with your children, meet with friends or take personal time in the woods. 

Noise Plaque