BmoreArt’s Picks: October 10-16
This Week: Curator Jessy DeSantis hosts a closing reception + artist talk at Motor House, Musica Spira performs at George Peabody Library, Deborah Patterson opening reception at JELMA, Philip Muriel, James ‘Alpha’ Massaquoi, and Laurel Stewart opening reception at Bromo Arts Tower, Stoop Storytelling at AVAM, Signe Wilkinson and Jonathan Zimmerman speak at MICA, opening reception for Sue Lowe at Creative Alliance, Gunz of Steel at Current Space, Art After Hours at the BMA, and The Blaq Skate Day Party at Shake & Bake — PLUS MAP’s UNDER $500 call for entry and more featured opportunities!
BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.
To submit your calendar event, email us at events@bmoreart.com!
Return To The Land by Jessy Desantis | Closing Reception + Artist Talk
Tuesday, October 10 :: 7-10pm, Artist Talk 8pm
@ Motor House
Guest curator and Baltimore based artist Jessy DeSantis invites viewers to reflect on artists’ interpretive expression of their relationship with the Land. Return to the Land features multidisciplinary art, including spoken word, video, illuminated aerial sculptures, paintings, photography and textile works by Baltimore based artists.
“Generations of separating ourselves from nature has led to our current lived experiences of this ecological emergency. For reversal, our way of human living would have to change drastically, it would need to be revolutionary. However unattainable that may feel, a manageable step towards that is of that internal revolution in returning to who we fundamentally are. Returning to the land is essentially returning to yourself because you are the land” – Jessy Desantis
In the Stacks: Musica Spira
Wednesday, October 11 :: 6:30-7:30pm
@ George Peabody Library
We’re back! After three years, we’re so excited to bring music back to the George Peabody Library. For our first performance, early musical ensemble Musica Spira will explore the fascinating variety of venues that 17th-century Italian women composed in, including courts, convents, and private academies. Isabella Leonarda and Lucrezia Vizzana spent their lives in convents, Francesca Caccini was the highest-paid musician at the Medici court, and Barbara Strozzi published cantatas that she performed in her father’s private salon. Although the contributions of women have often been overshadowed in our historical narratives, the musical works of these four women came to define the most important genres of the Baroque period.
Enjoy an evening of music in one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, along with a one-night only display of women-authored rare books from the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries Special Collections.
This event is free and advance registration is strongly encouraged.
Doors open at 6 pm.
• Seats for registered attendees will be held until 6:20 and then will be released for open seating.
• A standby line will begin at 5 pm and let additional people into the concert if seats are available after 6:20 pm.
• We encourage patrons without advance registration to join the standby line. Most standby patrons are able to be accommodated.
Depths of Being | Opening Reception
Thursday, October 12 :: 1-3pm
@ JELMA, Morgan State University
This groundbreaking exhibition features six large oil paintings by Deborah Patterson that interpret the six “Depths” of Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ), a Japanese healing art used to restore harmony to the body by simply holding one’s fingers. Deborah’s nearly fifteen year experience with JSJ has been so positive, her goal is to share it widely. Accompanying the paintings is original music by experimental musician/composer, Charles Emmett Freeman. In 2022 Charles suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, which has led both to an interest in healing and an entirely different approach to his music. For this project, he has tuned his compositions to healing frequencies that can be traced back to Sanskrit chants, 8th c. Gregorian chants, and 11th c. harmonics. Participants will experience JSJ firsthand as they engage with the paintings and music. Both artists received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council to complete their work.
October 12, 1:00-3:00 P.M. Exhibition opens to the public with reception made possible by a Free Fall Baltimore grant from Baltimore Promotion and the Arts.
October 26, 1:00-3:00 P.M. Public conversation about the exhibition and the place of the arts in medicine and healing, facilitated by MAM4Healing (Music, Art and Medicine for Healing), a group comprised of Professor of Music at Morgan, Dr. Samuel Springer, medical doctors, Dr. Tramar Murdoch and Dr. Garry Jennings, and artist Deborah Patterson. This event is also made possible by the Free Fall Baltimore grant from Baltimore Promotion and the Arts.
About the Artists:
Deborah Patterson completed her art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and holds a masters degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music and the Arts. A Baltimore native, she returned to the city to collaborate with composer, Robert Sirota, former director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, on two large painting and music projects: “Triptych: A Commemoration to the Victims of 9/11” and “The Passion of Jesus Christ: A Visual Oratorio.” Her work is in private collections throughout the U.S., Italy, Greece, and the U.K.
Charles Emmett Freeman, also a Baltimore native, recently released an album with musician, Anne Watts, about John Englehart, a lifelong institutionalized man in his seventies, whose life was transformed and healed through his own art making. Charles’ own experience with art and music collaborations include: three compositions as part of a conceptual sculptural installation at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, and the composition/performance of music with the Baltimore band, Boister, to accompany films at venues throughout Maryland, DC and Virginia.
Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.
