Artscape is an enormous undertaking, whether you're one of the organizers trying to stage what is annually billed as the country's biggest free arts festival or an attendee hoping to enjoy all it has to offer.
So, perhaps, in choosing the vastness of space, organizers have finally found the perfect Artscape theme.
With the tagline "Explore what's out there," Artscape 2016 opens Friday with an atmosphere and orientation that's determinedly out of this world. From a musical tribute to David Bowie, an artist whose first hit was titled "Space Oddity," to major art installations whose origins are not of this Earth, this is clearly a celebration of interplanetary dimensions.
"The great thing about space is that it captures people's imaginations," says Fred Scharmen, 38, an assistant professor of architecture and urban design at the Morgan State University School of Architecture & Planning and the force behind one of those installations. "The Grand Tour" is a to-scale representation of the solar system that will extend a mile-and-a-half along Charles Street. "It leads to everything," says Scharmen.
That it will, promises the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts' Susan Fortkiewicz, festival manager for Artscape. Organizers came up with the idea last August, she says, not long after the 2015 edition had closed. What could be done, they thought, to simultaneously add flavor to Artscape and entice visitors to walk from one end to the other of a celebration spread out over 16 city blocks?
"Festival-goers ... might not even get from one end to the other, because it's such a large footprint," she says. "The thought was, 'How can we get [people] to explore all of Artscape?' Someone said, 'the universe of Artscape,' and then it snapped into place — 'Oh wow, space.'"
Artists happily rose to the challenge of incorporating space into their projects. In the end, six major pieces were approved, each interactive, imaginative and impressive.
Among the most visually compelling should be "Space Place," put together by Brian Stansbury and his students at Morgan's school of architecture. A veteran of several Artscape projects over the years, Stansbury, 42, embraced the imagery and scale suggested by the otherworldly theme. (Even though, he hastens to add, the reality of space exploration leaves him cold — "We should be focused on the Earth," he says. "We could probably feed all the hungry people in America with the money we spent sending one person to the moon.")
For their project, Stansbury and 15 of his students used inflatable spheres — ranging in size from 5 feet to 30 feet in diameter — to represent the sun and planets. The installation, to be set up at Charles and Preston streets, will offer the opportunity to walk inside some of the spheres, all of which will be illuminated from the inside. Paths will outline the journey from one celestial body to the other; golf carts will represent spacecraft.
He and his students had great fun designing and putting together "Space Place," Stansbury says. "The idea of space exploration is fun," he admits, "and our media and our culture and television and movies are very interested in exploring space, because there are no rules."
But the goal extends beyond representing the solar system, to something far more practical, and perhaps welcome.
"We were trying to make people more comfortable," he says, "give them places to sit, hang out, enjoy some shade, things like that."
A more varied and frenetic experience is promised by "The Mother Ship Connection," a mashup of physical and performance art designed not so much to reflect what we know about space, but what we can imagine. It may be Artscape's most out-there installation, an Afro-futurist vision of the interplanetary clearly inspired by such visionaries as last year's Artscape headliner, George Clinton, and his Parliament-Funkadelic experiences.
"We want to invite people to step into their best worlds," says Olu Butterfly, 39, an artist and educator living near Pimlico and one of three creators responsible for the installation, which will be set up in Pearlstone Park at Preston and Cathedral streets. "Art is always meant to do something. What we're hoping to do is paint in people's minds different possibilities, reminders of who we are, and some possible next steps."
More than 30 people have been involved in putting "The Mother Ship Connection" together, Butterfly says. And the work, to some degree, is open-ended: some visitors will be asked to role play as part of the exhibit. They're even planning a "performance-art fashion show."
Another path to the otherworldly will be offered by Scharmen's "The Grand Tour," a seventh art installation that, while lacking some of the size and spectacle of the others, makes up for it in ingenuity and scale. Under Scharmen's direction, spheres representing the sun and the nine planets (Pluto is being included, no matter what astronomers may say) will be placed along Charles Street. The size of each will be done to scale: the sun will be a ball 18 inches in diameter, Mercury a ball bearing, Pluto a grain of sand.
What's more, they'll be placed along Charles Street at intervals reflecting the planets' actual distance from one another. The sun will be mounted on the southwest corner of the parking garage across from the Charles Theatre, Mercury about 50 feet away and Pluto a mile-and-a-half down at Charles and Baltimore streets.
Scharmen, who says he came up with the idea of laying out a solar system to scale before realizing he'd be the one to build it, echoes the idea that space and Artscape are a natural fit. Linking the two together, he believes, should make for an experience of outsized proportions.
"You look at Artscape, and it's got such a large footprint," he says. "And the solar system, it's big."
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If you go
Artscape runs through Sunday in the area roughly bounded by North and Mount Royal avenues and Preston and Charles streets. Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday (plus after-hours events). artscape.org.