As the mercury rises, plans for Baltimore's 21st annual Artscape are also heating up.
A month from today, the three-day, $700,000 festival of art and music begins its run along Mount Royal Avenue. As the first major undertaking of the new Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, this year's celebration will introduce a number of changes, including new locations for food and one of the festival stages, more parking and several new venues.
The blueprint for the July 26-28 festival, expected to draw more than 1 million people, targets the claustrophobic areas of previous designs. So when the stickiest days of the summer arrive - which always seem to fall during Artscape - festival-goers may enjoy a bit more elbow room in Baltimore's "cultural corridor."
Artscape's most noticeable change will be the creation of a new food court in the University of Baltimore parking lot at Oliver Street and Mount Royal Avenue. While stands offering snowballs, cotton candy, lemonade and beer will be scattered throughout the festival, anything boiled, baked, grilled or fried will be confined to the new food court. The hungry masses will be able to dine at some 80 covered and uncovered picnic tables in the food court.
The court will also contain the University of Baltimore Stage. The UB Stage, showcasing local acts, has been moved from its former location in front of the UB Law Center to increase exposure for those acts. "I don't think it got the attention that it deserved," said Bill Gilmore, who heads the Office of Promotion & the Arts. "It was sort of on the fringe of the site."
This year, more than a dozen area musicians, including Laughing Colors, the Baltimore International Rhythm & Drumming Society and the Crawdaddies, will perform on the UB Stage.
They are among 41 musical acts scheduled at Artscape's three venues: the main Decker Stage at the former Mount Royal Station, the Sun Stage at Mount Royal and Lafayette (sponsored by The Sun) and the UB Stage.
Headliners include India.Arie, Kool & the Gang, Mickey Hart, the Ohio Players, MeShell Ndegeocello, Los Lobos and BuckWheat Zydeco. Mayor Martin O'Malley will perform on the Sun Stage with his Irish rock band, O'Malley's March.
Artscape 2002 will also have more parking. Gilmore said at least 1,000 spots have been added. The State Office parking lots at Eutaw and Preston streets will be free all weekend, while paid parking will be available at the Meyerhoff parking garage at Preston and Cathedral streets, the UB garage at Biddle Street and Maryland Avenue, and the Symphony Center garage at Park and Preston streets.
Even with added space for vehicles, Gilmore recommends festival-goers take public transportation, as several streets around the site will be closed to traffic. Light rail trains stop at the Cultural Center on Howard Street and at the UB/Mount Royal stop on Mount Royal Avenue.
The volume and variety of art at this summer's festival is expected to swell. The Artists' Market will feature a record number of artists and artisans selling their crafts.
Literary events will move from the UB Law Center to the Book Garden Tents, and will include readings, workshops and book signings for all ages. There will also be a hip-hop slam and a teen poetry slam.
Along the north side of Mount Royal, where food booths were located, 35 area arts institutions and organizations will operate information booths. A Cultural Resources Tent, which formerly housed those booths, will still provide space for additional organizations.
Artscape 2002 also will mark the premiere of a Maryland Film Festival Tent at Oliver Street and Mount Royal. Film shorts will run the duration of the festival, and selected filmmakers will discuss their work on site.
The Theatre Project on West Preston Street will become an Artscape venue, serving as host to several events, including dance, films and a one-act opera. And the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall will open to the public during the festival for the first time in years.
Instead of positioning art exhibits along Mount Royal Avenue, most will be located on the median strip between Dolphin and Lanvale streets. This year's display highlights rebellious urban exhibitors, including spray-paint artists, poster painters and an artist who will paint a mural on site during the length of the festival.
"The artists have histories of experimenting with street-based art," said Gary Kachadourian, visual arts coordinator.
One thing that won't change at Artscape this year is security, in spite of concerns that have led to tougher security in many public places since Sept. 11. Artscape organizers say law enforcement personnel will monitor the grounds but will not conduct searches.
Some of the changes in this year's festival are a result of the marriage in January of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Art and Culture, the agency that had overseen Artscape during its first 20 years. The new Office of Promotion & the Arts has moved to 7 E. Redwood St. and developed a Cultural Affairs Department to absorb the former responsibilities of MACAC.
"The programs that MACAC had under its wing are continuing," said Randi Vega, new director of the department.
Vega, hired in April, previously spent two years at the Baltimore Museum of Art as the administrative assistant in the contemporary art and painting and sculpture departments. She also served as manager of the BMA's Friends Groups. Before that, she was executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce.
Vega said she is looking forward to a lengthy tenure in the department, including her role as a primary planner of future Artscapes. "For me, it's a dream job, and I feel very fortunate," she said. "This team is really, really crackerjack."