Arts and Culture : Featured Stories

We've rounded up three choice entertainments this week that'll take you from Thursday through the weekend! A contest pitting local chefs against one another to create the best app around, a dance performance from the Baltimore Song Project, and a weekend of yucks and improvisations at the Creative Alliance.

This week it's a performance Wednesday by students from the 58 real-life Schools of Rock located around the U.S. Ranging in age and background, these amazing All-Stars play over 60 dates a year at theaters, festivals and the nation's top music venues. On tap this weekend is Open Space Arts' Summer Playwrights' Festival held at the group's outdoor theater in Reisterstown, MD.

It's a great week for pint-sized partiers and crab lovers. Center Stage will become Party Animal central with a carnival pre-show and rock-n-roll show. Baltimoreans (heck all of Maryland) loves blue crabs. To celebrate its first anniversary, the B&O American Brasserie is hosting its first annual Crab Bash. Seven chefs competing to create the best crab dish -- and it's all for a good cause! Sounds like a good time!

Now that Artscape has come and gone, it's time to focus your attention on other artistic pursuits. There's Whartscape, of course, but if you'd like to try something with air conditioning step on over to the BSO as the orchestra celebrates two sons of Baltimore -- Frank Zappa and Philip Glass -- while showcasing Baltimore beatboxer, Shodekeh. We've also compiled a list of the areas outdoor movie venues for those who love watching great flicks under the stars.

The name says it all and with the Maryland Institute College of Art just down the street, it's no wonder that Station North was the first neighborhood in the city to receive the state's designation as an arts district. It is one of the most vibrant locations in Baltimore with an ever-growing community of artists helping to fuel the area's cultural and economic revitalization. So, we decided to take a closer look.

This weekend may be summer's biggest holiday with 4th of July celebrations happening all over town, but tomorrow's the big day for Bmore Media! We're hosting our second Happy Hour at Nick's Fish House! Come down to South Baltimore meet the Bmore staff and pitch us your best story ideas!

Baltimore will take center stage this week, becoming the locus of the nation's arts communities as it hosts the Americans for the Arts Half-Century Summit. With the spotlight trained on the arts, we got our camera to discover what makes Bmore such a great place for every artists.

Take a walk through Station North, Fells Point or Highlandtown and you'll understand why Baltimore with its thriving independent theater community has started to gain a reputation as a top spot for artists and experimental theater. It may surprise you, however, to know that it was one resident that got the ball rolling in a home theater nearly 100 years ago.