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A recent article published in the Baltimore Sun poopooing the City's plans to create a third arts district on Baltimore's westside has stirred up controversy among arts community. In particular, those involved with the Highlandtown arts district have taken exception to the reporter's characterizations of the area. It prompted this Letter to the Editor.

Here's an excerpt:

"Characterizing the Highlandtown Arts District as a "failure" ("Do arts districts live up to their hype?," May 14) is an insult not only to the hundreds of cultural workers who have poured their resources into turning East Baltimore into a set of thriving, expanding neighborhoods, but it's an insult to Baltimore as a whole. Baltimore's arts districts continue to grow and expand, and while most of the artists who work to bolster Baltimore's spirit and reputation are doing it more for love than money, the arts in Baltimore certainly seem to be thriving.

Nearly a decade ago, I moved to Baltimore because I fell in love with the city, particularly because of its place in the history of the arts and the potential for growth that permeated the city's atmosphere. I was in search of a city in which to change careers, and Baltimore won."

Read the entire letter here.

Kinetinauts lined up at the American Visionary Art Museum for the annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race a few weeks ago. This year's sculptures included a platypus, a sea monster and a gingerbread house among others. The man-powered sculptures make their way through a course consisting of hard surface, knee-deep mud and water. The WSJ ponders the artistic merits of the quirky race.

Here's an excerpt:

"The 45-year-old was getting the platypus ready for 15 miles of concrete, cobblestones, water and mud. The annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race matched people-powered creatures made of everything from tulle mesh fabric to recycled trash can lids.

"Some people think it's trash on wheels," says Theresa Segreti of the American Visionary Art Museum, the group that organizes the race. "But it's art."

Read the entire article here.

Check the WSJ slideshow of the race here.

Watch WSJ video of the race here.

The New York Times takes a look at the city's arts districts and its plan to create a third arts district on the Baltimore's westside. The paper of record doesn't draw any conclusions but presents both sides of the debate.

Here's an excerpt

"The idea for a west side arts district has been around at least since the administration of Kurt L. Schmoke, Baltimore's mayor from 1987 to 1999. Over the years, the city took steps to improve the area, though without official arts district designation.

One step was to turn the old Hippodrome Theater at 12 North Eutaw Street into the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, which opened in 2003. Another was converting the century-old Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, at 21 South Eutaw Street, which was modeled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, into artists' studios.

Mr. Schmoke, now dean of the Howard University School of Law in Washington, said that while he had not seen specific plans for the new arts district, he supported the idea generally."

Read the entire article here.

Personal technology guru, Walt Mossberg, uses Baltimore as a test bed for his review of the first 4G cellular phone from Sprint.

Here's an excerpt:

"The major wireless phone companies have begun building out the next generation of cellular phone systems, called 4G, or fourth-generation, networks. These networks are designed to offer much faster data speeds than the current speediest networks, which are called 3G."

Read the review or watch the video here.

Hagerstown youth, Aaron Brooks, already a wrestling champ, is training hard to break the world weight-lifting record.

Here's an excerpt

At 9-years-old, Aaron Brooks weighs in at around 80 pounds. The weight is pretty typical for his age, but his strength is anything but typical. He can bench press his own body weight and then some.

"I don't know how he can bench that much at his own age," Isaiah Brooks, Aaron's brother, said. "He still gets up fine. He's not even shaking."

Read the entire article here

http://www.wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=12511681http://mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2010/05/19/main_line_times/life/doc4bf4382351f3e629512530.txt

The report by D.K. Shifflet & Associates of McLean, Va., showed that Baltimore had 29 million visitors last year, 1 million more than in 2008, an increase of 3.5 percent."

Read the entire post here.

Leaving the wilds of Texas behind for the urban environs of Baltimore turns out have been a good business move for Paniagua's Enterprises. The Charm City transplant has grown more than 100 percent since heading east. It's recent success landed the company the No. 4 spot on Bloomberg Businessweek's list of the "Fastest Growing Inner-city Companies."

Here's an excerpt:

"Paniagua's Enterprises specializes in voice, data, and video fiber optic cable installation for commercial and government clients. After relocating the company's headquarters from Texas to inner-city Baltimore, founder Jaime Paniagua says he established a relationship with United Cable (now Comcast)."

Read the entire article here.

A recent MICA exhibit, A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice, examined the possibilities of a medium that has only recently gained acceptance as an artform, to convey messages related to social justice. One piece in particular, stood out for Art-Full Life blogger, Doreen Bolger.

Here's an excerpt:

"On a recent visit to MICA, I was surprised but delighted that A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice remained on view after its scheduled conclusion in April. The exhibition presented the artistic results of teaching and mentoring done by Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, a documentary quilter who recently completed a quilt that told the story of Barack Obama's journey to the White House. As she spoke to the creators of textile work like this, she urged them to quilt "the story that needs to be told, one that only you can tell."

Demonstrating art's potential to impact society, every piece in A Pathway to Awareness had a story and a message. Perhaps the most arresting work was Sex is a Weapon (American Dream). The hand-crafted dress composed of individual quilted parts stood on an old-fashioned wire seamstress form. While its ruffles and medallions could be on any party dress, its quilted squares revealed images of objectified women, each striking a suggestive pose in a skimpy bathing suit."

Read the entire post here.

Read more about Baltimore's artsy goings-ons here!