arts and culture : Development News

The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) says that, it will enter into negotiations with the development team of Seawall Development Company, owned by Donald and Thibault Manekin, and Cormony Development LLC, owned by Samuel Polakoff, for the Parkway Theatre Redevelopment Project located at 1820 North Charles Street, 1 West North Avenue and 3 West North Avenue--the former Parkway Theatre.

Baltimore's Parkway Theatre was designed by Oliver B. Wright and patterned after the West End Theatre near Leicester Square in London. The theatre was acquired in 1926 by the Loews organization and extensively remodeled. Movies remained the mainstay until the theatre was acquired and closed in 1952 by the Morris Mechanic organization. It reopened in 1956 as the Five West Art Theatre, continuing that operation into the mid 1970's when it again closed and remained so until the early 1990's when an attempt was made to open commercial office space in the rear orchestra level. The theatre has remained vacant since 1998.

Seawall and Cormony have proposed a $12.2 million mixed-use project, featuring a 26,189 square foot build-out that incorporates the three properties into a seamless development that celebrates the arts. The team's design incorporates a performing arts venue, bar, a museum and related support space.

The Parkway will undergo an historic renovation, becoming a multi-faceted theatre able to accommodate a wide variety of entertainment. While the focus will be on live music, other options are expected to include community theatre, children's shows, comedy, movies, lectures, and a catering hall.

The existing building at 1 West North Avenue would be replaced with new construction in order to achieve a vibrant, illuminated corner. The new structure will feature a lobby and office for the theatre on the lower levels and commercial uses on the upper floors. Meanwhile, the fa�ade of 1820 North Charles Street will be retained. Each floor in this building becomes an extension of the space on the same floor in 1 West North Avenue. The first floor will house the kitchen for the theatre.

"This proposal and this development team provide a great opportunity to revitalize a historic structure and reinvigorate the most critical area in the Charles North community," says BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie. "We are confident that this project will serve as a catalyst for more private investment throughout the community."

The proposal is the result of a Request for Proposals issued in May 2009,  in which the BDC offered the three properties, located within Charles North, the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and the City's Enterprise Zone, for redevelopment. BDC received just two responses to the RFP.

Both a community-appointed Advisory Panel and BDC's Project Review and Oversight Committee unanimously approved the Seawall/Cormony proposal. Subsequently, the Board of Directors of BDC endorsed the proposal and Mayor Sheila Dixon approved the Board's recommendation.

Source The Baltimore Development Corporation
Writer: Walaika Haskins

For France Aubrey, turing the the first floor of her northeast Baltimore home into a showplace for glass artists just made sense. So, this Friday will mark the grand opening of Portable Rainbow Art Glass Gallery and Studio.

"When I bought the house in 2003, I put nine recessed lights in one of the first rooms thinking I might want to have a gallery later. Finally, I just got to the point where I felt like it was time. I know other glass artists, I love glass and I want to get the word out. Baltimore has nothing like this," she says.

While there are two galleries featuring excellent works done using blown glass, according to Aubrey there wasn't a place for artists working with glass in other ways to display their masterpieces.

"There was nothing for other techniques. I work in kiln-formed glass. I'm showing stained glass window panels and painted glass, which is not simply painted but is done using special paints that are then fired and the paint becomes part of the glass. There are many techniques that people just don't know about. They know about blown glass because of J.L. Chihuly, but there are these other techniques that people are working in that are just as exciting," Aubrey says.

Located at 6500 Brook Avenue, the gallery is also environmentally-friendly with all of its electricity a result of wind power that Aubrey purchased through a local renewable energy brokerage. In addition, the glass Aubrey uses in her pieces are from an environmentally conscious Oregon source.

"One room is just artwork and the other two rooms will have displays of glass as well," she continues. The gallery will be open this weekend, Friday 4p.m. to 9p.m., Saturday 10a.m. to 8p.m., and Sunday 10a.m. to 6p.m. as part of School 33's Open Studio Tour.

Source: Frances Aubrey, Portable Rainbow Art Glass Gallery and Studio
Writer: Walaika Haskins

After waiting nearly a decade for a new source to feed their love of comic books and graphic novels, Baltimoreans are getting not one but two new options for their fix. We told you last week about the Sept. 2 opening of Alliance Comics in Federal Hill; now we'll fill you in on Graphic Novelty, which is slated to open a week later at 1712 Thames St. in Fells Point.

Co-owners Benjamin Greene and Heiko Spieker call their new labor of love Baltimore's "one-stop geek shop." The shop will offer "anything geeky," Spieker notes, including toys, card games and board games." While shoppers will find mostly new issue comic books and graphic novels at the store, Greene and Spieker will be selling portions of their personal collections and will also allow patrons to sell their own collections on a consignment basis.

Spieker said he and Greene, who owns the Waterfront Hotel and Miss Irene's in Fells Point, had tossed the idea of a comic store around for years. They decided to pounce when the 1712 location was vacated this summer by Fells Point Frame and Design (which moved to a larger location down the street).

"We both have a firm grasp on the realms of geekdom, but there are little subdivisions within our expertise," Spieker notes. "He knows more about Star Trek, while I know more about Star Wars, Angel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But overall I'd say we're about equal."

Spieker says he and Greene designed the shop "to look like comic book in its own way," with yellow and red walls, custom-built black shelving units with plexiglass to allow maximum visibility, and a wrap-around glass counter will display special items. The duo have also set up a gaming room in the back of the store with wireless Internet for patrons to play games.

Interest in the story has already been high, Spieker says.

"We've been keeping the door open as we've been setting up here, and people pop in every day to say their glad we're here." In fact, impromptu visits from parents with their children have persuaded Spieker and Greene to carry kids' book, which wasn't in their original plan.

Spieker chalks up the opening of two comic book stores in Baltimore just one week apart to a case of "great minds thinking alike." He's anticipating the month of October, which will bring with it both the Fells Point Festival and Baltimore Comic-Con � and, hopefully, a lot of foot traffic.

Writer: Lucy Ament
Source: Heiko Spieker, Graphic Novelty

What do you do when you score the exclusive rights to a major museum's photography collection? You get a bigger store, that's what.

It's the enviable position Kory Mitchell and Jennifer Moore, owners of Fells Point Frame and Design found themselves in this spring when they won the sole commercial right to fulfillment, distribution and publication of the Baltimore Museum of Industry's BG&E photographic collection, which spans the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. The gig requies considerable more room for printing processes, so the duo increased their space by roughly 40% last month by moving from the 1700 block of Thames Street to 1622 Thames, a building previously occupied by the running store 5K.

The BG&E collection is a Baltimorephile's dream. Among the more than 2,500 pictures are electric images of the city on fire in 1904, a 1944 skyline with Goodyear blimp above it, and the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower when it was still crowned by a giant bottle. It also contains charming regional shots of the Chesapeake Bay, crabbers, Pimlico during the running of the Preakness, and old industrial shots. Mitchell and Moore are able to reproduce any photo in the collection in various sizes and on various media, including canvas.

Fells Point Frame and Design continues to carry hundreds of posters (running the gamut of themes, from music to movies to fine art prints to celebrities), as well as an impressive collection of old world maps and vintage photography. It will enlarge customer's personal photographs, and it sells Moore's "Board Baltimore" line of wood-and-glass signs bearing clever sayings. It has also expanded its inventory to include the Space Craft clothing line and is running a diploma-framing special to beat any in town, Mitchell says.

"We pride ourselves on being Baltimore's most affordable custom framer," Mitchell says. "We make it easy to get stuff frame if you can't afford higher end materials. We fill that niche."

Mitchell, who opened his shop nearly ten year's ago in Canton's Broom Factory, is a Delaware native who made Baltimore home after attending Towson University. He says he's excited about the renaissance in the city.

"I'm a big believer," he says. "I'm seeing things get better. And we're excited to do the new things we're doing because we think they're going to be our engines of growth."


Writer: Lucy Ament
Source: Kory Mitchell, Fells Point Frame and Design

As if Baltimore Comic-Con weren't enough to look forward to, comic book and graphic novel fans can now anticipate the arrival of Alliance Comics, the first comic store to operate in downtown Baltimore in roughly a decade.

Amy and Gerard McNeal Sept. 2 will open the doors of their shop, which is being relocated from Bowie, in what used to be Theodore's Cleaners at 904 Light Street in Federal Hill. The couple will sell new issue comic books and graphic novels ("silver" and "golden" age materials and back issues are available only at the couple's Silver Spring store), as well as toys, tee-shirts, card games, and merchandise related to video games (but not the games themselves).

Amy says the store will carrying "stuff for the littlest reader, stuff for grownups, and stuff in between."

"Comics in general are a great thing for established readers and new readers alike," Amy says. "There are so many different types, from action adventure to super heros, to science fiction. There's a lot more than people generally think there is."

Shoppers at Alliance Comics, which will host a grand opening on Oct.10 during the weekend of Comic-Con, should expect a visual feast, Amy notes. The couple painted the store in a silver-grey tone and used mostly black shelving.

"We were going for a monochromatic background with a clean, modern feeling because our product is so colorful," Amy says. "The comics have such vibrant covers they need no enhancement or competition."

The McNeals started their comic store business 13 years ago, harnessing Amy's retail knowledge with Gerard's passion for comics. "I knew virtually nothing about comics!" Amy says. "I did a lot of reading to learn about them so I can help explain them to people and help them fit their needs."

The couple, both originally from Baltimore, have been itching to get back to the city for awhile.

"In the last five to ten years, Baltimore has really changed and grown as a city from what we knew growing up," Amy says. "It had a lot of problems back in the day that have become less of an issue now. We're fond of it; it's a fun place."

Writer: Lucy Ament
Source: Amy McNeal, Alliance Comics

Wanna see a photo of two dragonflies mating?

Wait � don't answer that. Just head over to Gallery 788, a new artists' space at 788 Washington Boulevard in Pigtown, where provocative works from a dozen Baltimore artists whose mediums range from photography, painting, and sculpture, to illustration, filmmaking, singing and songwriting, poetry, performance art and various other media.

The new gallery, which hosted a "soft launch" for about 250 people on July 30, gives artists the opportunity to show their work and gain visibility without the expense and networking hurdles of breaking into the private gallery scene. According to photographer Terry Smith, who snapped the dragonfly dalliance and other nature-themed photographs currently on display, the building has been opened up to artists by owners Mark and Patrice Smith (no relation), who run Baltimore-based Magnum Construction. Artists who pass an informal jury pay just $50 to display their work for a month and help operate the gallery four days a week. In exchange, they receive full price for their pieces; the gallery does not charge a commission.

The first exhibit will run two months, and subsequent exhibits will rotate monthly. Smith, a supervisor for Magnum Construction, calls the two-story space with nine-foot high ceilings "clean, crisp, brand new and wide open," which, coupled with the great foot traffic at the corner of Washington and Scott Streets, make it the ideal space for displaying art.

"I think it's a good fit with the plans Mark has for Washington Boulevard," Smith says, alluding to  work being done in the area by Magnum. "He's making it a destination point and this gallery would add to that. As restaurants and businesses come in, people will visit the gallery."

Gallery 788 is open Thur. 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.; Fri. noon � 8 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m. � 8 p.m.; and
Sun. noon � 6 p.m. For more information, contact Eduardo Rodriguez at [email protected].

Source: Terry Smith, Magnum Construction
Writer: Lucy Ament

Don't let "Dancing With The Stars" fool you: formal dance instruction is not just for B-List celebrities and retired professional athletes, and it's certainly better to do than experience from the padded passivity of your couch.

Expressions in Motion, a new dance studio opening in Pigtown later this month, is making it possible for aspiring dancers to learn some moves -- whether they are 3 or 93. Kids are taught creative movement and ballet and tap basics, while teens and adults can pick from a host of classes in jazz, ballet, modern, tap, hip hop, and contemporary dance.

Owner Martha Reyner, a Baltimore native who studied dance at Columbia College in Chicago before returning to the area to run a dance studio with her childhood mentor, says the studio will resemble a gym in that adults can pop into whatever daily classes they wish. Reyner has assembled a team of a half-dozen dance instructors to teach the classes, which will cost about $7-15 depending on the package members buy. They can pay for classes individually, purchase a full ten-week session, or choose a full 30-week year.

Best of all, students get several chances a year to show their stuff. Reyner plans to host several "Open Marley Nights" (a riff on "open-mic nights" that alludes to the special flooring on a dance floor) where students will be able to perform for one another and perhaps students from other studios. She also pans to organize two large, formal performances for her students, one in December and one in June, at a local performance hall or school.

The two-story studio Reyner chose at 756 Washington Blvd., formerly a furniture store, has three studio spaces, a parents' waiting room, and a kids' lounge. Reyner, who says the grand opening is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29, chose the area because she was impressed at how readily Pigtown is realizing its potential.

"Baltimore is my home, and even after living in Chicago a long time I wanted to come back," she says. "I chose Pigtown because I feel like it's a visibly growing neighborhood and it's kind of fun to be a part of something that has a lot of positive energy. People want to make it beautiful and nice and safe and I want to help facilitate that."

Source: Martha Reyner, Expressions in Motion
Writer: Lucy Ament

Most folks who work from home worry only about having ample grommets and surge-protected power strips, so it's understandable if residential real estate developers forget that the work of self-employed artists is a little more, well, messy. Fortunately for the artists in Baltimore's Station North neighborhood, sisters Kim Rutherford and C.J. Finnical of Reisterstown-based East-West Properties haven't forgotten.

The sisters have rehabbed 11 of 13 row houses on the 1600 block of Latrobe Street (between Lanvale & Federal Streets, just east of Guilford) that they purchased specifically to market to working artists, whose needs they determined through a series of pre-renovation interviews. What Rutherford and Finnical produced were two-story, 850-square feet homes with open layouts, slop sinks, an abundances of electrical outlets, exposed pipes and brick, and unfinished sheet rock walls that artists could decorate as they chose. For a special artistic flourish, they painted the exteriors of the houses, each of which have one bedroom and one bath, in "wild" colors, including pinks, greens, reds and oranges.

Rutherford says the homes, nine of which are now occupied by tenants, can be rented, leased with an option to buy, or purchased for around $120,000. Half of the homes have a full basement and backyard parking, while the other half have a half-basement and a backyard patio in lieu of a parking space. Work on the remaining two homes will begin in the fall.

So far, the response from the community has been great.

"It's in a great location as far as the Maryland Institute College of Art is concerned," she says of the school on Mount Royal Avenue. "And kids ride their bikes and people walk around, and it's quite. Artists love it in that area, that's why we chose it."

The homes, which abut the Cork Factory, have already been occupied by MICA students, a MICA professor, and some artists who commute to D.C.

Source: Kim Rutherford, East-West Properties
Writer: Lucy Ament