On Saturday, 2/20/16, George and I took Diane and Renee to Baltimore to board a Carnival cruise ship for an 8-day cruise to the Caribbean.
Following the sign.
Given the location of the dock, it was a great excuse to spend the rest of the day at the American Visionary Art Museum, one of the most delightful and unique places in all of Baltimore, and that's saying a lot. I love Baltimore because of all of it's quirky and different neighborhoods, not to mention home of the O's and my former employer, Piper Marbury. Of course the law firm has changed names several times since I was DOA of their DC and Reston offices. While working for that firm, I had many opportunities to go to the main office in Baltimore. Also, when we first moved to DC there was no major league baseball team, so we had the Sunday season series of tickets to the O's. Still love them and hope to see a Beltway World Series sometime soon. But I digress - back to the museum:
The museum calls itself the national museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry. On my 1st visit almost 20 years ago the entire museum (only 1 building at that time; now there are 3) was full of art by Texas schizophrenics - no shortage of artists in that category I fear! Now there is a permanent collect and several different exhibits. These artists tend to be driven to express themselves and are not to be confused with folk artists who have usually been taught a skill that has been handed down through the generations. Basket weaving is one example of folk art. Some of the visionary artists have been exhibited in other museums, but this museum is the only 1 in the nation dedicated to this form of art.
Cameras were not allowed in the museum buildings but there was plenty to shoot outside:
Speaking of Texas, some of these pieces definitely remind me of the street art you can see in some of the older, still weird,
neighborhoods in Austin. For those of you who have not visited Austin, you better hurry. I fear Austin is losing it's weirdness in the battle with high rise condos, mega churches on every corner, and the worst traffic anywhere.
Inside one of the exhibits was on hope. Part of that exhibit had to do with the hope for criminal justice. One of the signs posted explaining the exhibit pointed out these troubling facts (I got special permission to photograph the sign in order to remember these facts):
The U.S. prison population has increased 400% since the Reagan presidency.
Over 3,000 prisoners are serving life without parole sentences for NON-violent crimes.
The for-profit prison industry rivals the oil and pharmaceutical industries when it comes to lobbying on Capitol Hill. Largely as a result, the federal prison population housed in for-profit facilities more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, and the industry now generates billions in annual revenue.
A more joyful part of the "Hope" exhibit was a photography exhibit by Bobby Adams. He was part of John Waters "Dreamlanders" group who appeared in many of Waters' films set in Baltimore, such as the original Hairspray staring Devine. Bobby typically appeared as an extra but he recorded everything with his camera. The exhibit included some fun photos of a very young Johnny Depp.
The museum is on Federal Hill, the "old town" of Baltimore with cobblestone streets and historic townhouses. The views of downtown are lovely.
I hope to visit Baltimore soon and often.
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