Beyond high-profile headliners like Queen of Funk Chaka Khan, the latest edition of Baltimore’s signature summer arts festival offers many ways to explore the frontier where art and tech collide.
Artscape, running Friday through Sunday, will feature live music, art, film screenings and technology-related exhibits like the landmark video game display Gamescape and a returning carnival-like lighting installation. Attendees can also engage with new products that seek to address some of the city’s most pressing disparities.
The annual no-cost outdoor celebration is put on by the nonprofit Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts (BOPA) with financial support from the City of Baltimore. With the festival coming up on 40 years, BOPA CEO Rachel Graham said planning for this landmark year is special and comes with a great amount of responsibility.
It also comes after a period of tumult for the publicly funded arts organization. Graham was appointed in February following a long search to replace former CEO Donna Drew Sawyer, who resigned in January of 2023 after facing pressure from Mayor Brandon Scott. Last year’s festival, the first since 2019, wasn’t the smoothest, featuring last-minute canceled performances, budget cuts and a tropical storm that scrubbed a day of programming.
But the role has been going well for Graham, she said, and she’s excited about everything coming together this weekend. She and her team made an effort to include nontraditional art throughout the festival — like the different exhibits using technology.
“If you look at the foundation of technology, there’s a high level of creativity that’s necessary,” Graham told Technical.ly.
The Blinkatorium in the Charles Street Garage is filled with lighting displays by Baltimore artist Scott Pennington. For its second year, the exhibit features a new sculpture, dubbed the “Orbiter” and produced in collaboration with the local photography studio Side A Photography, that will capture a 360 degree video of attendees. Blinkatorium curator Catherine Borg said festivalgoers will be able to keep the filmed videos.
Lights on different sculptures throughout the installation will blink on and off in changing sequences and patterns, which Pennington wires and programs. The Blinkatorium will also feature rollerskating performances all through the weekend by the local group It’s My Skate Night.
“It’s great to have Scott return,” said Borg. “We’re very lucky to have a lot of really wonderful artists and performers to work with in Baltimore.”
The Blinkatorium isn’t Artscape’s only lighting-focused exhibit. Borg said that a preview of the Inviting Light installation, a project out of the $1 million Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge grant, will feature at the North Avenue Market.
The formal Inviting Light exhibit will open in spring 2025 and will use different light displays in public spaces to create art. Those locations will be announced in October, according to Borg.
In addition to these events, the manufacturing and makerspace nonprofit Open Works will have a booth at Artscape where staff will be testing prototyped solar-powered WiFi and charging stations created for the city’s departments of sustainability and information technology.
Open Works previously prototyped similar WiFi devices for different organizations in the city, including the Central Baltimore Partnership last year. The overall goal is to boost digital equity, Open Works told Technical.ly last year. At Artscape, the nonprofit will be soliciting feedback about the stations.
There’s also Gamescape, which is an interactive exhibit featuring different video games and inspired artwork. It’s been a pillar of Artscape for several years. The program brings in student developers in Baltimore, people from local game studios and others to display new work.
Graham noted the esports community’s growth in Baltimore, which makes Gamescape all the more relevant. The city’s first esports lab opened in April at the renovated Medfield Recreation Center. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told Technical.ly at the time that there are five more labs slated to open, although the implementation timeline remains unclear.
“Gaming is actually one of the greatest executions of this intersection between art and technology,” she said.
As a whole, Graham warned attendees to prepare for “sensory overload” because there’s so much to do at the festival. She’s personally looking forward to The Blinkatorium, eating food from local vendors and seeing singer and drummer Sheila E perform. She’s also optimistic people will come out to support the weekend.
“We’re really hoping that Baltimoreans realize the jewel that they have,” Graham said, “that they come together and really celebrate arts and culture in the city.”
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