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171014 Mondawmin Crossings Reisterstown Rd

Creating Places with People: 2017 Year in Review

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As we close out 2017 I’m thankful for the numerous neighbors, leaders, artists, and organizations I have had the honor of working with to Make Place Happen in Baltimore and beyond. From championing pedestrian accessibility around Druid Hill Park, to exploring the robust and emerging civic spaces and public art of Arlington County, to colorfully reconfiguring concrete paving for playful action, place is truly what we made of it. Public space is not just constructed out of tactile materials like pavement, landscaping, and benches, but also the intangible – knowledge, organizing, and programming. Through New Public Sites walking tours we poetically re-experienced everyday public spaces while learning from community leaders and civil servants how to affect change at the block level. Artscape showed that streets and bridges don’t have to be just for cars, but can also be spaces for ecstatic pedestrian interactions. Workshops like the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Visioning Home created spaces for inclusively mapping out creative futures for the city. I am inspired by my collaborators who believe that we can expand such temporary zones of autonomy into lasting places of accessibility, well-being, joy, and freedom.

Click here to read more at Graham Projects…

New Public Sites Free Fall Baltimore 2017

2017 Free Fall Baltimore Walking Tours

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As part of 12th annual Free Fall Baltimore, New Public Sites is offering three exciting tours – Mondawmin Crossings, Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift, and Druid Hill Reservoir Interchange. The fall 2017 New Public Sites walking tours series focuses on a combination of interlocking issues: pedestrian safety, the state of Baltimore’s water infrastructure, and access to public space.

These tours are made possible with support from Free Fall Baltimore and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Free Fall Baltimore is produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) and presented by BGE with additional support from The Abell Foundation, Atapco Properties, Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mondawmin Crossings

October 14, 3-4:30pm Click here to learn more and register.

Greater Mondawmin is a collection of strong neighborhoods sharing an array of educational, recreational, and shopping opportunities. Unfortunately, residents are unable to safely walk or bike to our local amenities due to streetscape barriers like the dangerous highways that ring Druid Hill Park and Mondawmin Mall. Mondawmin Crossings will be an interactive walking tour exploring opportunities for improving how local residents connect with our many valuable community places.

Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift

October 21, 2-3:30pm Click here to learn more and register.

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a celebrated success of waterfront redevelopment, but its spectacular looks disguise a contested past and challenging present. Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift tour participants will discover the real stories of how powerful people, visionary plans, and community movements are still transforming the former industrial wharf into a premiere public space for all.

Druid Hill Reservoir Interchange

[Rescheduled] November 4, 2-4pm Click here to learn more and register.

Druid Hill Reservoir Construction Interchange will explore the overlapping embankments and sidewalks to nowhere between the Jones Falls Expressway and the Druid Hill Park Reservoir. The tour will focus on the history of the the park and surrounding highways, and details about the current reservoir construction project. Along the way, we will also share about the community movement afoot supporting pedestrian safety improvements around the park.

New Public Sites Spring 2017 tours

Spring 2017 Tours

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Get ready for an exciting spring of New Public Sites radical walking tours in Baltimore City and Arlington, Virginia. Mark your calendars to get lost on foot!

New Public Sites & Baltimore Heritage

I am jazzed to be offering my two most popular Baltimore tours in partnership with Baltimore Heritage. Half of all proceeds from my next Inner Harbor Baltimore Drift and Crossing the Highway to Nowhere tours will go to supporting Baltimore Heritage’s important work preserving our city’s divers built history.

 Saturday, March 18, 2-4pm – Inner Harbor w/ Baltimore Heritage
$15 tickets. Click here for more info and to register.

 Saturday, April 1, 2-4pm – Crossing the Highway to Nowhere w/ Baltimore Heritage
$15 tickets. Click here for more info and to register.

Bromo Spectacular! & Front

If you walk halfway from the Inner Harbor to the Highway to Nowhere, you will find yourself in the Bromo District, a vibrant and ever changing arts neighborhood and employment center. As part of the Front exhibit curated by Betty Gonzales, I am leading Bromo Spectacular!, two different tours exploring invisible public spaces and artist-led development projects along Howard Street and surrounding blocks. Both Bromo Spectacular! Tours are free. Click here for details.

 Saturday, April 22, 4-6pm – Bromo Spectacular – Tunneling Revival
Meet at the Metro Station entrance at 301 N Eutaw St, Baltimore, MD 21201
Followed by Front opening reception 6-9pm at Le Mondo

 Saturday, April 29, 2-4pm – Bromo Spectacular – Voids & Vistas
Meet in front of Current Space, 421 N Howard St, Baltimore, MD 21201

Arlington County Wandering

Now let’s say you got lost and end up walking fifty miles southwest. You would not only beat the DC gridlock, but also end up in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington is an impressively old yet historically suburban county now coursing with high-density, transit-oriented infill development. This is the wave of the future yall, so start looking forward to exploring and reimagining the urban and suburban spaces of Lee Highway, Courthouse, and Columbia Pike! Offered by Arlington Arts in partnership with Walk Arlington. Tours are free. Click here for details. Registration links below.

Sunday, April 30, 11am-12:30pm – Lee Highway
Meet at Langston Brown Community Center, 2121 N Culpeper St., Arlington, VA 22207

 Sunday, May 7, 11am-12:30pm – Courthouse
Meet at the Courthouse House Surface Parking Lot, 2100 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201

 Sunday, May 21, 11am-12:30pm – Columbia Pike
Meet at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market, 2820 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA 22204

Wandering the Pike

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Wandering the Pike

Wandering the Pike

September 11 & 18, 2016
11am-12:30pm

Columbia Pike Farmers Market
2820 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA 22204

Join public artist Graham Coreil-Allen to explore and reimagine the urban and suburban spaces of Columbia Pike in Arlington, Virginia on this alternative walking tour beginning at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market. All are invited to participate as we take turns sharing our insights into the history, design and uses of everyday public spaces. The former rural toll road served as an early economic lifeline connecting Washington DC to Virginia. Columbia Pike quickly grew into a booming stretch of motorist amenities at the expense of pedestrian safety and accessibility. Wander the Pike to experience firsthand how residents and leaders are helping to transform the suburban drag into an walkable main street for all.

Free and open to the public. RSVP to Paul Shortt at: pshortt@arlingtonva.us.

Wandering the Pike is presented by Arlington Arts of Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of the Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources, uses the power of the arts to transform lives and build community, and provides programs and services to create an environment that encourages excellence in the Arlington arts community.

48 Hours of Five Points Engagement

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NPS Five Points - Welton Wander - Graham speaking

Taking place within and around RedLine‘s 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art and Conversation, the New Public Sites – Five Points Denver walking tours and immersive gallery map installation provided a range of opportunities for learning about and activating the power of public space within a truly beautiful, challenging and inspirational neighborhood. New Public Sites is indebted to RedLine, participants, and all of the guest speakers who through their time, space and energies made our roving spaces of radical pedestrian action possible.

Click here to see photos of the tours and gallery installation!

The project was informed by a range of interviewees and guest speakers. Interviewees included Tyrone Beverly, Beverly Grant, Lyz Riley, PJ DAmico, George Perez, Hadiya Evans, Julie Rubsam, Nikki Pike, and Celia Herrera. Guest speakers who generously donated time and energy sharing their Five Points experiences and projects included Centro Humanitario organizers Nancy Rosas and Judith Marquez, Blair-Caldwell Librarian Terry Nelson, long-term resident and RTD Title-VI Specialist Shontel Lewis, Five Points Fermentation owner Asia Dorsey, and The Temple Director Adam Gordon. I would also like to thank the entire RedLine staff for their hard work making these space of collective participation possible; including Louise Martorano, Libby Barbee, Whit Sibley, Geoffrey Shamos, Robin Gallite, and Misha Fraser.

– Graham