Our friend Christine Neill is showing her love for nature with an expressive collection of work opening this Friday at Goya Contemporary. This show is an opportunity to see the original works of art from her banner series as well as to see her incredible perception of nature.

When: Reception is this Friday May 30, 6 to 8 pm
Where: Goya Contemporary 3000 Chestnut Ave Baltimore MD 21211 410.366.2001

Christine Neill collaborated with Designer Lew Fifield to produce a series of banners for the Urban Forest Project: bmore-ufp.org.This exhibit includes the original paintings they used as images for the banners that will hanging in four Baltimore City parks until June 27.

Growing performance sculpture in Charles Village Parade—
finishing at Festival in Wyman Park Dell on Saturday, May 31, Noon to 4 pm

Trees are the ultimate living art installation— now’s your chance to become apart of our growing tree canopy in Baltimore!

Join us in Wyman Park Dell as part of the Charles Village Festival and literally be apart of the sculpture. 200 people/tree ambassadors receive 2 shades of large green dots bearing tree-related words. Beginning before, during the Parade and at the Festival, the dots will be handed out. We will ask pedestrians to pledge to preserve Baltimore’s trees and to live more sustainably. At 4 pm, we will convene in The Dell for a 5 minute Tree Ceremony. With the dots, we will recreate the Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project logo (shown above). Watch the sculpture grow as more people join us and see our canopy take over the lower lawn of the Dell!

Call for Participants

The Urban Forest Project is seeking 200+ participants on Saturday, May 31. Meet up at 9 am at the start of the Charles Village Parade to walk with the dots and hand out through out the route. Throughout the day participants will collect names of people that are pledging to live more sustainably. We are asking that each dot have at least 5 names— showing a 1,000 people that have pledged. At 4 pm we will convene in the lower lawn of The Dell and have the Tree Ceremony; positioning the dots around the brown branch structure. This will create the larger tree canopy. The dots will remain in place until 6 pm and then will be available for take away by the community.

Dot = tree canopy
Brown = tree structure

Our very first design award winner! Chad Miller from Harbor Hospital has been our signature Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project designer since the beginning last year. His Think Green Hon banner design won the gold award under the Pro-Bono category for the Hermes Creative Awards. This award is presented by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and Chad won the 2008 category. Everyone should give him a huge round of applause for this incredibly special award.

We are all looking forward to great things from you, Chad! CONGRATULATIONS!

Patterson was completely covered with red burlap on Saturday and Sunday . As the Baltimore Sun stated: “At Patterson Park, the ribbons — burlap stained red by natural dyes — will form just one element of the installation. Snaking more than 5,000 feet northward from the southwest corner of South Patterson Park and Eastern avenues, they delineate an easily traveled path in the direction of the park’s famed pagoda.” That description hits the nail on the head.

It truly was a site to see. With Gensler’s incredible team of 4 working around the clock, Jason, Elaine, Stefan and Brett truly displayed a magical experience on Saturday. With windstorms and rain all morning on Saturday, they dutifully finished out their vision and immediately the sun came out.

The band played, “Here comes the sun” and the sun literally popped out and stayed for 6 hours. It was incredible! We had a wonderful turn out with people of all ages. It was amazing to see the children interact with the space and to spend the day running around the sod land forms and in and out of the stakes.

Most importantly, however, it was amazing to see everyone out amongst the trees.

Hope everyone comes out to see the amazing exhibition put together by Gensler Architects and Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project tomorrow in Patterson Park from 12-4pm! For right now check out some new images by Greg Pease. Click here to visit his website!

And it has started… the Gensler installation has taken over Patterson. Literally taking the meaning of tree canopy to a new level, Gensler has created an installation that has furthered the mission of Baltimore: Urban Forest Project. They have brung together 3 unique elements: Burlap (symbolizing the tree canopy), Stakes (symbolizing the shaft of a tree) and sod (symbolizing the root of a tree). The entire park has been transformed into a living, breathing exhibition. Rooted in the center of the park where the Saturday event will take place, there are “points” from each corner of the park that draw the community into the event space below the boat basin lake.

Thank you to the amazing volunteers who have been integral in the success of this installation.

The installation has already started taking shape, so feel free to go out and take a look. Make sure you come out this weekend and play! 12-4pm on Saturday, May 10th!

Check out the photos below for a sneak peak at the installation in progress!