The banners finally came down today! After an amazing and touching Saturday evening reception at the Maryland Institute College of Art we made our gracious exit from the banners of Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project to the TreeBaltimore’s campaign to plant trees. The banners came down last week and were placed from basement to sky in the Brown Center.

All photos were taken by Doug Retzler

The outside of the Brown Center getting prepped for the evenings festivities

We had installations from each of the events and have two wonderful speakers; Tom Stosur, Assistant Deputy Mayor and Wanda Durden, the new acting Director for Department of Recreation and Parks. We were presented with a beautiful plaque on behalf of the city written by our dear friends Anne Draddy, the Jones Falls Watershed Association and Emily Ellickson-Brown, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

E. Rachael Baird, Wanda Durden, Jessica M. Pegorsch, Carolyn from Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, and Tom Stosur posing for a photo!

It was a night to remember. While a bit windy, the weather held and the light generously spilled out into the Leidy Atrium, covering the room with warmth… we were all amongst friends. Those who love Baltimore City, those who love the arts and those who truly want to make a difference in our world came from all over the country to be at our event. We are so honored to have been surrounded by such a great mix of people!

An overview of the Atrium

We are almost sold out of our banners! There are another 30 banners left, which is an incredible feat, but the rest are going fast! Visit the remaining banners online at our store and purchase all custom orders before July 7th! That is just one week from today!

So, you can see… it is almost the beginning. TreeBaltimore is taking root in Baltimore and is here to stay! SUPPORT THEM as much as you can (money, time, effort, spreading the word, etc.)

Click here and visit the rest of the photos online! See a sampling below.

Shopping in our Tilt Tent with some of the pre-made sample bags!

Mike Weikert’s daughter spinning in front of our PowerPoint. She is already a performance artist!

E. Rachael Baird & Jessica M. Pegorsch enjoying a moment during the speech.

A special thank you to:
-Baltimore City Mayor’s Office for the incredible opportunity to have this project and recognition for our efforts
-Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks for assisting with coordination from start to finish and helping to volunteer at the event
-Baltimore City Department of Transportation, Street Lighting Division for assisting us with the entire project and the exhibition put up and take down
-Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts for ensuring that we had all of our t’s crossed and our i’s dotted
-Serigraphics for printing the banners and the t-shirts and pushing through the bag design with us to make this a success! Thank you for your endless hours!
-Designers, artists and K-12 students for their amazing talent and innate ability to be creative. Keep it up!
-Sponsors for helping to assist us with making this project possible.
-All of our volunteers that have helped at all of our events
-Our parents and team for their endless amount of effort and time put into making this project a success. We are forever grateful.

And a thank you for Saturday evening:
-Maryland Institute College of Art for lending us a space and assisting us with the exhibition put up and take down and event coordination
-Parkhurst Dining Services for the delicious food and alcohol serving
-AIGA Baltimore for sponsoring a table during the event and being such a great support at the end
-Lady G’s for local organic wine and beer
-Doug Retzler for photography coverage
-Scott Wilburn and Kris Vandevander for their amazing sound equipment and music

And the most special thank you of all: Thank you to our very own TreeBaltimore for having a message that we could get behind and help to support. We look forward to the results for years to come!

SHOP SHOP SHOP SHOP SHOP and support TreeBaltimore and Tilt Studio Foundation Initiatives

The space at MICA’s Brown Center is the perfect space to showcase all of the banners from Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project. It is expansive, deep and over powering to be in this space. Please feel free to stop on by as we are working or to join us as we close the exhibition on Saturday from 5-7pm.

Thank you to everyone that has been involved. This has truly been an amazing exercise in community, design and sustainability. Tree love forever!

Photos courtesy of our Banner God and friend Brent Hooper!

First level of banners!

First, second & third levels!

The late night team: Brent Hooper (Baltimore City Dept of Transportation, Lighting… i.e. our Banner GOD), Jessica Pegorsch, E. Rachael Baird & Anthony Snead

Will Blake & Joe Onheiser from Brent Hooper’s team putting up banners. Jess preparing for them.

We sat down with Lindsey Muir, a graduate design student at MICA, to talk about her banner, revealed here for the first time! Let us know what you think! If you’d like to buy preorder this banner as a bag, a poster, or a t-shirt, visit the shop page!

Check out “PLEASE” by Lindsey Muir

Let us know what you think! Those who comment are eligible for today’s prize!

Today’s Prize Custom painted Tiles by Jess Pegorsch. Take a peek!

Oh, I almost forgot! Last Thursday we participated in Focus the Nation at Johns Hopkins and Maryland Institute College of Art . Focus the Nation is an educational initiative that promotes civic engagement. On January 31, thousands of colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, places of worship, civic organizations and businesses took part in this amazing event to raise awareness about global warming solutions.

The Tilt team split into two groups. Denise and Mike went to Johns Hopkins and gave a powerpoint presentation on TreeBaltimore and how their initiative of increasing the tree canopy will help our local environment. Danny, Jess and Hayley went to MICA to talk with students about the Urban Forest Project and how they can take part in our volunteer opportunities with the UFP.

I want to send out a special thank you to Jenn Tucker for volunteering her time in this event! We had a great response and are more excited as each day passes because our UFP team is ever expanding!

Check out these videos about Focus the Nation here! This and other initives like it are popping up all over the country and its so great to be a part of it! We want you to be a part of it too.

Holy Man! Jess here! I cannot believe all the amazing submissions that we had for banners. Danny has been mailing everyone in our office sneak peaks of all the designs. I must say… I think I need to buy a bag! I know. I know. I am already a bag lady but these are one of a kind pieces of art that relate to an amazing cause and the designs are just so cool.

I also need to thank all the wonderful teachers out there that took the challenge to bring the Urban Forest Project into their classrooms. We received a whooping 240 banner designs from K-12 students! You all Rock!

Ethan Pronovost from Park School created this awesome tree for his banner! Look for these banners on display throughout the exhibition in Druid Hill Park!

Hey, its Jess. I wanted to thank everyone for supporting the UFP. I have donated my time to create small pieces of art work for you to collect and to remind you to create change everyday. Contact me to purchase them through my website www.jessicampegorsch.com. The tiles are $50 and a great gift for the holiday season. And of course, all proceeds will be donated to Tree Baltimore. Can’t wait to hear from you.