Children truly have the best ideas. Their imaginations have the ability to take something as simple as a piece of paper and to run wild with their concept. There is a wonderful article written about imagination and kids by Jamie L. Hebert. View here.

Like Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project, Bella reaches outside her boundaries and opens her eyes to what she can do with simple material. In her own way, she has changed the world.

The Wyman Dell team did an incredible job of making this is a fun day!

For this project, we asked people to write on one of our dots what they love the most about trees. We had a structure created based on the Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project logo and the idea was to create as many ‘leaves’ of the tree as possible. Thanks to everyone for coming out and showing their support.

Take a look online for more photos by John Spurrier.

Take a look below at the pictures that we took:

Please visit the Wyman Dell website later on in the fall to learn more about the Dell’s Annual Winter Solstice on December 2oth. Each year the attendance continues to grow!

Winter Solstice (from the Latin “standing still”) occurs when the Sun reaches the most southern point of its annual journey around the sky. It marks the start of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere. This year’s Winter Solstice officially occurs 7:04AM EST, Sunday, Dec. 21st. The Sun will be in the constellation Sagittarius and at noon for Baltimore will be a scant 27.25-degrees over the southern horizon. Our day will only be 9 hours and 20 minutes long.

The Baltimore Tree Trust is beginning shortly and we hope that you all support their efforts. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us and we will get you to the right party.

To answer a few questions: that keep coming up:
1. All unique and custom orders are now closed.

2. This is a one time project in Baltimore so it will not be repeated next year. If you are interested in participating in another Urban Forest Project, check out the national site to find out more information.

3. Any artwork created during the project is property of Tilt Studio Foundation, Inc. if you have a special project idea that you would like the designs for, please let us know. before just using a low-res scan from the map or taking the small image from our website (these images are very low-res and will not represent well in large reproduction of any kind)

4. We have lots of other projects as a foundation. Our next is Marketingfortheearth.com and it will be launching shortly. Check back soon to learn more.

5. T-shirts and bags are starting to ship the second week of August. Your order will be shipped in the order that was purchased. Posters and banners have already shipped, so if you haven’t received your order, please let us know and we will find out what has happened. We appreciate everyone’s patience since this was such an enormous organizational venture for us.

So, stay in touch. Always be a tree lover and we hope that you are always a Tilt friend and supporter!

All your purchases go towards supporting TreeBaltimore and future Tilt Studio Foundation initiatives.

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

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.

Jamie Barnett
Kate Cogswell
Kaitlin Pugh
Dani Stitz
Gina Flacone Skelton
Kevin Sprouls

Congratulations to our UFP Signature Designs! See their banners at Bloom! The Closing for Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project on Saturday, June 28th from 5-7pm. 250 people will receive a one-of-a-kind signature poster with the following 6 designs. First come, first serve!

Check out information online about the closing exhibition!

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Brown Center | 5-7pm

Exhibition remarks by Tom Stosur, Assistant Deputy Mayor
Say goodbye in style, Free admittance and open to the public!
Music. Friendly faces. Shop ’til you drop. Free lite fare. $4 local wine and beer. See the full exhibition of all the Professional and K-12 banner

Finally coming to a close. After a year of planning, 11 weeks of exhausting events, and endless hours of fun, we are celebrating Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project’s departure with a stylish affair! Join us as we say goodbye to our beloved banner project and HELLO to the continuation of the TreeBaltimore campaign.

If you missed a park event, now is the time to relive the experience! See the entire exhibition in one space. We will have 200 professionals banners on display, the 185 printed K-12 banners, you will be able to learn about TreeBaltimore and take home a tree, the Grow for Change pledge dots from the Baltimore community will be on display, there will be a visual timeline of all 6 events and it will be the last opportunity to purchase any of our merchandise before it goes through final production.

Sponsors:

Come see all 185 K-12 Banners and Recreation and Parks Labyrinth.

Join us as we celebrate the annual Berry Festival at Herring Run Park. Spend the day amongst the trees and enjoy activities for the whole family. Pick up a tree during their annual give away and experience Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project’s last park event.

K-12 students who participated should report to the Orange Tilt Tent from 2pm-2:30 for a photoshoot.

K-12 School Participation:
Girl Scouts of Central Maryland
Margaret Brent Elementary
Mt. Washington Elementary
The Green School of Baltimore
Baltimore Lab School
The Park School
Roland Park Elementary/Middle School
Roland Park Country School

Sponsors:

During this event, Fastspot created a 156 ft long banner showcasing roughly 1500 leaves created by artists, community people and designers all over the globe. We pulled out 8 defined leaves that tell a story about the personalities and culture of greening. It was a spectacular installation because it really incorporated so many different people from so many walks of life.

Thank you to Fastspot for designing, developing and creating this wonderful masterpiece!

Here is the story of how it came to be:
In this iteration of the Project, Fastspot asked for the help of the community to make their banners. In order to foster community involvement, Fastspot created a Website where users were asked to contribute a portion of the banner by using online drawing tools to create a customized leaf. Through online submission, these leaves became part of larger banners designed by Fastspot and hung on the street lights all over the city.

View and interact with the program here: www.fastspot.com/client/urban_forest

As part of their involvement in the project, Fastspot was asked to contribute to the event in Carroll Park on June 8, 2008. Fastspot felt that the event reinforced the Project?’s message of sustainability and green-consciousness, while engaging the citizens who made their banners possible and showcasing the artwork itself. The event gave citizen leaf designers the opportunity to find their leaf amongst the over 1,500 individual submissions that made our project possible. These leaves were displayed on banners and markers throughout Carroll Park that invited attendees to “Find Your Leaf”, reinforcing the strong community involvement necessary in keeping our city clean and green.

The Fastspot banners are now available for sale as wall art or as bags at the closing exhibition. If you would like to purchase beforehand, feel free to contact us directly to buy: ufp@tiltstudioinc.com.

All photos were taken by Fastspot’s Stacy Spakowsky