BRIEF DESCRIPTION

 

Beginning March 2008, the Walters Art Museum will host the traveling exhibition Maps: Finding our Place in the World , the most ambitious American exhibition devoted to maps in over 50 years.   The City of Baltimore will host a Festival of Maps concurrently with the Walters' show, with exhibitions throughout the city showcasing a wide variety of themes from ancient to contemporary means of mapping and way finding.

As part of the Festival of Maps and in conjunction with Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) will be mounting an outdoor, site-specific exhibition titled Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square in Mount Vernon Place park from 3/16/2008 to 5/19/2008.

As an artist participating in the Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square exhibition, Lee Freeman's artwork, "Framing Mount Vernon Place" can be seen as gold, chain-link fence that will enclose the four squares of this historic park for two weeks, from 3/16/2008 - 3/29/2008. Through interactions created by the context of the temporary gold fencing, visitors are encouraged and possibly even forced to 're-see' and 're-consider' Mount Vernon Place from an alternate perspective. As the first artwork in Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square, "Framing Mount Vernon Place" can also be seen as the opening act at one of Baltimore's most cultured theatres. Upon the dismantling/stacking of the fence, the park is revealed as the product this exciting arts exhibition.

 

Location:

The gold chain-link fence wraps all 4 squares of Mount Vernon Place, in Baltimore Maryland.   The fence does not wrap the George Washington Monument where there is already a fence in place.   The park is located between 600 and 800 North Charles Streets and East and West Mount Vernon Places (between East and West Monument Streets). Mount Vernon Place is a National Landmark, which during the mid 19th century was completely fenced in for private use only.

 

Exposure:

Approximately 100,000+ individuals walk within Mount Vernon Place or parallel on the opposing sidewalks during a 2 week period. The project will be seen by all visitors to the park including: residents of the Mount Vernon community; students, faculty, and staff of the Peabody Institute; the Walters Art Museum community and visitors to its exhibition Maps: Finding Our Place in the World ; as well as the concurrent city-wide Festival of Maps.