Create Baltimore

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to get to attend the third annual Create Baltimore event. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I felt like it was a good step for me to take. I really enjoy the city and I’m always trying to be more creative, so it made a lot of sense to me.

The actual event was held on the Johns Hopkins campus. When I got there, I got a free t-shirt and there were a bunch of donuts and coffee. We sat in an auditorium-like lecture hall, and finalized the schedule based off of everyone’s interests. There were multiple sessions going on each hour, so you had to choose which one you were the most interested in. There were definitely overlapping interests for me, but the ones I ended up choosing to go to were Urban Gardening, Urban Design, Art Galleries & Patronage, and Public Art. Obviously I was the most excited for the Public Art session, but I had a really good time at all of them.

I was probably the most inspired by the first session on urban gardening. One of my goals for 2013 is to do some guerrilla gardening, which I more associate with street art, but it was really great to learn about different resources for doing things like creating community gardens. I obtained a lot of resources and names of organizations that I was inspired by and there are a lot of projects working their way around in my head.The sessions involved us defining the topic and determining what we wanted to get out of the hour that we had together. People shared experiences and asked a lot of questions. An hour really isn’t that long of a time, but later in the day there were Action Labs, where people could start putting their ideas and inspiration to work.

Lunch was delicious and free! Served by Charm City Gourmet, I got a delicious falafel. I was invited over to a group of people’s table and I met a lot of interesting people with diverse jobs and interests. It was really fun for me to be able to hand my card out to people, and to get theirs in return.

It felt really good to be able to introduce myself in the Public Art session and to hear what other people know and do in that world. In the above picture you can see Scott, one of the people who made the Baltimore Love Project possible.

The entire day lasted over 8 hours and I’m very glad I went. It was a great foundation experience for me. I hope that I get to attend more events like this in the future.