Life Without Sound

Hayley and I at the Inner Harbor

This weekend was possibly one of the best weekends I’ve had in awhile. Why? Artscape (and obviously Harry Potter). The 30th annual Artscape took place this weekend, attracting more than 350,000 people. It’s the largest arts festival in America, featuring many artists of all kinds. As a matter of fact, you can visit the official website here: http://www.artscape.org/. My best friend from home, Hayley, also came down to visit. She actually took a bus and arrived Thursday night, just in time for the Harry Potter premiere! On Friday, I didn’t have any classes which was really nice, so we went to the Inner Harbor and had dinner there (sushi, of course).

Artscape is a 3 day festival, from Friday to Sunday. We went to the festival on Saturday. I had never been to Artscape before, and it certainly exceeded my expectations, regardless of the sweltering Baltimore heat. First of all, the festival was free to the public, which was really nice. It was also near Penn Station, which is really close to my apartment, about 8 blocks or so. As soon as we arrived to the festival, we were in awe of how many people there were. Many roads had been blocked off and the streets were filled with vendors of different arts – from pottery, photography, paintings, to furniture, clothing, jewelry.

This was my favorite - the photographs were so stunning and unique

And there were the most unique art exhibits I had ever seen. There was the art car show, which had many different cars decorated in the most creative and bizarre ways. My favorite was the Rabbit Hole, which reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. It featured many large sculptures and it was very whimsical. It felt like you were in fantasy land.

Hayley having fun with the sculptures!

The festival was also very child friendly and so many children had fun with the sculptures, especially at the Rabbit Hole. That was the other thing I loved – the festival was very family friendly and the kids had so much fun.

Children having fun with art!

Artscape allows anyone, even children, appreciate all kinds of art. And even better, it’s a place where it allows you to be interactive with art. People were able to participate in creating art, whether it was making your own Alice in Wonderland’s mad hatter hats or drawing on glass walls.

Expressing his inner artistic self!

Originally, I had thought Artscape featured just visual art. But not at all. It was all kinds of art – including live music, concerts, dance, performances, street theater…the list goes on. Not only does Artscape truly inspire the public with creativity in all ways, it also economically benefits the city as a whole: $25.97 million was generated from the festival! Artscape is really (maybe literally?) one of Charm City’s gems! At the end of the day, we decided to walk back, since it wasn’t too far from my apartment. We ended up enjoying the pretty colored rowhouses of Baltimore. Not only does art reveal itself through the fine arts, but through houses too!

So much color!

My favorite

Anyway, I’m off to D.C. this week for the first time in a very long time and I am so excited. Yet another gem of Baltimore: the city is so close to D.C., only a $7 train ride away. So, next stop: Washington D.C. Stay tuned!