IMPACT: Public Art Installation at the Owings Mills JCC

On Thursday, August 29, a public installation will open with a public reception from 5-7pm at the Owings Mills JCC at 3506 Gwynnbrook.

Maryland Art Place (MAP) is pleased to present IMPACT, a unique and site-specific public art program developed to extend contemporary art to communities in the greater Baltimore area. Each IMPACT project is developed with the partnering site in mind. Therefore, MAP is partnering with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore (JCC) for the second IMPACT project of 2013. The JCC has eagerly donated their courtyard as a venue for an outdoor installation, which will consist of a pseudo canopy creation.

A local artist collective, Global Humanity Now (GHN), has been selected for this summer’s IMPACT project. GHN is comprised of artists Remina Greenfield, Janina Anderson, Janet Hong and Gabriel Quick. Their artwork installation titled, Return, has been designed specifically for the JCC’s courtyard and is comprised of a woven fabric that will extend over the courtyard of the building, creating the pseudo canopy. In its entirety, Return relates to the concept of a “network,” and is intended to illustrate the dynamic relationship between individuals and the community they comprise. The title “Return” is derived from Leo Strauss’s essay Progress or Return (1952).

Strauss spent his formative years as a conservative Jew in the Weimar Republic and as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who lost most of his extended family in the Holocaust. T’shuvah is Hebrew for return. “T’shuvah has an ordinary and an emphatic meaning,” said Strauss in his essay. Its emphatic meaning is rendered in English by repentance. To Strauss, they become interchangeable. Strauss believed we become estranged from one another and to him, a return is a homecoming. So it is fitting that the JCC hosts the creative collective of GHN in an event that is meant to evoke a unique fabric of how we are all woven together as one people.

GHN is currently collecting donated materials to incorporate in their design. Suggested materials include: bed sheets, bedspreads, remnants, t-shirts and scraps of fabric. Drop off your fabric donations by August 11 in the MAP office or at the front lobby of the JCC located at 3506 Gwynnbrook Ave, Owings Mills Maryland.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore (JCC) promotes and strengthens Jewish life and values through communal programs and activities for individuals and family. The JCC aims to develop and maintain a Jewish community which endorses spirited environments, community values, diversity, individuality, and communal institutional exchange between professionals, volunteers and neighbors. The JCC of Greater Baltimore is a constituent agency of THE ASSOCIATED Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. jcc.org

Maryland Art Place (MAP) inspires, supports, and encourages artistic expression through innovative programming, exhibitions, and educational opportunities while recognizing the powerful impact art can have on our community. MAP creates a dynamic environment for artists of our time to engage the public by nurturing and promoting new ideas. MAP has served as a critical resource for contemporary art in the Mid-Atlantic since 1981. mdartplace.org

IMPACT at the JCC is proudly sponsored by PNC bank.

For more information, please also visit http://globalhumanitynow.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/braid-in-the-shade-with-global-humanity-now/