Arts Groups Offering Lots of Free Samples In Baltimore Festival

By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2006

Nearly 75 arts organizations in Baltimore have banded together to present the first free citywide arts festival this fall.

The idea came right after the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum announced free admission, starting Oct. 1. The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts then got money from the city to help create a lineup of 200 free programs in art, theater, film, music, history and dance.

Baltimore is a popular destination for Washingtonians, not only for the Preakness, the Orioles, the summer Artscape and the three-day book festival, but also for the growing selection of fine restaurants and antique shopping. According to the Baltimore Museum of Art, one-third of the museum visitors are from Washington.

Free Fall Baltimore, which runs through November, will showcase the well-known Baltimore institutions, as well as some smaller ones. Centerstage, one of the country's oldest regional theaters, will have a street festival and open house as well as a props and costumes sale, on Oct. 7. The Baltimore Streetcar Museum has scheduled rides around the city every Saturday and Sunday in October and every Sunday in November.

The festival emphasizes performances for families and young adults. The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, for example, is sending its string quartet to the National Aquarium on Oct. 13 and Nov. 3 for interactive programs.

"You have got to get young people interested from the beginning," said Bill Gilmore, the executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, the city's arts council. "If it is free, you might take a chance and discover something you like."

The festival unfurls its banner Oct. 1 at the Baltimore Book Festival. That afternoon, Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm," will appear at the Walters Art Museum. That same day, the Baltimore Museum of Art has organized "ArtBlast," with zydeco on the streets and 19th-century French art in the galleries.

Also scheduled:

· Port Discovery, the children's museum, will have a Hispanic Heritage celebration Oct. 21;

· More than 160 visual artists will open their studios Oct. 21 and 22;

· The Walters plans to bust loose with a party Oct. 6 with D'Marge, the toast of the Baltimore drag community, several bands, improv artists and a screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." On Oct. 7, the schedule is more family-oriented, with a checkers tournament and free cupcakes.

· Theater offerings include a sampling from the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival on Oct. 5, and the Baltimore Living History Theatre staging tributes to women from Baltimore history at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion on Nov. 5 and 19. A discussion of other famous Baltimoreans -- Edgar Allan Poe, Thurgood Marshall and H.L. Mencken -- will be part of a conversation with radio host Marc Steiner at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Oct. 5.

· The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opens a rehearsal for "Heavenly Beauty" on Nov. 9 at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The work is drawn from the music of Mussorgsky, Theofanidis and Beethoven.

· The Baltimore Opera Company is saluting soprano Leontyne Price in a play at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum on Nov. 18.

· The Maryland State Boychoir is performing a concert and hosting a spaghetti supper for senior citizens on Oct. 15 at the Cathedral Church of St. Matthew.

The festival is funded by Creative Baltimore Fund, which was started last year from the city's general fund surplus and targeted for arts and humanities programs, and this year had $750,000 to give to groups to participate in Baltimore Free Fall. For more information, go to http://www.freefallbaltimore.com .