PLace Assignment: The Metro Gallery

 Research on the Metro Gallery in Station North

Time Line:

1729- The City of Baltimore is founded

1730-Charles Street originally Forest Street was laid out in the town of Baltimore

1814- September 12-15 the Battle of Baltimore occurs where Fort McHenry is bombarded

1880- Charles North community organization was founded

1968-the Baltimore riots occur after Martin Luther King Jr. death

~

2002- Station North is designated an Arts District by the city

2006- An action Plan is put together by Randall Gross/ Development Economics, The Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative , and Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. focuses to strengthen positive image and identity, establish commercial corridors, encourage economic development, and provide housing options to attract new residents without displacing the old residents

2007- The Metro Gallery is opened

2008- March 8. Metro Gallery gets Liquor license

2008- October 30. Mayor Sheila Dixon unveiled the Charles North Vision Plan into to turn Station North into a “cultural crossroads” for Baltimore

2009- Renovations to the Metro Gallery are completed to enhance the art and performance space to include a bar

~Present 2015

Contacts:

Sarah M. Williams- Owner

 sarah@themetrogallery.net

Mayor Sheila Dixon

Story:

The Metro Gallery is located at 1700 North Charles Street right on the corner N. Charles and West Lanvale Street in the Charles North neighborhood of the Station North Arts District. The Metro Gallery is right next to the Metro Cleaners and is across from the Pen and Quill restaurant and is also across the street from the well-known Charles Theater.  The owner and creator of the Metro Gallery is a woman of the name of Sarah M. Williams. In addition to being the owner she also manages and is in charge of all of the bookings for the venue side of the Metro Gallery.  The Metro Gallery was opened as an establishment that could serve as an art space. A space where not only artists can display their art in a curated gallery setting but a space that also provides emerging artists and musicians a live music venue where they can perform and put on a show. Furthermore, what people may not know is that the Metro Gallery offers itself as a place where people can get married. However, the Metro gallery doesn’t just let emerging artists and musicians use this place as a venue; musicians and bands no matter if they are local, established, underground, or indie no matter what genre are able to play at the Metro Gallery. This for one actually helps grow and enrich the Baltimore music scene and explains the diversity of music acts from Pig Destroyer to Sea Wolf to Dan Deacon. Now Sarah M. Williams first opened the Metro Gallery in 2007. Although before this, the building where the Metro Gallery resides was built as and served as a commercial warehouse/business space. Five years after Station North became a designated Arts District of the City of Baltimore in 2002. Later Sarah M. Williams enhanced her establishment which she runs by getting a Liquor license in 2008 for the Metro Gallery. Now because of this step, they Metro Gallery could then now offer their patrons beverages at events such as art shows or concerts  and was also the reason behind the renovations there that where completed in 2009 to include a bar within the venue. Although before Sarah M. Williams came along and opened the Metro Gallery in what seems like before according to photographs was an unused three-story, brick row home in 2007 and before Station North became designated Arts District it was not an ideal place to live or start a business. For instance, Station North neighborhoods such as Charles North, Greenmount West, and Barclay, when compared to wealthier neighborhoods like Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, and Charles Village, were relatively impoverished. Plus it does not help that according to countless articles from recent decades from the Baltimore Sun historic achieves is that until that last couple of years there was a very high rate of crime and murder in the Station North area particularly in the 90’s and early 2000’s. However, in recent years Station North has become the center of art and culture in Baltimore City. And within Station North I would dare to say that the Metro Gallery is the artistic, musical, even cultural center of the district due to the fact that important events, like the Open Wall Baltimore 2 kickoff party, are held at the Metro Gallery. 

Final Reflective Blog

I have learned many things in this class over the semester but the most important things that I learned was what can bring communities together such as the arts or dedication to community involvement. I also learned how a community's identity can evolve and change over time like how the peoples image of Station North slowly started to change after it was designated as an Arts district. I think my strongest contributions to the course project was how i worked together with other students to listen through, took notes on, transcribed, as well as pulled relevant and useful themes from some of the interviews that were conducted by other members of the class. I think that this is a strong contribution since the notes that i and the other students took helped make it possible as well as easier for Dan and Adam to create a sort of narrative let alone something from the many interviews that were collected. However despite what I learned and what I contributed taking this class was an amazing experience that i am sure not to forget.

Project Progress Blog #6

This past week I listened and to the Ane Costlow interview and took notes on and pulled out quotes relating to how the community of Station North has changed for the better and how the surrounding has really turned into a destination for people to go to.

Project Progress Blog #5

Last week i listened through the Dusty Kelser interview and took notes on and grabbed useful segments from the interview that will help and sound good in the audio.

Project progress Blog #4

THis Past week i pulled out themes from Jasmine's presentation and transcribed those parts and then i cut out all of the other parts from the recording that i and they others in the small group felt had themes that were relevant.

Adventure Bog #3 & Project Progress Blog #3

Last Thursday on the 9th I went with Professor King along with a group from the class into Baltimore to take a field trip. We walked through Lexington market and then through Mount Vernon  and then through out Station North where a couple of the other students and I grabbed some food at the Crown.

As for the project over the weekend i listened through the audio we had from Jasmine and pulled some snippits from it that pertain to certain themes.

Project Progress Blog #2

I have listened through a majority of the audio we currently have and made some notes on some themes and quotes that would be good to use. I have also received the 500 gb portable hard drive that i order and will try to bring that into class..

Project Progress Blog #1

This past week i have downloaded the audio editing software reaper onto my computer as well as uploaded to the project group's google doc the manual for the zoom h4 as well as a helpful how to video from youtube and started listening trough the audio recording that are in the google doc. I have also purchased a 500 gb portable hard drive that might come in handy as well.

Adventure Blog #2- 3/21

This Saturday I went into Station North with my good friend Laura to check out and see a movie at the Charles Theater. The Movie we went to see was called "What We Do In The Shadows" a comedy mockumentary  about a group of vampires living together in the same house in the present day. Then after the movie we grabbed a drink at Club Charles across the street and went home.

Adventure Blog #1- 3/7

On Saturday March 7 me and my mom drove into Baltimore to go to the Station North Arts District. We parked in the garage across from the Charles Theater and started just to look around at all of the buildings along North charles street. As we headed towards North Ave. we started to stop and look at all of the street art that we came across. After that we were feeling hungry so we went and got lunch at the Station North Arts Cafe or SNAC. Where I met one of the owners Kevin Brown and talked to him for a little while about the neighborhood. After we finished our lunch me and me mom then went home full.

My Thoughts about Station North saving the City

From my understanding from the two articles and the podcast the only way for Station North as an Arts District to succeed in helping the city is that people are interested in coming into the district and interested in developing that area. However, with all the people coming in and businesses being developed they can not price out the residents that are already there because if that happens then we are not succeeding in saving the city. This is because even though we would making the area nice like in th the Mark Steiner show it is the people that live there that make it special.

Some questions that i would like to ask Ben Stone would be:
1) How can people get involved in development in station north?
2)How can we get people involved in development in Station North?
3) Is there anyway we can continue to bring in the right businesses to revitalize the are without driving out residents?

My thoughts on: Community and Gentrification

Community is a term that can be used to describe many things, like a town, a neighborhood, even specific groups of people. For example, I belong to several communities such as the UMBC community, the Farm Ridge community (the neighborhood I live in), and also the metal community.
However, no matter what meaning you look at community is defined by a few key aspects such as boundaries, engagement, a similar point of interest, and most important a group of people. Now when we look at the issue of gentrification it gets complicated due to the fact that gentrification can either affect communities in a positive way or a negative way. For instance, gentrification can strengthen and even revitalize communities or it can completely break up and drive out communities. This is the issue that can be seen taken place right now in the Station North Arts and Entertainment district of Baltimore. For instance, right now the Station North area of Baltimore is being gentrified with the creation of new businesses and art spaces like the Metro Gallery, and the influx of wealthier residents to the area. But the bad thing is, that potential development of the Station North area geared to the wealthier residents could drive out the poorer and long time members of that community. So for the project in this class i would like to try and find out if there is some sort of optimum middle ground where the area and neighborhood gets revitalized through gentrification but none of the former residents or other member of the community get displaced.