Ignite Baltimore #11 took place on Thursday October 18th. The distinctive idea sharing platform has become increasingly popular in Baltimore. The eleventh instalment of the event sold out the MICA’s Brown Center’s 400-seat auditorium in a matter of hours. People are interested in infotainment.
Thankfully the folks who brought Iginite to Baltimore; Mike Subelsky, Neil Shaffer, Jenn Gunner and a few others, are socially minded. They decided it was not about making money but about making a difference in Baltimore. As a result of the event’s success, they now have a small but growing pool of money. They decided to use the money to launch some of the emerging ideas in the city. As part of each event they are awarding two $2250 Ignition Grants to new projects in Baltimore.
I had the unique experience of being on the selection committee for the recent round of grants. What an inspiring place to sit! We heard ambitions to create entrepreneurs out of citizens re-entering the population after prison. We contemplated how Wes Moore’s story might be used to engage high school students. We considered the desire to make street corners into symphony halls by installing speakers to play classical music throughout the city. Someone even proposed putting a ping-pong table in Wymann Park. There are so many thoughtful ways to change our environment. I hope that all applicants pursue their visions of change.
It was a tough choice, but we opted to support the production of a work of art, and a youth-led community-organizing effort. The Inner Harbor Project is exciting to me. I recently wrote about shared value and I think community organizing at its best is a place to experience interdependence. Put youth in charge of the organizing around a very public space and you have a powerful future. The work of art is a risk that I am proud to take. It is a risk because it is an ambitious project … Amissa Miller is confronting our dire economic situation with art. Her proposal, “What do you do?”, includes a series of interviews with under-employed and unemployed people. These are the folks truly affected by our current economic state. She will then write and perform a piece based on the interviews. I found this compelling. First and foremost there are not many artists that I know of in Baltimore using art to explore economic problems in such an intimate way. Secondly, it recognizes that our economic difficulties are personal. All too often the economy is described by faceless numbers and numbing statistics. There is no story. This work of art, seeks to expose the humanity of our financial systems. The piece has the power to put a face to a situation that we often refer to but prefer be left faceless.
I often say that I promote art because it shows the world as it currently is and as it can be. I hope that in six months when we get a report back from the grantees we not only understand more about the current situation, but we might even have a better direction to head. This is why art is powerful. This is exactly how art will change the world.
