CREATIVE ALLIANCE AT THE PATTERSON – Baltimore’s premier multi-arts center celebrates our 21st Birthday in 2016! Our energetic calendar of 400+ performances, exhibitions, screenings, and community events attracts local and regional audiences. Internationally regarded as a paradigm for arts-driven neighborhood revitalization, Creative Alliance promotes the redevelopment of Patterson Park neighborhoods and anchors Highlandtown’s Arts & Entertainment District.
Celebrate throughout 2016! Here’s to a spectacular year of dynamic performances, exhibits, films, workshops, parties, & community festivals! 21 HIGHLIGHTS to look forward to this year…
PERFORMANCES, FILMS, & PARTIES!
Throughout 2016 we bring back and highlight many Creative Alliance Favorites – performers and artists who have called our stage home over the past 21 years. Look forward to hearing many stories of the first days of Creative Alliance! Hear how it all began!
3rd Annual Crankie Festival | JAN 8-10
Expanding into two full nights of pure magic and hosted as always by old time music and crankie masterminds, Anna Roberts-Gevalt & Elizabeth LaPrelle, this festival has become the premier event of its kind, exploring the many ways the hand cranked scroll puppet show – known as a crankie – can be interpreted by artists from near and far. More Info
The Stoop Presents: 21 Club | JAN 13 | 21st Birthday Kick-off Event!
The Stoop began telling stories on the Creative Alliance Stage in 2006 and it’s only fitting that we invite the ever expanding story series back to kick off our birthday year! With music provided by longtime Creative Alliance Favorites Arty Hill and Letitia VanSant. More Info
¡Viva Brasil! | JAN 30 10th Anniversary
with Matuto & Samba Trovao, DJ’s Luiz Luoco & Miguel De Amor, Full Costumed Carnival Show!
Our Brazilian mid-winter dance party returns for its 10th insane year with live samba,forro music and dance lessons, plus DJ’s, a full costumed Carnival performance, and so much more! More Info
Akua Allrich’s SEED! | FEB 19
An artistic journey in celebration of Black History Month
An exciting interdisciplinary and multi-sensory musical concert connecting Africa, Latin-America, the Caribbean, and the USA, expressed through music, projections, live painting, poetry and dance. More Info
Light City Lantern Parade! | MAR 28
Creative Alliance’s Light City Lantern Parade kicks off American’s first Light City Festival on Monday, March 28 at the Inner Harbor. Everyone is invited to dress up and light up the promenade in the Inner Harbor from Rash Field to Harbor East! More Info About Light City
CREATIVE ALLIANCE’S 21st BIRTHDAY PARTY!
Marquee Ball – 21st Birthday Party! | APRIL 16, 2016
Creative Alliance’s COLOSSAL 21st Birthday Party takes place on Saturday April 16, 2016. We celebrate the transformative cultural and economic impact we’ve had on our neighborhood and how we’ve contributed to energizing Baltimore’s arts community. The Marquee Ball supports our free youth education and community programs. Our afterschool, weekend and summer arts classes and workshops annually serve 2,000 children and youth. More Info
B’more Shorts | APR 21
A night of short films highlighting Baltimore’s best filmmakers who’ve premiered and screened their short and feature films at the Creative Alliance!
Rainbow Fest! | JUL 29 – 31
For the 5th anniversary of our fabulous annual LGBTQA Film Festival, we expand this high quality event to include dazzling performances, stand-up comedy, and a drag party!
21 Candles | SEP 10
It’s a coming of age birthday party! Dress like you did at 21, make a fake ID, dance to your favorite high school rom-com movie soundtracks, and fall in love John Hughes style.
Musician Incubation Series | FALL SERIES
For 2016 we inaugurate a brand new commissioning series that offers support to performers to collaborating across generations. Their new work debuts this fall.
Trixie Little’s 12th Annual Holiday Spectac-u-thon | CHRISTMAS 2016
Wrapping up our 21st birthday year, Trixie Little & the Evil Hate Monkey celebrate 12 years of Baltimore’s uproarious holiday tradition! Bringing all the nice’n’naughty shenanigans you’ve wanted: outrageous acrobatics, smart striptease, heart-warming songs, nearly-naked dancing, and an overload of yuletide merriment.
EXHIBITIONS
Dwell | On View: DEC 11, 2015 – JAN 23, 2016
Founded in 2015 by artist and former Creative Alliance resident Michael Owen,Dwell is a group exhibition that inaugurates the first year of the HOME Residency program, founded in 2015 by artist and former Creative Alliance resident Michael Owen. The exhibition features painter Gregg Deal, sculptor TetraPAKMAN aka Victor Castro, and photographer Webster Phillips III, and is both a sampling of the work the artists completed during their time at HOME, as well as new collaborative works, and other personal pieces specially made for Dwell. More Info
Resident Artists Reunion Group Exhibition | Exhibition Opening FEB 6 | Resident Open House FEB 20
Launching our 21st Birthday Celebration in 2016, the Resident Artists Reunion Group Exhibition is an impressive overview of the nearly 50 acclaimed artists who have made The Patterson their home since 2003. The Patterson Residency Program (8 live/work studios) provides a highly visible, intense and creative environment for the production of artwork in all media. More Info
Current Resident Artist Exhibitions in 2016
Cameron Shojaei | APR 30 – MAY 28
Amy Sherald | DEC 10 – JAN 14 2017
Exhibition Opening & Performance
The Big & Little Show | JUN 25 | On View JUN 25 – JUL 30
Built on the wildly varied talents of our distinguished membership, every year The Big Show offers members of all ages the opportunity to contribute artwork of their own creation that then hangs in a massive salon-style exhibition in our main gallery.
NEW THIS YEAR: The BIG Show on Stage!
The night of the exhibition opening we host a curated showcase of member performances in the theater.
Highlandtown Arts District Exhibition (ha!) | On View: OCT 7 – 29
Highlandtown Arts District galleries all open their doors to highlight our neighborhood artists. The exhibition features a sampling of East Baltimore’s best and brightest resident artists featured in multiple venues, including the Creative Alliance’s Amalie Rothschild Gallery, Baltimore Threadquarters, Highlandtown Gallery, and SkyLofts Gallery & Studios. Each artist living or working within the boundaries of the HA!
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS & FESTIVALS
Mexican Piñata Apprenticeship & Entrepreneurship program | ALL YEAR
Creative Alliance’s Artesanas Mexicanas, a group of talented women who are natives of Mexico and are residents of Southeast Baltimore, have received a highly competitive grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to expand our traditional Mexican Piñata Apprenticeship & Entrepreneurship Program. Throughout 2016 we host on and off-site workshops, free art drop-in for families at Kerplunk!, and a holiday exhibition and sale of piñatas. More Info
Neighborhood Voices Workshops | ALL YEAR | Starts MAR 19
Since 2013 Neighborhood Voices: Our Stories About Race Where We Live provides a platform for authentic storytelling between multiethnic neighbors in Southeast Baltimore to organize educational, social justice, and activist workshops to address structural racism.
Activist Speaker Series | MAY 1, AUG 27 & NOV 30
Baltimore activists unite and share their work, inspiration, and vision for a better and more just city. Guest speakers include educators, artists, and organizers throughout Baltimore to collaborate across platforms and elevate awareness about their work. The speaker series is free and each event closes with a Q&A. Topics may include women’s rights, environmentalism, worker’s rights, immigration reform and Black Lives Matter.
Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival | JUN 4
Now in its 6th year! This free, once-yearly collaboration with the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council moves to a new weekend in June. We present over 150 Maryland artists in a celebration of the “arts of the everyday” by exploring the diverse communities–old and new–throughout our entire state.
The 17th Great Halloween Lantern Parade & Festival: Día De Los Muertos | OCT 29
The community that creates together is GREAT together! During the day a family festival in Patterson Park includes lantern building, kids costume contests, sugar skull making, live music and performers, craft vendors, hayrides, family activities, and more! Everyone is welcome to dress in costume and carry a lantern in the parade! The parade theme is organized under the direction of Artesans Mexicanas who inspire NEW floats, marching bands, stilt-walkers, dancers, and over 1500 community-made lanterns!
EDUCATION
Zikrayat – Bringing Egyptian music and schools together | MAR 2-4
Students from Highlandtown 215, Tench Tilghman, and Hampstead Hill come to Creative Alliance to learn about Arabic music and watch a multi-media performance with the master musicians of Zikrayat. A public evening concert is the capstone of these three days features lively music, film, and masterful dance.
Kerplunk! | JUN 25, JUL 30 & AUG 27
This summer we take Kerplunk! – our FREE family art drop-in open for families and kids of all ages – into the streets of our neighborhood! Three Saturday summer sessions will be held outside Creative Alliance with a DJ, plus sidewalk chalk, and art projects outside. We are making a visible impact on Highlandtown by encouraging our neighborhood families to explore their creativity in our community!
