The banners finally came down today! After an amazing and touching Saturday evening reception at the Maryland Institute College of Art we made our gracious exit from the banners of Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project to the TreeBaltimore’s campaign to plant trees. The banners came down last week and were placed from basement to sky in the Brown Center.

All photos were taken by Doug Retzler

The outside of the Brown Center getting prepped for the evenings festivities

We had installations from each of the events and have two wonderful speakers; Tom Stosur, Assistant Deputy Mayor and Wanda Durden, the new acting Director for Department of Recreation and Parks. We were presented with a beautiful plaque on behalf of the city written by our dear friends Anne Draddy, the Jones Falls Watershed Association and Emily Ellickson-Brown, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

E. Rachael Baird, Wanda Durden, Jessica M. Pegorsch, Carolyn from Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, and Tom Stosur posing for a photo!

It was a night to remember. While a bit windy, the weather held and the light generously spilled out into the Leidy Atrium, covering the room with warmth… we were all amongst friends. Those who love Baltimore City, those who love the arts and those who truly want to make a difference in our world came from all over the country to be at our event. We are so honored to have been surrounded by such a great mix of people!

An overview of the Atrium

We are almost sold out of our banners! There are another 30 banners left, which is an incredible feat, but the rest are going fast! Visit the remaining banners online at our store and purchase all custom orders before July 7th! That is just one week from today!

So, you can see… it is almost the beginning. TreeBaltimore is taking root in Baltimore and is here to stay! SUPPORT THEM as much as you can (money, time, effort, spreading the word, etc.)

Click here and visit the rest of the photos online! See a sampling below.

Shopping in our Tilt Tent with some of the pre-made sample bags!

Mike Weikert’s daughter spinning in front of our PowerPoint. She is already a performance artist!

E. Rachael Baird & Jessica M. Pegorsch enjoying a moment during the speech.

A special thank you to:
-Baltimore City Mayor’s Office for the incredible opportunity to have this project and recognition for our efforts
-Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks for assisting with coordination from start to finish and helping to volunteer at the event
-Baltimore City Department of Transportation, Street Lighting Division for assisting us with the entire project and the exhibition put up and take down
-Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts for ensuring that we had all of our t’s crossed and our i’s dotted
-Serigraphics for printing the banners and the t-shirts and pushing through the bag design with us to make this a success! Thank you for your endless hours!
-Designers, artists and K-12 students for their amazing talent and innate ability to be creative. Keep it up!
-Sponsors for helping to assist us with making this project possible.
-All of our volunteers that have helped at all of our events
-Our parents and team for their endless amount of effort and time put into making this project a success. We are forever grateful.

And a thank you for Saturday evening:
-Maryland Institute College of Art for lending us a space and assisting us with the exhibition put up and take down and event coordination
-Parkhurst Dining Services for the delicious food and alcohol serving
-AIGA Baltimore for sponsoring a table during the event and being such a great support at the end
-Lady G’s for local organic wine and beer
-Doug Retzler for photography coverage
-Scott Wilburn and Kris Vandevander for their amazing sound equipment and music

And the most special thank you of all: Thank you to our very own TreeBaltimore for having a message that we could get behind and help to support. We look forward to the results for years to come!

SHOP SHOP SHOP SHOP SHOP and support TreeBaltimore and Tilt Studio Foundation Initiatives

The space at MICA’s Brown Center is the perfect space to showcase all of the banners from Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project. It is expansive, deep and over powering to be in this space. Please feel free to stop on by as we are working or to join us as we close the exhibition on Saturday from 5-7pm.

Thank you to everyone that has been involved. This has truly been an amazing exercise in community, design and sustainability. Tree love forever!

Photos courtesy of our Banner God and friend Brent Hooper!

First level of banners!

First, second & third levels!

The late night team: Brent Hooper (Baltimore City Dept of Transportation, Lighting… i.e. our Banner GOD), Jessica Pegorsch, E. Rachael Baird & Anthony Snead

Will Blake & Joe Onheiser from Brent Hooper’s team putting up banners. Jess preparing for them.

Thank you to everyone for your participation! The top 6 selections are:

Jamie Barnett
Kate Cogswell
Kaitlin Pugh
Dani Stitz
Gina Flacone Skelton
Kevin Sprouls

Congratulations to our UFP Signature Designs! See their banners at Bloom! The Closing for Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project on Saturday, June 28th from 5-7pm. 250 people will receive a one-of-a-kind signature poster with the following 6 designs. First come, first serve!

Check out information online about the closing exhibition!

Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project Closing Exhibition

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Brown Center | 5-7pm

Exhibition remarks by Tom Stosur, Assistant Deputy Mayor
Say goodbye in style, Free admittance and open to the public!
Music. Friendly faces. Shop ’til you drop. Free lite fare. $4 local wine and beer. See the full exhibition of all the Professional and K-12 banner

Finally coming to a close. After a year of planning, 11 weeks of exhausting events, and endless hours of fun, we are celebrating Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project’s departure with a stylish affair! Join us as we say goodbye to our beloved banner project and HELLO to the continuation of the TreeBaltimore campaign.

If you missed a park event, now is the time to relive the experience! See the entire exhibition in one space. We will have 200 professionals banners on display, the 185 printed K-12 banners, you will be able to learn about TreeBaltimore and take home a tree, the Grow for Change pledge dots from the Baltimore community will be on display, there will be a visual timeline of all 6 events and it will be the last opportunity to purchase any of our merchandise before it goes through final production.

Sponsors:

12-4pm at the Berry Festival

Come see all 185 K-12 Banners and Recreation and Parks Labyrinth.

Join us as we celebrate the annual Berry Festival at Herring Run Park. Spend the day amongst the trees and enjoy activities for the whole family. Pick up a tree during their annual give away and experience Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project’s last park event.

K-12 students who participated should report to the Orange Tilt Tent from 2pm-2:30 for a photoshoot.

K-12 School Participation:
Girl Scouts of Central Maryland
Margaret Brent Elementary
Mt. Washington Elementary
The Green School of Baltimore
Baltimore Lab School
The Park School
Roland Park Elementary/Middle School
Roland Park Country School

Sponsors:

Yesterday was beautiful and HOT! With the Tour Dem Parks. Even amongst the trees, it was unbearable weather! For those that rode in the tour or came out to participate with Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project, THANK YOU!

During this event, Fastspot created a 156 ft long banner showcasing roughly 1500 leaves created by artists, community people and designers all over the globe. We pulled out 8 defined leaves that tell a story about the personalities and culture of greening. It was a spectacular installation because it really incorporated so many different people from so many walks of life.

Thank you to Fastspot for designing, developing and creating this wonderful masterpiece!

Here is the story of how it came to be:
In this iteration of the Project, Fastspot asked for the help of the community to make their banners. In order to foster community involvement, Fastspot created a Website where users were asked to contribute a portion of the banner by using online drawing tools to create a customized leaf. Through online submission, these leaves became part of larger banners designed by Fastspot and hung on the street lights all over the city.

View and interact with the program here: www.fastspot.com/client/urban_forest

As part of their involvement in the project, Fastspot was asked to contribute to the event in Carroll Park on June 8, 2008. Fastspot felt that the event reinforced the Project?’s message of sustainability and green-consciousness, while engaging the citizens who made their banners possible and showcasing the artwork itself. The event gave citizen leaf designers the opportunity to find their leaf amongst the over 1,500 individual submissions that made our project possible. These leaves were displayed on banners and markers throughout Carroll Park that invited attendees to “Find Your Leaf”, reinforcing the strong community involvement necessary in keeping our city clean and green.

The Fastspot banners are now available for sale as wall art or as bags at the closing exhibition. If you would like to purchase beforehand, feel free to contact us directly to buy: ufp@tiltstudioinc.com.

All photos were taken by Fastspot’s Stacy Spakowsky

12-4pm right after Tour Dem Parks

Food from Chipotle and a special arts and crafts sale featuring the Charm City Craft Mafia.
Participate and draw on one of the 8 commmunity leaves that will be up for auction.
154’ of leafs on the hillside to walk through. First chance to purchase a signature bag. First come, first serve

Fastspot presents, Find your leaf:

The local Baltimore interactive agency, Fastspot created an intuitive and interactive tool for drawing a leaf as their submission for Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project. The program enabled the ability to reach out and receive designs from all over the city and be able to experience Baltimore through the eyes of the community. Walk through our banner installation, put your mark on one of our leaves, or journey throughout the park to explore the rest of the designs. Enjoy the designs that the community created in Carroll Park!

» View Fastspot’s Drawing Tool

Like leaves, we are all unique and individual as people. What are your values and personality like? Are you family oriented? Perhaps you are eco-friendly? Find the leaf that best represents you and make your mark on it!

Join us in our venture to design one of 8 community leafs. Come to Carroll Park on June 8th and find that leaf that best suits your personality traits. Put your mark on it and meet someone new in the community who is similar to you!

Live Music by KB Drive
Scott Wilburn – Vocals
Sean Wilburn – Bass
Mike Trail – Guitar
Pete Ilenda – Guitar
Brent Wiedal – Drums

Sponsors:

Our friend Christine Neill is showing her love for nature with an expressive collection of work opening this Friday at Goya Contemporary. This show is an opportunity to see the original works of art from her banner series as well as to see her incredible perception of nature.

When: Reception is this Friday May 30, 6 to 8 pm
Where: Goya Contemporary 3000 Chestnut Ave Baltimore MD 21211 410.366.2001

Christine Neill collaborated with Designer Lew Fifield to produce a series of banners for the Urban Forest Project: bmore-ufp.org.This exhibit includes the original paintings they used as images for the banners that will hanging in four Baltimore City parks until June 27.

Growing performance sculpture in Charles Village Parade—
finishing at Festival in Wyman Park Dell on Saturday, May 31, Noon to 4 pm

Trees are the ultimate living art installation— now’s your chance to become apart of our growing tree canopy in Baltimore!

Join us in Wyman Park Dell as part of the Charles Village Festival and literally be apart of the sculpture. 200 people/tree ambassadors receive 2 shades of large green dots bearing tree-related words. Beginning before, during the Parade and at the Festival, the dots will be handed out. We will ask pedestrians to pledge to preserve Baltimore’s trees and to live more sustainably. At 4 pm, we will convene in The Dell for a 5 minute Tree Ceremony. With the dots, we will recreate the Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project logo (shown above). Watch the sculpture grow as more people join us and see our canopy take over the lower lawn of the Dell!

Call for Participants

The Urban Forest Project is seeking 200+ participants on Saturday, May 31. Meet up at 9 am at the start of the Charles Village Parade to walk with the dots and hand out through out the route. Throughout the day participants will collect names of people that are pledging to live more sustainably. We are asking that each dot have at least 5 names— showing a 1,000 people that have pledged. At 4 pm we will convene in the lower lawn of The Dell and have the Tree Ceremony; positioning the dots around the brown branch structure. This will create the larger tree canopy. The dots will remain in place until 6 pm and then will be available for take away by the community.

Dot = tree canopy
Brown = tree structure

Our very first design award winner! Chad Miller from Harbor Hospital has been our signature Baltimore: The Urban Forest Project designer since the beginning last year. His Think Green Hon banner design won the gold award under the Pro-Bono category for the Hermes Creative Awards. This award is presented by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and Chad won the 2008 category. Everyone should give him a huge round of applause for this incredibly special award.

We are all looking forward to great things from you, Chad! CONGRATULATIONS!