#fred lazarus

Hundreds of thousands of people will make their way to the area around Mount Royal Avenue, roughly between Charles and Howard streets, to enjoy free music, free performance art, free cinema, free art galleries…free just-about-everything (you will have to buy your food, but nobody says you can’t wait until you get home to eat).

(And by the way, it’s just a rumor that Artscape’s organizers intentionally pick the hottest weekend of the year, or that they do a rain dance to ensure it storms at least once during the three-day festival. It just seems that way.)

Amanda Ways is entertained by dragonfly Caroline Simonds, a street-theater performer, during Artscape '82. (Bruce D. Smallwood, Baltimore Sun photo, June 13, 1982)

But Artscape wasn’t always such a big deal. In fact, its beginnings lend credence to the old adage about mighty oaks growing from tiny acorns.

Back in the early '80s, according to an article written in 2011 by The Baltimore Sun’s Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore was still a city coming into its own. Physical and emotional scars left by the riots of 1968 were still being felt; no one was even sure Baltimoreans wanted to celebrate the arts together.

But Harborplace had just opened, to rave reviews and impressive crowds, and Maryland Institute College of Art President Fred Lazarus was anxious to find a way to upgrade the image of the neighborhood surrounding the school. Then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer, always on the lookout for new gimmicks to showcase his beloved city, enthusiastically signed on, chipping in a $200,000 city grant to get things going. Organizers even got Ray Charles to headline, and you don’t get much better than Ray Charles.

Jeanni Seetoo, a 12-year-old student at Mount Royal Middle School, helped press tiles into wet cement at the corner of Preston and Cathedral streets as part of the preparation for the first Artscape. (Irving H. Phillips Jr., Baltimore Sun photo, June 8, 1982)

On June 11, 1982, everyone waited with bated breath. “We had no idea how many people would attend,” Lazarus remembered. But plenty of people showed (although not enough to satisfy the food vendors, many of whom lost money), all seemed to have a good time – even if two days of steady rain forced the Ray Charles concert into the Fifth Regiment Armory and drenched much of the artwork that was being displayed outside -- and organizers soon began planning Artscape, the sequel..

Artscape has never looked back. The big acts have kept coming (including Aretha Franklin, Matisyahu and, this year, Anthony Hamilton), the footprint of the festival keeps getting bigger (originally covering five city blocks, it now encompasses some five neighborhoods) and the crowds – regardless of the weather – keep on showing up.

During Artscape '92, Marcus MacKinnon of Baltimore dances with Annie Hickman, of a street-theater group from New York City, dressed as a red zebra. (Patrick Sandor, Baltimore Sun photo, July 12, 1992)

And remarkably, even after 32 years, not one person has to pay a nickel for admission. Now that’s truly amazing.

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More on Artscape:

- See pictures from Artscapes through the years here. 

- See Artscape logos through the years here.

- See pictures of art cars through the years here.