A day off from work means another day trip/adventure.
This time it’s downtown Baltimore to the American Visionary Art Museum next to Federal Hill on Key Highway.
This was my first visit to the VAM after hearing a lot about it. Even its gift shop gets rave reviews…but more on that later.
The admission price for an adult is $15.95 with lesser prices for seniors, kids, veterans and active military. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and are timed which means you are given a set time to enter. This is done to avoid overcrowding.
No such problem today. I arrived as the museum opened for the day.
The current “mega-exhibition” is entitled “ABUNDANCE: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right”.
VAM’s 27th original thematic mega-exhibition is a wildly joyful, community-building contemplation of just what constitutes real wealth by exploring what lies at the heart of deep satisfaction, productive happiness, and gratefulness, both individual and collective. Nowhere is the quest for personal freedom in the expression of work, nor the pursuit of joy, more evident than in the creations of artists who have wrought new worlds from modest, often discarded, materials—equipped only with their hands, hearts, and fertile imaginations.
VAM
Old cathode ray TV tubes
“Stegosaurus” by Leo Sewell of Annapolis, MD
PEZ dispenser collection of David R. Klein
Also on exhibit now through the end of spring is “The Science and Mystery of Sleep”.
…a plain-language compilation of all the latest sleep-related scientific research, alongside three spectacular, artist-made visionary bedrooms. The research punctuating this exhibition will be a foray into a multitude of topics: the impact of sleep on obesity and diabetes, sleep and adolescents, the influence of sleep on hormones and testicles, and the power of the Hypnagogic state championed by famed Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church
AVM
On display through early next year is “Esther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family”.
AVAM announces the return of its most beloved exhibited works in the national museum’s 23-year history, the exquisitely tender testimonial embroideries created by Holocaust survivor, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz.
VAM
On permanent exhibit is “Bling Universe”.
The American Visionary Art Museum is one small speck in a Bling Universe where art reflects life, both literally and figuratively. Adorning one’s world – transforming it into a place that defies convention, surprising and delighting, providing hope and wonder – is what the Bling Universe is all about.
VMA
Here you will also find the infamous Flatulence Post and a display entirely centered on…farts.
I was told the gift shop, Sideshow, was a must-see. They weren’t kidding.
I couldn’t pass up purchasing this Edith Massey magnet that now adorns my laptop…
Overall, the VAM is cool, eclectic and so very Baltimore. It’s closed Mondays and Tuesdays so keep that in mind as you plan a visit.
The museum is conveniently located next to Federal Hill so I took advantage of a beautiful day and took in the sights that I have done so many times before.
This photo below is looking west down Warren Avenue at what used to be Southern High School. Across from the school, for about two years in the early 1990’s, I shared a third-floor apartment with a co-worker back when the area was still semi-affordable. It was great being right downtown next to the harbor.
A further walk along the harbor today….
And then I spotted the city’s trash skimmer doing its job…
