Watch a video of the unveiling of the newest exterior vinyl art installation featuring selected works from the fourth issue of “1807,” UMB’s art and literary magazine.
On a sunny day with a gentle, warm spring breeze wafting across the manicured green space, guests gathered May 1 to celebrate the unveiling of Pearl Gallery North, a new exterior vinyl art installation featuring selected works from 1807, the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) art and literary journal.
Attendees enjoyed custom-made cookies featuring artwork by Deborah Cartee, RDH, MS, former clinical associate professor and division chief of the Dental Hygiene Program at the School of Dentistry, and received copies of past 1807 issues.
UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, and Jennifer B. Litchman, MA, chief external relations officer and senior vice president and founder and chair, Council for the Arts & Culture, offered opening remarks. Litchman shared, “Some people might think this is a small thing, a little thing at a university that has so many big things to deal with — but I think right now, the way the world is, this is what we really need. These small things turn into being a big part of helping us deal with the day-to-day intricacies of life.”
Jarrell added, “When Jennifer says little things become big things, this is an important thing for this campus. You realize just how skilled the people that we have here are — in things other than health, law, social work.”
Cartee shared how meaningful it was to have her art featured: “It’s really just such an honor to have something I captured shared by everyone else — they saw something in it.”
Pearl Gallery North is the third of UMB’s exterior art galleries and features two dozen pieces from the fourth issue of 1807.
The artwork on display spans a variety of mediums and backgrounds, including a soft, pastel watercolor painting by Laura Broy, MBA, assistant director, enterprise applications, Center for Information Technology Services; “Poem #27” by Anna Marie Epps-Ogunkoya, MS, senior program specialist at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, inspired by her journey toward self-confidence; and “Font of Knowledge” — a 3D rendering of the Francis King Carey School of Law courtyard created with PLA plastic, plaster resin, and acrylic paint by Aaron Graham, JD, associate director of career development at the law school.
Also featured is an image of a piece of jewelry that looks like a mermaid made from beads and a Japanese clay doll mask. Created by Kathy Patterson, research supervisor at the School of Social Work, her Klimt-inspired piece adds a cultural and textural depth to the installation.
Looking ahead, a new path connecting the other two galleries on the north end of campus — Pearl Street and Arch Street — is expected to be installed this summer, making the evolving art experience even more accessible to the UMB community.
Litchman reflected on how we often see others only through a professional lens — as professors, researchers, or clinicians — without taking into account the fact that we are all multidimensional, and when our artist colleagues put their creative side on display, we are able to see a more human side of each other and we can share our humanness with each other.
The galleries collectively remind us that there is far more beneath the surface of our colleagues. Each work of art is a reminder that creative expression allows us to share a more personal, human side that fosters connection, empathy, and a richer understanding of one another.