TITLE: THE BALTIMORE MOBILE COMMUNITY BRICK FACTORY
DATE: 2015-2016
MATERIALS: 7,500 pounds of local Maryland red clay, harvested from Stancill's Clay and Sand Mine in Perryville, MD, sand, historic brick molds, shed constructed from salvage materials, handmade signs, handmade wooden brick shelves, audience participation
DIMENSIONS: The Brick Factory packed up into a 4'x5'x8' mobile shed at each location. While the factory was open each day, the brick making station occupied approximately 15'x25', and the story collection station an additional 12'x20' area of the site.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Baltimore Mobile Community Brick Factory produces hand-made bricks, using local Maryland clay, with historic water-struck methods. Participants and visitors are invited to personalize and inscribe their stories in the handmade bricks. The project opened to the public in Brick Hill at an historic machinist factory on May 31st, 2016. From there, the factory moved to the Baltimore Museum of Art, opening with a day long field trip tracing Baltimore’s brick making legacy with Max Pollock of Details Deconstruction and Eli Pousson of Baltimore Heritage. The factory remained at the Baltimore Museum of Art until June 20th. From June 22-June 25, 2016 the Factory was open at Baltimore Clayworks. On June 25th, we held a public brick firing and celebration at Baltimore Clayworks, after which the factory relocated to The Loading Dock, Inc until early July. The bricks made during this project will become part of roving public art installations over the course of the next year.
Marian April Glebes, in collaboration with Josh Copus, launches the Baltimore Mobile Community Brick Factory (2016-). This project is an extension of Glebes’ year-long residency, in partnership with The Loading Dock, at the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Patricia and Mark Joseph Education Center (2015-2016). This extension of a collaborative interdisciplinary project is made possible by a 2015 Rubys Artist Project Grant, an initiative conceived with start-up funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and is a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.
The Baltimore Mobile Community Brick Factory is also supported in kind by Baltimore Clayworks, Union Craft Brew Company, Friends of Wyman Park Dell, Taylor Clay Products Inc., Potomac Brick and Supply Company, and Life After Boring Studios.
