The North Avenue Sculpture Project is an initiative of the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore in partnership with the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and the Charles North Community Association. Funding will be supplied for the commissioning and installation of contemporary outdoor sculpture and installations. Through sequential phases of the project, new artwork from emerging and established artists will be installed along North Avenue for time ranges from 6 months to 5 years. As the various phases of the project happen, the new art installations will help to “connect the dots” between the existing public art and institutions, and bring new art to locations that have seen less investment through this point.

Phase I: Charles North
The first phase of the North Avenue Sculpture Project will occur in the Charles North Community, the near geographic center of the corridor. In this area, the sculptures will be located within the median spaces, specifically the “end cap” locations. These locations were activated with rotating sculpture installations in the early 2000s through the Baltimore Sculpture program and the pedestals from this time are still present. The Charles North Community Association, a partner on this project, as well as one of two neighborhoods that officially make up the Station North Arts & Entertainment District, has already done work to improve the median locations, by pruning the existing juniper shrubs, and landscape the median end caps with new plantings. The Charles North community is supporting the investment in new sculptures to add to the sense of a “gateway” to their community as well as help with traffic calming, and general visibility intended to improve the pedestrian experience in the area. In Phase I the project partners hope to commission one to two new sculptures which could be installed at three potential locations: 1) The east side of Maryland Ave & North Ave, 2) The center of the median between Maryland Ave and Charles St, or 3) The west side of North Ave & St. Paul St. (Please see attachment for a map of the locations).
Installation: September 2022 

Project Background 
North Avenue plays a vital role in Baltimore as a corridor that connects neighborhoods and institutions across the City. One of the few east-west roadways that span the Jones Falls Expressway, North Avenue is an important corridor for the local economy, as well as the daily lives of many residents. The avenue is an important transportation corridor for the Baltimore, connecting the Maryland Transit Administration’s Metro Subway and Light lines and is traversed by Baltimore’s second-busiest bus line, carrying nearly 4 million passengers annually- a figure that has grown since the MTA has grown since the MTA implemented the BaltimoreLink bust network.

North Avenue also acts as a connector between a number of longest standing educational and cultural institutions such as Coppin State University, The Arch Social Club, Maryland Institute College of Art, The Great Blacks in Wax Museum, and the Duncan Street Miracle Garden, as well as the Station North Arts & Entertainment District. At first glance, it’s easy to notice the vacant residential and commercial properties and deteriorating pedestrian and roadway infrastructure that signify the economic disinvestment that Baltimore and Baltimoreans have suffered from for decades. However, the entire corridor has a rich cultural history and daily life that is worthy of celebration. Through multiple incentive programs, investment projects the City of Baltimore, the surrounding communities, and multiple public and private partners have come together around the goal of revitalizing the corridor to its full potential and improving the everyday quality of life on the street.