Where:
Maryland Art Place
8 Market Place, Suite 100
Baltimore, Maryland
BALTIMORE—Maryland Art Place (MAP) will host Moving Walls 2004, a traveling photography exhibit sponsored by the Open Society Institute (OSI), from May 4 to May 29, 2004.
The exhibition highlights the work of two photographers: Edward Grazda, who examines the lives of Muslim communities in New York City; and Lori Grinker, who explores the damaged bodies and scarred lives of people who live through war. In addition, the show will feature young Baltimore photographers from The Youthlight Identity Project who spent several months exploring identity and stereotyping through photography. Their part of the show, a series of insightful self portraits, is called “Invoking Identity: Dreaming with Eyes Open.”
“These are very strong photographs that speak provocatively about identity and the devastating consequences of conflict,” said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore. “They give tangible expression to the links between life in the United States and global rituals and dynamics. We hope that by bringing these photographs to Baltimore we can encourage a dialogue about the important issues they raise.”
As part of the Moving Walls exhibition, OSI-Baltimore, MAP and WYPR are sponsoring a free educational forum on May 5 from 3-5 p.m. at MAP. Community members and journalists are invited to join the photographers and experts on civil liberties and Muslim life in the United States in a discussion about issues evoked by the photographs. The forum panel will be moderated by Marc Steiner, WYPR executive vice president and host of the Marc Steiner Show. Panelists include:
- Leon Faruq, a 2003 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow who has worked extensively with ex-prisoners and is a long-time practicing African-American Muslim;
- Susan Goering, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Maryland, who has longstanding experience representing and supervising numerous civil liberties cases;
- Edward Grazda, a photographer who recently published New York Masjid: The Mosques of New York. For over two decades, Grazda has photographed Muslim communities ranging from African-American and indigenous families in the United States to more traditional practitioners in Pakistan and Afghanistan;
- Lori Grinker, a photographer who recently published After War: Veterans from A World in Conflict. Since 1989, Grinker has photographed and interviewed veterans who served on the frontlines in conflicts ranging from World War I to Kosovo.
Attendees will also include Marshall Clarke, an OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow who founded The Youthlight Identity Project, and several of the young photographers. The forum is part of Forging Open Society: Generating Ideas, Partnerships and Solutions, a series of forums convened by OSI-Baltimore to encourage community leaders with diverse perspectives to craft solutions to challenges facing the Baltimore region.
About the Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open society around the world. OSI’s U.S. Programs seek to strengthen democracy in the United States by addressing barriers to opportunity and justice, broadening public discussion about such barriers, and assisting marginalized groups to participate equally in civil society and to make their voices heard. U.S. Programs challenge over-reliance on the market by advocating appropriate government responsibility for human needs and promoting public interest and service values in law, medicine, and the media. OSI's U.S. Programs support initiatives in a range of areas, including access to justice for low and moderate income people; independence of the judiciary; ending the death penalty; reducing gun violence and over-reliance on incarceration; drug policy reform; inner-city education and youth programs; fair treatment of immigrants; reproductive health and choice; campaign finance reform; and improved care of the dying. OSI is part of the network of foundations, created and funded by George Soros, is active in more than 50 countries around the world.
About Maryland Art Place
Maryland Art Place (MAP) is a center for contemporary art established in 1981 to develop and maintain a dynamic environment for artists to exhibit their work, nurture and promote new ideas and new forms, and facilitate rewarding exchanges between artists and the public through educational leadership.