August 10: "Down Through The Needle's Eye" Closing Reception and Panel

 Down Through the Needle’s Eye is an exhibition consisting of 20 contributors exploring themes related to Baltimore’s historic former Garment District. 

 The Show is conceived and curated by the Rotating History Project (Teddy Johnson and Heather Rounds) in cooperation with EMP Collective.

August 10

Closing Reception 6-10 

Panel Discussion 7-8

Performances 6-7 and 8-10.

Panel

Explorations of Baltimore’s Historic Garment District:  

First hands accounts and reflections from industry workers, scholars, and artists.

Joe Beal, Former Baltimore city garment worker

Michael Masatsugu, Department of History, Towson University

Matt Mettler, Department of History, Towson University

Valeska Populoh, Fiber Department, MICA, Contributing artist

Andrew Shenker, Contributing artist

Phil Spector, Owner, Fashions Unlimited, Baltimore

Artists  who have contributed to the 5 week show.

Andrew Shenker
Annie Farrar
Charlotte Keniston
Chris Fitzwater
Christine Stiver
Daniel Van Allen
Dominic Terlizzi
Dominique Zeltzman
Grant Whipple
Hannah Brancato
Hannah Mandel
Joseph Young
Kaitlin Murphy
Laure Drogoul
Max Bent
Melissa Webb
Michael Masatsugu
Minas Konsolas
Rachel Wolfson Smith
Valeska Populoh 

An area of the city loosely falling between Fayette Street, Greene Street, Pratt Street and Hanover Street, it was in the Garment District where umbrellas were first manufactured in the US and the second largest men’s clothing factories in the world once operated. The city’s labor movement and many of its early union struggles happened here as well.

         The rise and decline of the Garment District as a flourishing industrial center for Baltimore’s manufactured products, as well as the people who worked and struggled to maintain their livelihoods through the decades, speak to events and societal practices that are not alien to our own time and highlight the finite nature of our society’s industries in general.

          The site of the exhibition, EMP, sits in the Faust Building. Located in the heart of the Garment District, the building was once a wholesale boot and shoe business, and through time leased space to clothing firms, dry goods wholesalers, and merchants of men’s furnishings.


ABOUT EMP COLLECTIVE

         Founded in 2010, EMP Collective is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and producing multi-media events by collaborating with artists from all backgrounds, across disciplines. EMP Collective hopes to nourish emerging artists with its new incubator space (creatively named EMP) at 306 W Redwood Street, in the forgotten Loft District of Baltimore. This multi-use arts venue is comprised of a rotating art gallery for developing artists that doubles as a rehearsal / performance space for theatrical and musical events, experimental collaboration, workshops, and film screenings. Around the corner from the Hippodrome, right off of the Baltimore St/University Center Light Rail stop, EMP hopes to be part of the revitalization of a neighborhood just blocks away from the Inner Harbor and Mount Vernon.
EMP Gallery Hours: Thurs-Sat, 2-7PM 

http://empcollective.org/
 

"Down Through the Needle's Eye" has been highlighted in Urbanite as a choice Artscape satellite exhibit!

http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/baltimore/satellite-images/Content?oid=1474929

PARTICIPATE:

JULY 13 - AUG 10 E.M.P. Collective

Participate in "Cut Pieces," a textile performance by Hannah Brancato and Charlotte Keniston, and reduce textile waste in the process. Please bring clothing you no longer use to swap with other gallery visitors. Any clothing that is stained or otherwise un-wearable will be used in the creation of quilts. These quilts will hold the story of your piece of clothing within pockets placed throughout the quilt itself.