In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes (profile portraits) of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces encircled several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents, and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.
R.B. Bartgis (00:02): Hi, I grew up in Anne Arundel County, but my mom was from Curtis Bay, and we always spent the summers in Curtis Bay, just over the county line in the city. My grandmother owned a house up there, and when my cousins would all come, we'd all stay with her in the summers, and we begged her for a couple dollars so we could go down to the store and get food, and I remember we never went into the city for the Fourth of July, but we'd go to Garrett Park and sit and watch the fireworks in the Inner Harbor.
R.B. Bartgis (00:33): Everyone would sit there together, bringing their lawn chairs out and watch fireworks. It really seemed like a carefree childhood just to be able to run around Brooklyn and Curtis Bay and have the whole world to ourselves, just our bicycles.
