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AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM (AVAM)

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1993–1995, Rebecca Swanston and Alex Castro; 2004, Diane Cho. 800 Key Hwy.
  • (HABS)

Located at the base of Federal Hill, the AVAM extends the playful artistic vocabulary of its collections to a signature building. The campus includes the 1913 offices of the Baltimore Copper Paint Company, two historic whiskey warehouses, and an outdoor sculpture garden. Described by architect Castro as deliberately nonorthogonal, the museum incorporates the curved brick wall of the former office into its sculptural form, a reuse particularly appropriate for an institution dedicated to outsider art including many works using found objects. A mosaic apprenticeship program for at-risk youth begun in 2000 covered the curved wall with shards of recycled glass, mirror, and china. In 2004 the adjacent whiskey barrel warehouses were adaptively reused and added to the complex as the Rouse Visionary Center. The museum also sponsors a cross-city kinetic sculpture race each year that celebrates the quirky and creative in Baltimore.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie
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What's Nearby

“HALF-HOUSE” ROW HOUSES
INNER HARBOR REDEVELOPMENT
BALTIMORE NATIONAL AQUARIUM
EASTERN AVENUE PUMPING STATION
WORLD TRADE CENTER

Citation

Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie, "AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM (AVAM)", [, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-BC54.

Print Source

Buildings of Maryland, Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022, 185-186.

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