Calling all dreamers. The Awesome Foundation is raising the bar and doubling our normal cash prize to $2,000 for a project that SCREAMS “awesome!” and makes Baltimore an even more awesome place just by existing. We want your wild schemes, your spectacular flights of fancy, your semi-deranged space-monkey rocket launches. We’re looking for Snark-hunters, white-whale stalkers, and King-Kong conquistadors. Something so explosive it’ll make the gunpowder plot look like a pop-gun, so off the wall it’ll bounce off the plaster like Tigger on crack, so far outside the box that right angles start to weep and cry for mercy. Something like … “I want to build the world’s largest hammock.” “I want to start a fashion line for diabetics with a cheeky name that makes wearing an insulin pump hotter than toting a Fendi bag.” “I want to recreate the boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in an urban environment so people can run screaming through back-alleys with a giant plush ball rumbling after them.”                     What we don’t want: NOTHING BORING. The usual suspects will be rounded up and shot. No gallery exhibitions unless you’ve found a way… read more →

A portion of last month’s Awesome Grant was awarded to magician and storyteller David London to assist with the creation of his latest production, the Creative Spirit Seance. Presented for just 12 participants per seating, The Creative Spirit Seance is an intimate, fully interactive experience that explores various ways in which human beings communicate with the unseen world. Combining performance, ritual and creative play, David will guide audiences through the mysterious realms of imagination, creativity and the Great Beyond. The world premiere of the seance will take place from August 14th-24th at Church and Company, located at the intersection of 37th and Falls Road in Hampden (directly above Hunting Ground). Tickets available here. If you are not familiar with David or his work, he has a long history of producing experimental magical creations. Along with five theatrical productions, including …Art of Dreams, Cerebral Sorcery, and The Adventure to the Imagi Nation. He has also created a variety of interactive experiences, including the Winter Festival of Wonders, Sensorium, the IMAGINE Device and the Scoposcope, and is the co-founder and director of operations for the Circus of Wonders. David has been dreaming of creating an original seance for over 15 years, and views this production as the latest in his ongoing efforts to spread… read more →

Ever seen a woolly mammoth loping through the streets of Baltimore?!? … How about a flowery one? Thanks to Awesome Baltimore and our newest grantee, Mammoth Sun Movers, the city’s neglected nooks and forgotten crannies will soon witness gigantic fifteen-foot tall mammoth-variety sunflowers bursting up into the air for our delight and amusement … Congratulations to Mammoth Sun Movers co-founders Zoe Friedman and Sarah McNeil – artists, friends, and partners in crime… Both are self-proclaimed “transplants” but after years of “laying down roots” feel deeply connected to Baltimore. They’ll be spending the Awesome Grant and the next few months growing the sunflowers in mobile containers and then move them like giant floral installations between different spots throughout the city. Best of all, you’ll be able to take one home with you. That’s right! Adopt a mammoth. Those who do will be able to register their sunflower and post pictures and comments to the Mammoth Sun Movers website. Other guerilla gardeners will also be able to post pictures of their own mischievous Baltimore city operations. Keep on the lookout for these beauteous behemoths, and if you’re eager for some of your own seed money for your own spectacular project or miraculous creation, be sure to apply for our… read more →

Close your eyes. Now, imagine the most intense and exciting performance extravaganza you could possibly conjure up in your most creative of states. Seriously, just picture it: a building filled with rooms bursting with the energy of some of the most talented and crafty folks living in our fair and filthy Baltimore City. Now, imagine that we, here at Awesome Baltimore, threw it $1,000 for its sheer awesomeness and breadth of vision. Well, lucky for you, that is exactly what happened! Ladies and gents of Charm City: we give you Rooms Fall Apart: A Serious Play, our second grant recipient! Awesome Baltimore: How did the idea of Rooms Fall Apart originated? When did you decide that you needed to make it a reality? Rooms Fall Apart: Rooms Fall Apart is a project that was born out of a performance thesis and the resulting model that was produced by the Copycat Theatre in 2010. In the fall of 2012, we put our heads together and conceived of the Rooms Fall Apart performance project. It began with a series of conversations about microaggressions, love, hate, and fear. We visualized how to express the range of human emotions that can and cannot be… read more →

It’s been a few weeks since we handed out our FIRST GRANT to the totally rad and ever-worthy Arthur Morgan for his project, Gather Baltimore. That picture to the right is the dashing Morgan getting his cool cash dough from Awesome Baltimore Trustee, Briony Hynson, and Guest Trustee, Dixon Stetler! Yippee!Our kick-ass trustee, Chloe Gallagher talked to the Gather Baltimore folks to gain some insight into how and why they do the work they do. Awesome Baltimore: How did the idea of Gather Baltimore originate? When did you decide that you needed to make it a reality? Gather Baltimore: The epiphany hit Arthur Morgan at the Farmers Market one Sunday morning. Just before noon, when the market was to end, vendors would begin throwing away food they could not sell. Morgan watched as hungry people rummaged through the discarded food, even picking up produce that had fallen on the ground. “I said, ‘Holy Moly! Look at all this food that is going to waste,’” Morgan says. So Morgan, himself an urban farmer, devised a way to salvage some of the scraps by collecting the food in bins and transporting it himself by pickup truck to Our Daily Bread, a nonprofit that serves daily meals… read more →