Welcome to The Truth in His Art, your go to source for conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today, we'll be discussing the Brush Neural Fest celebration at the Baltimore Convention Center, the premier venue for conventions in the mid Atlantic. We'll explore how the festival highlights local talent and the arts community. So please join me in welcoming back Jaz Ehrenberg along with Brush cofounder Saba Hamidi, and Mac Campbell, the executive director of the Baltimore Convention Center.
Rob Lee:Welcome you all to the podcast.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah.
Saba Hamidi:Yeah. Thank you.
Rob Lee:So I'm, you know, really, really jazzed to to talk to you, like irony, but really jazzed to talk to you guys. And, you know, it's, it's sort of like highlighting events in and around the community. So it's definitely connects with what's within the ethos of what I do on this podcast is arts, culture, community, And this is literally all three of those elements. So, you know, if you will, could you both introduce yourselves, you know, and then tell us, like, how you guys came together to, like, build out, brush and create sort of this community, this entity, and all of that great stuff there. So we can start with you, Jess.
Jaz Ehrenberg:So my name is Jaz Ehrenberg. I'm a local Baltimore, community artist and muralist. I specialize in community engaged public artwork projects. My background is in teaching. I used to be an immigrant teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools, so a lot of my community organizing comes sort of from that realm.
Jaz Ehrenberg:And I have the pleasure of, managing and running this festival with my wonderful friend Saba Hamidi.
Saba Hamidi:Thanks, Jaz. As you can tell, we look like each other and we like to dress like each other because everyone always confuses us. And we've recently decided to lean into it and really mess with people and dress the same everywhere we go. So I'm Saba, not jazz. My, I am also a Baltimore based muralist.
Saba Hamidi:I call myself a visual storyteller. In addition to murals, I do illustrations and graphic design. And, you know, I like to use my art to try to convey possibly complex information in fun and colorful and joyful ways. My background is actually in landscape architecture. That's actually what brought me to Baltimore.
Saba Hamidi:I had a degree in landscape architecture. I worked in that field for about 7 years, and then decided that I wanted to run off and do my own thing. I actually did my first mural in the office where I was a landscape architect without even knowing that I would be interested in it. And it totally shifted my path in life and has brought me here. And it's connected me with wonderful people like Jazz, and we get to do cool things like Russian Real Fest and be on this podcast.
Rob Lee:Just all of the things. I love it. And, also, I love the subtle trolling. It's like we were confused with each other sometimes. Like, there there's a video podcast out there, right, where me and Baltimore based artist, Quirky, we're both sitting there, and it's like we're doing a Spider Man thing where we're pointing at each other because we were both at a show, and one of the people he was working with was, like, you know, you 2 just look alike.
Rob Lee:Right? And, of course, he's, like, Rod is 64. I'm 59. We've got so it's it's it's funny to play in it. I enjoy that as well.
Rob Lee:I'm I'm a troll. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. So, you know, going going back into Brush, so tell, like, folks who will undip what Brush is and sort of let's talk about the mission a bit because I I see some things that really, you know, warm me up, but I definitely wanna hear it from the 2 of you.
Rob Lee:So if you will, Saba, could you could you speak on sort of the, the mission and sort of what Brush is?
Saba Hamidi:Yeah. Absolutely. So Brush is Baltimore's hyper local mural festival. It is created for artists by artists. So that's sort of our tagline.
Saba Hamidi:And it's a mural festival. Hi, Mac. It's a mural festival, that really wants to highlight, the talent that already exists within Baltimore City. So, a couple of years ago, myself, Jazz, and our 3rd cofounder, Jess Langley, who's also another local muralist, came up with this idea of wanting to put together a mural festival that is everything that other festivals are not. It was sort of in in some ways a response to our experience of other festivals.
Saba Hamidi:And a lot of times what we were faced with were these huge festivals that were open to anyone and everyone from around the country, sometimes around the world. And then people would get accepted and come in and paint a mural in a city that they are not from and they're not connected to in any way. They would leave their mark and then they would just leave. And so we felt like there was a little bit of disconnect there. And we thought that, you know, to us, it makes more sense that if a city is gonna be beautified, why not be beautified by the talent that's already existing there?
Saba Hamidi:So we were like, you know, let's let's take things into our own hands and and put together this mural festival. We know there was another mural festival something like a decade ago, but nothing had been done like it since then. So, we wanted to take an opportunity to to do something different. And then also another thing we realize about most other festivals is, you a lot of times need to have a certain amount of experience before you can qualify as a muralist. But then if you don't have the and you can't get involved, then how do you get that experience?
Saba Hamidi:This is also a lot of times true about clients. They may not wanna work with you if you haven't had experience before. And so we wanted to create a platform that actually provides that opportunity for emerging artists to start to get some of that experience so that they can become a part of the sort of the greater landscape. And so we created a mentorship program, which we can talk a little bit more about later. But we specifically create a mentorship program that allows emerging artists to also be included.
Saba Hamidi:So those were sort of the 2 main parts of it. And then we kind of worked together and brought in different community members to support us to kick off the event. Last year, we also had a week of, free and public events that happened leading up to the festival. It's a big thing. It's a lot to all explain all at once.
Saba Hamidi:I'm trying to give you the overview, so maybe I'll pause there and then we can dig into the little pieces later.
Rob Lee:Oh, yeah. Thank you. And, that's that's great. I I love when there's these sort of opportunities where it's like, yeah, we see this. This might be something, but it's kinda like it's falling short, and it's falling short or doesn't really serve.
Rob Lee:It's not serving the way that it could serve. So I'm I'm very much at that same mindset. It's like, I'll just do it myself, and I'll do it with my friends, and I'll do it with people that I dig and respect. And, also, shout out to Jess, who's also been on this podcast. This is like, look.
Rob Lee:And know, it's like everybody is gonna so that's that's really cool. I love I love hearing that and getting that sort of, connective tissue. But before I move into that, the next question, Jess, did you have anything you wanted to add to that piece right there?
Jaz Ehrenberg:No. I think she covered that. Yeah.
Rob Lee:I'm trying I'm trying to
Jaz Ehrenberg:just for that question.
Rob Lee:So and I guess it's the second part of it, if if there's any other points on it, the the the pillars, I think it's really important to have that sort of direction. I touched on, I guess, the 3 that I approached these interviews with. Right? Arts, culture, and community. It's not, hey, let's just get into the minutia of this arts and trying to show those those connective pieces there.
Rob Lee:So going into building and building our brush and thinking about like really what is the intent and how are we going to, like, achieve that? When when did the pillars like like come to mind? Like, speak a bit about that sort of those those individual items to see, like, 4 or 5 of them when I'm on the site, or maybe it's 3 or 4 of them when I'm on the site that really stick out. When did that come come come together? Was it like a conversation over coffee?
Rob Lee:Was it like, alright. Pull out your notepad. What's what are these things missing? Let's talk about that a little bit.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Yeah. So I think, maybe July 2022, we all, met at Saba's office and, just planned a whole afternoon. I was, let's just talk through all of the ideas. We had all, separately run our own creative businesses, and so we've run into this and had experiences with mural festivals, from our own perspectives. And I think it was really important for us to come together and just sort of share all those, and see where things landed.
Jaz Ehrenberg:I also think, what's important to the cofounders made it into those, those pillars. So me, being, of the education world, and and Jess as well, with her, creative, sort of business training or, coaching that she does, really we were really interested in in sort of bridging that gap of, experience between emerging muralists and professional muralists. And I think from, all of our perspectives as far as what what working in the public space in Baltimore looks like, We've all worked with, alongside communities in collaborative ways, to to create public art projects that, are are a lot more accepted and sort of woven into the fabric of the city, as opposed to, you know, people who who come out, from different areas to to come paint our city. I just think there's the way that community, receives these projects is very different, when they've been part of the conversation to begin with.
Rob Lee:Thank you. That's that's a really, really good point. And I see over the last few years, especially in that area, which is, you know, that downtown area where, you know, this year, Brush's celebration is gonna be at the, Baltimore Convention Center, which is a ham fisted segue, but a segue nonetheless, where I see more of these these these attempts, especially in that area where it's a lot of tourism, a lot of traffic, a lot of folks that are around that can see, like, work and engage with artists. You know, we have, like, Baltimore by Baltimore, for instance, is that need and that desire to see, like, is this reflective of the city? Is it reflective of the folks that it's serving?
Rob Lee:And seeing more and more folks even at this past, artscape. Right? I was involved, and I'm like, oh, they they reached out to who we're obviously. And seeing folks that I've, you know, interviewed and being able to interview them after them really doing their thing. Like, you guys got off the stage, and now we're we're talking.
Rob Lee:So seeing sort of that representation in addition to you know, so as as far as what they do, but in addition to sort of what that brand and that type of event is, but seeing more and more of our influence locally, that's really cool, and I like that that's being served. So to the other side of my hand, this is segue. Mac, how are you?
Mac Campbell:Thank you, Rob, for for having me. I'm I'm good. I'm happy to happy to be included in a in a, in a conversation like this because I am not creative or artistic and and, don't know what my qualifications are for being on on
Saba Hamidi:a creative, Mac. You're definitely creative. Maybe not in a painting way. Oh, I'll
Mac Campbell:I'll take it. I got I'm a big idea guy. How about that?
Jaz Ehrenberg:There you go.
Rob Lee:See, we like we like ideas here, and, I'm a idea guy as well. So we'll we'll definitely dive into that a little bit. But if you will, could you, introduce yourself to, like, the folks who are undeped, unfamiliar with you and, you know, share a bit about, like, sort of how all of this came together and being in that space that sort of, quote, unquote, on the venue side of this conversation?
Mac Campbell:Sure. So my name is Matt Campbell. I'm the executive director of the Baltimore Convention Center. I have been here, as the executive director since last January, so I'm still kind of new, But I guess I'm not gonna be able to use that for much longer. But I've been around the convention center in different capacities since 2012.
Mac Campbell:I, I was a music corporate communications double major in college, so art has always been, something in my DNA, just more on the musical side. I come from a nonprofit arts background when I haven't been at the convention center. I worked for the for Strathmore, in Bethesda, which is a multidisciplinary arts nonprofit. So when I came to the convention center as ED, I was faced with, well, this is yours now. What are we going to do to differentiate?
Mac Campbell:And I think when you're looking at convention space across the country, one ballroom could be any ballroom. You could be in Duluth. You could be in LA. You could be in Baltimore. Yeah.
Mac Campbell:How are we separating ourselves as a destination that appeals to, the most amount of people possible? We know we don't have a new building. We're working on that, but that could take years. We know we're going through this front end of a renaissance of downtown. So meanwhile, it's not as vibrant downtown as we know it will be in short order or has it has been in the past.
Mac Campbell:So how are we telling our story? And I think it's our responsibility at the convention center to create an opportunity for those conventioneers that get off a plane, get on the light rail, go to the Hilton, come across our sky bridge, go to their sessions, go back to the Hilton, go back to the light rail, go back to the airport, and leave. To be left with an impression of what Baltimore is. So that we can hopefully have them proselytize the, hey, that that place was cool no matter how much they saw of it because we gave them a little taste. Alternatively or additionally, it would incentivize them to say, oh, there's more to this than, just a generic older convention center.
Mac Campbell:We should come back. We should come back with our families. Maybe I consider applying for a job and moving to. Right? So it's a multilayered approach and, yeah, it's not exactly a direct straight line to somebody moving their family to Baltimore, but it's certainly something that I feel we should be teeing up being the biggest building downtown, to to try to try to just spread the spread the warm and fuzzies, and how better to do that than through public art.
Mac Campbell:So since I've been back, we've been really kind of figuring out how we most impact that space in an authentic way. So it's not me picking art. It's folks like Jazz and Saba leading the way, and and working very closely with the mayor's office, with Tanya Miller Hall to make sure that everything we do is done with a certain amount of curatorial intention, and then let the pros, make recommendations for us.
Rob Lee:That's that's great. And, it's, you know, the convention center is one of my my favorite spaces downtown. And I think it's, it's one of those places that is like, oh, okay. Yeah. There are cool things that are here and seeing, like, the idea of a brush.
Rob Lee:This is the 2nd year of Brushy as far as the festival was concerned. So, you know, just early on and now it's like within that DNA, it's just like, yeah, we're we're here now. This is another item to add on the calendar, you know, so that's really cool. So for you, Mac, and I'm definitely want to talk about this, this other thing about sort of the program. I want to talk about that in a bit, the mentorship program.
Rob Lee:But for you, Mac, when, you know, that initial like conversation of sort of what the vision for for this year looks like, How how was that? And, like, you know, what what was that conversation like? And, you know, any thoughts on that as far as, like, leading up because, you know, we're we're a couple days away.
Mac Campbell:You mean the the genesis of BRUSH at the convention center? Oh, yes. So I don't know what the right word is, but I kinda like fanboy jazz a little bit. Right? Like, Jazz and I were both confirmed, to various mayor mayoralities, right around the same time.
Mac Campbell:So when I was watching Charm TV and and all of the the things, I saw jazz being added to the, the public art commission. And I was like, well, what's a public art commission? How does it work, and how can I hijack it to help get my ambition of having the largest collection of art in, on, and around the convention center, you know, biggest collection in the city? And so I reached out to her because she started pumping out stuff on, on Brush year 1. Yeah.
Mac Campbell:And the initial conversation kinda went like, yeah. No. Maybe next year. Maybe next year. And and I said, well, how can I get a yes next year?
Mac Campbell:And I think it just led to some conversation about what we're trying to do in a truly like, there's no angle here. We literally just want cool we wanna do cool stuff. I don't know if I can cuss on on the podcast, but there's, you know, there's an affirmation of of getting us done, and and I've added the word cool to it. Right? And jazz and Saba are definitely the cool.
Mac Campbell:So from there, it was just a matter of, okay, well, Mac, what do you want from us? And I said, honestly, like, and I hope you guys agree with this. I mean, nothing really. I want you to do you. I had some preferences on where on the building I wanted it.
Mac Campbell:But other than making sure that the images being depicted weren't going to be something that was going to get us in the bad kind of newspaper. I had no curatorial say on what was being done. Like, I trusted these 2, just like I trusted Gaia to lead the Jesse Katie installation we had earlier this year. And so from there, I think it just they did all the hard work. I'm just lending the wall.
Mac Campbell:Our team is helping, promote how we can. It's obviously something that Pratt Street so desperately needs is that shot of color, that shot of vibrancy, that new thing. Oh, I haven't driven downtown for a couple of years, couple of months, what have you. Oh, that wasn't there before. There hasn't been a lot of that recently.
Mac Campbell:Right? Short of a tall ship in port, like, what what breaks up the the it the way it's always been? Yeah. And in the short term, something like Brush Mural Festival does just that.
Rob Lee:Thank you. That's that's great. I I love hearing that, and I I love hearing when it's that opportunity to, for lack of a better term, let the artist cook. Let them do their thing. So I I wanna move into, a few more items.
Rob Lee:Definitely talking about this year's, celebration and but before we get to that, I wanna ask about the mentorship program a bit more. And, you know, the mentorship program through Brush, supports both professional artists and, like, rising stars emerging artists. So, like, how does this initiative and this is for either Saba or Jazz. How does this initiative, like, foster growth in, like, the local arts community? And what stories of, like, impact could you, like, speak on?
Rob Lee:Granted, you know, year 2 and all, but, you know, coming from this background, I'll share this to kind of aid in it, in the last year, I've been able to do some education stuff. I'm literally professor Rob now. I've worked at a few places in the last year, and seeing sort of, you know and and specifically on podcasting and seeing sort of, like, young folks who are interested in podcasts, not sure how to get in, and being able to help them along that journey and in that path, and even outside of the class now being a mentor to several of these podcasters, it's a good feeling, but it's definitely identifying sort of this, you know, sort of, like, lack and this need, but this curiosity. And I'm almost thinking of maybe I should do a podcast mentorship program. So, you know, speak on speak on Brush's mentorship program a bit.
Saba Hamidi:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the the mentorship program, I have to say, is is the part of Rush that, honestly, we're most proud of. Maybe it goes hand in hand with the fact that it's exclusively Baltimore City only. But, the mentorship program specifically is really important to us, partially because of of what I mentioned earlier, which is that a lot of times there's this barrier to entry if you don't have experience and, and you can't get the experience, if people don't give you the opportunity.
Saba Hamidi:So it's sort of this ongoing circle that we wanted to this, this cycle that we wanted to break. And also knowing that, this is true for myself, for jazz, for Jess, for most of our other, muralist friends, that a lot of us learn everything we know about this profession from each other, by working with one another, by talking to one another, by following each other on Instagram, asking questions. You know, there there isn't a degree program in mural painting in any colleges, and nobody really comes in having all the info, down already. So we've all gotten to where we are, through, you know, help from our other peers. And so we really wanted to to lean on that, and create this program where we give, specifically the experience of painting murals.
Saba Hamidi:So not particularly the design part of it. Obviously, painting a mural has is a multilayered, sort of process, and we wanted to focus on the painting part. And so the way we did that was and we did this last year and again this year, last year's sort of process was a little bit different, where we, invited 5, what we call pro muralists. And for us, a pro is defined as somebody who has x number of exterior murals, painted. They have worked with other artists before, and particularly this year, we really highlighted, the qualification that they must have hired people before, so they must know how to manage, an emerging artist or just just another artist and sort of manage a project from from that standpoint.
Saba Hamidi:So last year we invited those pro muralists, and then we put out an open call for, emerging artists, which we call rising stars. And the definition for a rising star is an artist who, is interested in painting murals, and and is interested in it in sort of a career pathway. So not somebody who wants to do murals as a hobby, but somebody who really wants to get into the business of being a muralist. And that's sort of the the minimum requirement. They did not have to have any murals painted in the past before.
Saba Hamidi:We have some rising stars who've painted a couple before, some who've done a lot, and some who've done none. But it was an app was and is an application process where they answer some questions and then do show us some of their, creative work, whether it's studio work or any sort of, scale so that we could see, what kind of skill set they have. So last year, you know, the rising stars applied. We had a panel, review their applications. We chose, 4 of them.
Saba Hamidi:We mashed them up with the 4, pro muralists that we had hand selected. This year, obviously, year 2, we wanted to do things bigger and better, and, being lucky enough to get mashed up with with Mac and the convention center, we knew we had the opportunity to do more walls, more murals. So, we went with 10, And this time, we actually decided to have an application process for all artists. So we had pro muralists apply and emerging, artists apply. Same sort of review panel, went through all the applications, and we chose 9 pros and 9 rising stars.
Saba Hamidi:And then we match them together, internally based on their, style of work and how we thought they might sort of benefit from working, with one another. And the the the mentorship program itself involves, you know, we we provide some guidelines to the pro artists, in terms of what kind of stuff we want them to be talking to their rising suburb, but we also give them a lot of flexibility and freedom to sort of teach them the things that they thought is most important to them or to an emerging artist. So that includes everything from just having initial conversations, talking to them about the design process if they want to, and then, explaining sort of all the ins and outs of, like, what does it take to plan painting a mural? What kind of equipments and tools do you need to have? How do you pick your paint?
Saba Hamidi:How do you decide, you know, which which part of it you're gonna do first? All sorts of stuff. And then in addition to sort of giving the pros their freedom to explain things the way that they want to, we also provided, a list of resources to the rising sewers and the pros that includes everything from, materials list, contract templates, how to price your murals, all sorts of stuff that, again, all of us have learned over the years, through working with one another. So really a a super valuable, a toolkit for for these rising stars. Honestly, do you know that we are able to and this is in in working with each other, working, with Jess, who provide a lot of information from her business coaching, material.
Saba Hamidi:We're able to give these rising stars all this content that took us years to collect, and they're getting it all in one sort of PDF with all these links. So, and since, you know, since everybody got mashed up a couple months ago, and they've all been working together, they're out there right now painting together. It has been so beautiful to watch these partnerships together. It's been so cool. We just recently learned that we have one rising star who found out about Rush last year by speaking to another rising star last year, and that person told them about how great it was.
Saba Hamidi:And this new artist was like, I am gonna make it a point to apply and get into this next year. And she did, and she's a part of it, and I'm so thankful. And it's just, you know, it's checking all the boxes, that we wanted in terms of providing, resources and tools and education to these new artists. But as an added bonus for us, it's creating this lovely community of artists who are, like, magically getting along perfectly. All the partnerships were, like, awesome.
Saba Hamidi:They all love each other. They're having fun. Like, we had a meet meet and greet event last week, and they were all joking around playing. You would think they've known each other forever. And so it's been really, really rewarding to see this, community being built on top of, new artists learning from from past artists.
Saba Hamidi:And our hope is that our rising stars go on to continue to paint more murals, and then come back in a couple years from now and, be eligible to reapply as pros, and then be able to sort of return the favor to future rising stars. Now this goes on for a very long time, hopefully.
Rob Lee:Well, thank you. I I love that. I love that that that it's it's working. That's the way I'll just put it. It's working.
Rob Lee:And I like that you you touched on it. Everyone's getting along. Everyone loves each other because I was waiting for, like, yeah. So can I get a camera right? Like a reality show back in the day.
Rob Lee:This is where it starts to get real, and it's just painting thrown at the screen. It'll be great. It'll be wonderful. Just want that
Mac Campbell:to happen. Look. Production covenant.
Rob Lee:I don't know what to tell you. So I I wanna move in into this this last portion, sort of like, you know, the celebration that's approaching. You know, this is you know, it's been busy as you've you've touched on a little bit before we got started and sort of events last week, events throughout. You know? So let's talk about September 14th.
Rob Lee:What can folks expect at the event? What's the atmosphere you're hoping to create? There's a mix. You have art. You have sort of these cultural components.
Rob Lee:So give us the rundown of what to expect on September 14th.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Yeah. So, this Saturday, September 14th, is what we're calling our brush celebration day. And I just picture, like, a really hoppin' block party. That's what we're going for. So we'll have, live music acts.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Some of our performers are, Bari Lutalo, Javier Dominique, and, DJ Blackstar. We also have a really exciting live painting art competition happening on stage, that's gonna be emceed by Brian from Black Genius Art Show. So we're really trying to add all these different sort of components, different ways of interacting with the art. And, and I think our main thing is really just, like, having all the muralists be there with their work. It's not often that you happen upon muralists working, in the middle of a project, and you and if they do have a mural unveiling, you probably weren't invited.
Jaz Ehrenberg:So you're invited to this one.
Rob Lee:That's it's great. I I it's funny because I think it was very, very rare. Like, I think the last time I saw you, Jazz, you were maybe painting over there for, like, May what is it? Royal blue? And I think you're all, like, you know Yeah.
Rob Lee:The title was like, hey, Jazz. I was, like, alright. Lower it down. You don't want her to fall or something like that. But you're you're right where you've never see it.
Rob Lee:It's just, you know, at least I haven't. The work is just up and, like, hey. I wanna talk to the person, especially for what I do. Like, mhmm, Saba. You know, I wanna talk to the person.
Rob Lee:Like, hey.
Mac Campbell:Wow. This work is great.
Rob Lee:And, you know, and but being able to have that opportunity to be in community, to see people with their work, and that's that's just great. So it's it's really dope.
Saba Hamidi:Yeah. That's that's one thing, that we're particularly excited about this year was having the ability to have all of the murals at the same site as the celebration. Last year being year 1, we didn't have that opportunity. We only had, like, a couple of the murals, being at the site of the celebration, and the rest were sort of spread out throughout the city, which is cool in its own way, but, we miss out on the opportunity of having everybody that's at the celebration seeing everything at once. But this year, the the celebration block hits the the walkway where all the the murals are.
Saba Hamidi:So it's literally all in the same place. All of the artists are gonna be there. There's gonna be a moment throughout the day where we actually urge everybody to go walk down all the walls and look at the art and hopefully get a chance to talk to the artists about their work. And, and actually one thing we didn't talk about is the theme for our festival this year, which I think is really fun. That again, you'll get to see in all the murals and it's hidden gems.
Saba Hamidi:That's the theme that we gave all the artists. And of course, we wanted them to interpret that as freely as they could. But serendipitously, everyone has responded to it in their way of, like, they've chosen one thing that it's a hidden gem about Baltimore City to them and has beautifully and creatively, I've visualized it in a mural. And each one is so different and they're super cool. And, we won't tell you anymore about that so that you have a reason to come up and see them yourself.
Rob Lee:You look all like teasers. That's that's good. So that's kind of and and we'll definitely pen, touch on it one more time when we do sort of the shameless plugs after this segment, this rapid fire segment because I look. I gotta do the rapid fire. I can't help I can't help myself.
Rob Lee:Trying to stop, but I can't. Alright. So I got, rapid fire questions. I'm just, you know, they're for everybody, but they're quick questions. They're quick answers that are needed.
Rob Lee:So if you're all ready, you know, we can go into these rapid fire questions. So, here's the first one. Everyone's been super busy. Everyone's got, you know, a 1000000 things that they're doing, and I think it's important to make sure that you're properly nourished. So what is your go to comfort food?
Rob Lee:And you have, like, I look, I'm in 50 hours in. I got pain on me. I'm doing all of these different things. What is the go to comfort food?
Jaz Ehrenberg:Jess. It's a it's a fried chicken sandwich for me.
Rob Lee:You get it? Yeah. Right down the line, Saba, please.
Saba Hamidi:For me, it's gonna be a a meal from the closest and only Persian restaurant I can find in Baltimore City. It's called Moby Dick, which is not a Persian name at all. But I just it's my I order it's like rice and grilled meats and tomatoes, and it's hits every time.
Rob Lee:I'm keeping the dossier. Mac, please. What do you got?
Mac Campbell:Guilty pleasure, Chipotle, burrito bowl, double meat, double chips, double hot salsa.
Saba Hamidi:Oh hoo hoo. Nice.
Mac Campbell:I I was
Rob Lee:just gonna say, like, well, I just want some pistachios, you know, unsalted. Yeah. Pistachios. You're actually talking real food. I mean, virgin food, what are we what are we doing here?
Saba Hamidi:I was gonna say watermelon, but then you said comfort food, and I was like, I gotta get a little more specific.
Rob Lee:K. We're gonna start back from the from the bottom to the top. I got 2 more of these. Mac, if you will, could you describe your work in one word? Ever changing.
Rob Lee:Saba.
Saba Hamidi:Oh god.
Rob Lee:Like how Dash just has time to, like, like, what did I say in the previous?
Saba Hamidi:This is what the first word that came into my head. I don't know what this means, but I'm gonna say psychedelic.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Okay. Yeah. I think that makes sense. For me, it would be vibrant.
Rob Lee:The these these track, these track. Alright. We're we're starting with with with with, jazz, and we're going back down. This is the last one. It might be, you know, it might be a little on the nose, but serendipitously, hidden gems.
Rob Lee:What is one public space, like, in Baltimore that you would love to see more art at, at mural at, something along those lines that's just like, this could use some color. This could use some vibrancy, some psychedelics. That's not a word. But
Jaz Ehrenberg:I mean, first answer is everywhere. That's what we do. If it has a wall, we will paint it. But I think also, the, I would love to see Old Town Mall come back and be a vibrant place again. Not that I not that I was able to see it be a vibrant place, but I've seen photos and I've heard stories, and so I would really love to to see that come back.
Rob Lee:That's that's a good pull. I lived directly across the street from there as a kid. Saba?
Saba Hamidi:Oh, man. This is hard because, I mean, it like Jas said, everywhere, and, like, I've know this is not a quick answer. Sorry. But I've noticed that, like, you know, I'm so proud that there is just murals everywhere in Baltimore. It just, like, pops up everywhere.
Saba Hamidi:So I don't know that I can tell you a specific location, but I dream of a day where, like, you can't see a vertical space that is not a painted mural in Baltimore City. So literally everywhere that is currently blank, I think, would be great with an added mural.
Rob Lee:That's that's right. There's, there's one interview that I did recently with Katie Chung, Chicago based artist and one of the tallest buildings in Chicago. She did a mural around like one of the highest levels, and she was like, Oh, you'll be able to see see that for everywhere. And it's one of those like open air setups. So it's really, really cool.
Rob Lee:And that's how I became aware of her work when I was just up in Chicago, and it was like a little plaque about the work that she was doing and being able to do that interview. And it definitely pops, and it's all of the great architecture, but mostly gray. So having that color in a very high spot is really great. And, so, Mac, this is the last one. What do you what do you have in in mind of a space that you would love to see some art, a mural at, you know, get rid of the gray that we see everywhere?
Mac Campbell:I mean, I I definitely am the, the perpetuator of that gray. My entire building is nothing but gray. So so selfishly, I'll say, the interior of the Baltimore Convention Center, I think in the last year, we've done a a really, really good job of activating the outside. But now it's time to to jazz jazz it up inside.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Hey. Hey, yo. We're ready. We're ready.
Saba Hamidi:Interiors are so much easier and better to paint. We're ready anytime.
Rob Lee:I love it. See, you all are off the hot seat. It is a little it's a little little questionable. I was like, alright. What what we gonna do here?
Rob Lee:Well, we got it. We got the rapid fire questions done. So so thank you all. And, what I wanna do in these final moments is 2 things. 1, I wanna thank you all for coming on and spending some time with me, in this busy schedule.
Rob Lee:So it's a lot that's happening. So thank you again. And, 2, I wanna invite and encourage you all to shameless plugs. I mean, it's still give us those last details, sort of not even the soft pitch. It's just the hard sell.
Rob Lee:I mean, I do the hard sell all the time. Please come on my podcast, but have folks, you know, come out. So please share the details, social media, website, all of that good stuff to to check out the celebration and brush overall.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Well, I think we should start by, thanking our presenting sponsors. So the Convention Center is obviously our partner in this in many ways, but also presenting sponsor as well as, the Deutsch Foundation, who is actually paying all of our artists. So we love them for that, and we're very excited to be supported by such a great foundation. You can follow, I guess I'll do brush stuff. You can follow brush at, brush muralfest on Instagram.
Jaz Ehrenberg:Our website is also just Brush Mural Fest, and you can email us if you have any questions. If you want to apply, you can email us at hello at brushmuralfest.com. Little disclaimer, we only accept Baltimore artists. So if you don't live and work in Baltimore City, our answer is gonna be no, but we love you.
Saba Hamidi:And come join us on Saturday, 11 AM to 4 PM. The celebration is outdoors on Sharp Street at the intersection of Sharp and Pratt. It is a rain or shine event, but we don't talk about rain, so it's gonna be beautiful and sunny, but, like, you know, just have a rain jacket with you just in case. And then we also have, all these other events going on this week. Tonight we have a panel discussion at Nomu Nomu.
Saba Hamidi:That's gonna be really wonderful. 6 to 8 PM, on the topic of creating in the public realm. Please come to that. Tomorrow, a workshop at Night Owl Gallery followed by happy hour at Royal Blue. Topo Chico is sponsoring this happy hour.
Saba Hamidi:That means free drinks if you get there in time, which is 8 PM. The workshop is 6 to 8. Happy hour, 8 to 10. Thursday, community paint day in the Bromo Arts District. This is one of our most fun events.
Saba Hamidi:We had one last year. It was a huge hit. Such a huge hit that we're having 3 of them this year. We had one already, prior to brush week back in August. We have one this Thursday from 4 to 8 PM at 303 North Howard Street.
Saba Hamidi:We have a wonderful, Baltimore artist, Mara Dwyer, who's come up with a super cool design that she will have already outlined on the wall. And then anyone and everyone, regardless of painting experience, is welcome to join us in helping paint this, this mural that will stay up for hopefully many years. So it's super cool that you get to have, you know, a part in painting a mural with your community. And on Friday, we have another workshop at Night Owl Gallery from 4 to 5 PM. Saturday is the big day.
Saba Hamidi:And then actually this year, we also have one other event right after on Sunday. We're doing a free wellness workshop, which this was, the idea for it came about when we realized that painting murals is a very, physically challenging job that most people don't think about. And so whenever we work on these projects anywhere from 2 to 6 to 7 weeks, By the end of it, we are exhausted and in so much pain, and, I feel like we don't do a good enough job of taking care of our bodies. And so we have, partnered with a couple lovely movement practitioners from Baltimore City who are gonna come and lead a really cool wellness workshop for muralists and anybody else who would like to join, from 11 AM to 1 PM at the Fitzgerald on Sunday 15th. Imagine things like some yoga movements and breath work, you know, that kind of cool stuff to learn how to give your body some rest and and relief after a week of all these exciting events.
Saba Hamidi:And all of that can be found on our website brushmuralfest.com/events.
Mac Campbell:And then I would can I steal, 2 seconds Yeah, please? To to say, in addition to all of the cool music and and live art and admiring the the finished murals, we'll also have some food trucks and and stuff out here, on Saturday, so feel free to come by with your appetite. Hopefully, as long as nothing goes crazy, we'll have some very recognizable brands out that people will be excited about. Secondarily, people don't think to follow the convention center because why would I follow the convention center? But please check out our website, but more importantly, check out our our, Instagram page.
Mac Campbell:We hired 2 post, master's degrees fellows to help curate a social media plan for us, and to, and a plan to memorialize all of the work that these artists did. So we've got a lot of content in addition to everything that Saba and Jazz have been pumping out, the last week. So please follow, the Baltimore Convention Center Instagram, and follow me, on Instagram at, execdirectbcc. Otherwise, that way you can also learn a little bit more about what we do 365 days a year driving economic impact for, for the region. And there you have
Rob Lee:it, folks. I wanna again thank the founders of BRUSH, Jaz Ehrenberg and Saba Hamidi, as well as the the executive director of the Baltimore Convention Center, Mac Campbell, for coming on and, telling us about Brush and, that that partnership. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community in and around your neck of the woods. You've just gotta look for it.
