The Howard County
I N
F O C U S
VOL.10, NO.12
F O R
P E O P L E
O V E R
The new studio space signifies the culmination of years of effort. Since the ReImagine Long Reach Village Center campaign was unveiled in 2014, the Arts Council has been an integral partner.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAMELA WOOLFORD
Six years in the making
5 0 DECEMBER 2020
More than 30,000 readers throughout Howard County
Artists bring new life to shops By Tony Glaros In a cozy, second-floor studio at Long Reach Village Center in Columbia, where the walls gleam with a fresh coat of white paint, artist Stacey Berger stepped back from a collage to gain perspective. She gazed at the meticulously arranged, diamond-shaped pieces of orange and blues. “I tore pages out of National Geographics and cut them into strips,” explained Berger, surrounded by the tools of her craft: acrylic paint, cotton swabs and a color wheel. She is using old-fashioned super glue to affix each piece to a board, a process that takes hours. “That’s my project for the rest of the afternoon.” Behind her rests an easel where Berger is putting the crowning touches on a floral scene with a brilliant orange border. A few steps away, in a small kitchen, sits a rack brimming with her finished works, along with material for future projects — an assortment of rags that were once her husband’s shirts. While honing her artistic gifts, Berger, who lives in Clarksville and practices law in downtown Columbia, is doing her part this year to advance a broader plan sponsored by the Howard County Arts Council to help reenergize the sagging retail complex. Once a thriving hub anchored by a Safeway store, Long Reach has faded since its heyday from the 1970s through the 90s. Its short list of tenants today includes a liquor store, laundromat and a Howard County Police satellite station. Yet, the shopping center gained some new tenants this year: Fifteen artists moved into recently renovated studio space, and a museum opened there last spring. “Urban and cultural planners across the globe recognize that the arts have the power to transform communities into special places — and have used creative placemaking as a strategy to revitalize cities and neighborhoods for decades,” said Coleen West, executive director of the Howard County Arts Council.
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Jewelers work with color, beauty and joy By Margaret Foster Ask any of the three winners of the Stained Glass and Jewelry category why they spend hours creating intricate works, and they’ll say the same thing: Because it makes them happy. The category’s juror, Maryland art designer and instructor Jill Tannenbaum, was pleased with the three winners and eight honorable mentions. “Overall, the quality was impressive,” Tannenbaum said of all the entries.
nearby — and they are always welcome in her basement studio, where the three of them create jewelry to give to their teachers and bus driver. If the kids ask her if they can touch or keep some of her treasures, she said, “Most of the time I say yes.”
Second Place
First Place Lori Grant Locust Grove, Va. Lori Grant, the firstplace winner of the Stained Glass/Jewelry category, learned how to make jewelry from her father. Grant, a veterinary technician who lives in Locust Grove Virginia, drove to her father’s house in Illinois six years ago for some in-person lessons. “We spent great quality time together. He taught me everything he knew and sent me home with a trunk full of equipment that I could never afford to buy,” Grant said. When her father, now 85, heard she won first place and an honorable mention for her silver jewelry, she said, “He laughed and said now I’ve outdone him.” Grant’s father wasn’t the only artist in the family. Grant, who grew up on an Illinois farm, remembers her grandmother working on art projects in a room that, as a child, Grant wasn’t allowed to enter. During the Depression, her grandmother made jewelry from fish eyeballs — a piece Grant still owns. “They’re pretty until someone tells you what they are,” she laughed. Grant’s siblings are artists and writers, she said. “I guess I came from a very creative background.”
Woodland Peace
By Lori Ann Grant
Grant’s first-place piece, “Woodland Peace,” is a pendant made from sterling silver and Variscite, a soft rock similar to turquoise. “It’s a sea foam green that I just love. I like to run my fingers across it all the time; it just feels nice. Envisioning a nature theme, Grant made silver castings from twigs she picked up in her yard. She bought leaf-shaped stamps from a Native American artist and arranged them around the stone. She uses Argentium sterling silver, a higher-grade sterling that doesn’t tarnish. The alloy takes some skill to work with, however. “When you’re soldering it, it just crumbles like dirt, and you’re like, ‘Oh man, that didn’t work.’” Grant still works two 10-hour days a week at a local animal hospital. “The rest of the time, I sit down in my basement and I make jewelry, and the time flies by,” she said. Now Grant is a grandmother herself. Her grandchildren, ages 9 and 12, live
Meredith Weiser Nor th Bethesda, Md. When Meredith Weiser learned she had won second place in the Jewelry category, she was “literally jumping with joy,” she said. Weiser’s jewelry is “what’s kept me sane during the pandemic,” she said. She makes jewelry almost every day from her North Bethesda home, “just to feel productive. I get really excited with the product.” Weiser recalls that she was a creative child, making macrame, crochet and bead necklaces. About 20 years ago, she began making jewelry for family and friends. She took a class at Accent Beads in 2012 on wire crochet that “really had me intrigued,” she said.
Her winning necklace, “Michaelmas Cay,” was inspired by a trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. “I had this photograph and decided I wanted to re-create that in the necklace,” she said. Using shells and some beads she bought in Australia, she laid out all the colors carefully, “to get the gradations and darker blues, as you get into deeper water,” she said. Weiser’s technique involves stringing three separate strands of beads and then braiding them together. The unexpected results add to the suspense, she said. “When you’ve created three separate strands and bring them together, you’re not sure how it’s going to look until it’s done.” In addition, Weisman’s necklace “Aqua Dots” won an Honorable Mention. Although its colors resemble that of the reefinspired necklace, the necklaces’ styles are different. “I was trying to experiment with other types of crochet and came up with these wire crochet disks,” she said. “The dot necklace is individually crocheted disks using wire and linked together.” Making beautiful jewelry brings joy to her life. “I love to use color and different types of beads to create different looks,” Weisman said. “It makes me happy.”
Third Place Jeff Bulman Bethesda, Md. As the owner of three busy restaurants, Jeff Bulman has his hands full. But three years ago, a friend told him about a jewelrymaking class at Glen Echo Park, just 10 minutes from Bulman’s Bethesda home. Intrigued, he enrolled in the course. “I took one class, and another, and another. I just love it,” said Bulman, who has Michaelmas Cay
See JEWELRY, page 19
By Meredith Weiser
SEE SPECIAL SECTION Amateur artists win honors pages 17-24
L E I S U R E & T R AV E L
Artist Pamela Woolford moved into her sunlit studio at Long Reach Village Center in Columbia in October. The renovated second floor accommodates 16 artists. Working with Howard County, the Arts Council launched the Long Reach Artist Studio Program to revitalize the shopping center and create a vibrant, creative community.
In early discussions, the county and the arts organization talked about the feasibility of relocating the Arts Center to Long Reach. Reaction from all parties involved, West recalled, was positive. Buoyed by the community’s positive feedback, the arts council teamed up with a consultant hired by the county to assemble a needs assessment in 2015. That effort included a one-day ARTreach Festival, held for two consecutive summers. The free outdoor festival, which attracted nearly 1,000 people both years, offered curated activities such as face painters, puppet shows and slam poetry readings. With momentum building to reinvigorate the retail center, the county tapped a
private developer to drive the project. However, the plan fell through, West recalled. So “the county reached out to us again to see if we were interested in creating a studio program in conjunction with their new Long Reach Rising strategy.” West’s answer was yes. The opportunity to host programs ranging from arts and culture to economic enrichment made sense, she said, and the project moved forward.
A creative vibe Many of the artists began moving in on October 1. Other artistic types, including a cook and a tie-dye maker, moved into the See ART STUDIO, page 37
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