Sowebo Poster Auction turns 25 – see this year's art on Sunday
Above: A submission from the 2010 SoWeBoposters show. Poster by Debra Rahl C
Everyone knows that this Sunday’s Sowebo Arts and Music Festival is an annual showcase for local art and crafts and live music — 20 bands this year including Caleb Stine and recent Timbaland signee Rico.
What not everyone might know is that in addition to performers, paintings and puppets, the funky and free festival includes an exhibit at Zella’s Pizzeria in Hollins Market, featuring the final submissions from SoWeBoposters, a poster auction featuring a huge array of original artwork by Baltimore artists.
A Soweboposter by Martha Garland. (Photo courtesy of Sowebo Arts Inc.)
The coolest part? You don’t have to be John Waters to have entered, anyone can give it a try, which means that the artwork is incredibly diverse. In addition to being exhibited at Zella’s at Sowebo, the posters will be sold to the highest bidders in a live auction on June 27th.
Here’s how the exhibition and auction work:
– Sowebo Arts , Inc., the organization that organizes the Sowebo Festival, offers posters to Baltimore artists at a variety of local pick-up points including Creative Alliance and the Adler Gallery. Each year’s poster features an identical border design by a different artist. ( See this year’s border design by Lyliam Vasquez here.)
– After picking up their mostly blank-canvas, each artist adds his or her original artwork to the poster, and returns it to the same Sowebo pick-up location (This year’s deadline was May 3rd).
– All posters are exhibited to the public at Zella’s Pizzeria and the Charles Theater, from May 10-June 12. The posters can also be viewed online.
– June 27: Sowebo poster auction: From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., local artists and buyers mingle, listen to live music, and most importantly, bid on the year’s posters. It takes place at the University of Maryland Biotech Park Building 2, located at 801 W. Baltimore Street.
– The second coolest thing besides the fact that anyone can participate? Cool art happens for a good cause. It’s a forum for local artists to exhibit their work and an opportunity for local art lovers to buy it. All proceeds go back to Sowebo Arts Inc.
Visit the Sowebo Arts website for more details, as well as a gallery of past year’s entries.