Baltimore: A Museum of Outsider Art…

Perhaps it’s not a huge surprise that the same city that is home to offbeat filmmaker John Waters is also the base for the American Visionary Art Museum, a collection of works by self-taught artists spread throughout — and outside of — three buildings in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore.

American Visionary Art Museum

When we pulled up in front, we were greeted by a three-story-high whirligig made from pieces of discarded farm equipment, a schoolbus covered with broken glass, swans, and plastic animals, and a curved building plastered with more colorful mosaic glass and bits of Avon bottles.

Inside, it gets better.  The current exhibition is The Marriage of Art, Science & Philosophy, and you will find a plethora of art of all kinds, from a model of the Lusitania made with 193,000 toothpicks and five gallons of glue to the cartoon “Feeling Sorry for Pluto,” which shows all the planets of the solar system saying goodbye to the former ninth planet when it was kicked out a couple of years back.  You’ll also find The Bra Ball, a sphere 64 inches in diameter that’s made from 18,000 bras hooked end-to-end.  The gift shop — aka The SideShow — is even better because you can take some of this stuff home.  And we did, in spades.

Your tastes may run more towards fine art exhibitions — our group broke out into spontaneous applause when we caught our first glimpse of the place, as seen below — but I guarantee you that no matter what your predilection, your jaw will remain dropped throughout your visit.

And I mean that in a good way.

by Lisa Rogak

Photographer: Jack Hoffberger

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