Join your neighbors at the BSO Sunday performance
BHCA has reserved a group of seats in the Grand Tier (1st balcony) at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the concert Sunday, May 19. Join your friends and neighbors for a wonderful evening. Drinks will be available for purchase before the concert and at intermission. Discounted tickets can be had at https://boltonhillmd.org/event/bolton-hill-night-at-the-symphony-2/
From the BSO’s writeup: Writing music that straddles Chinese and Western traditions, Tan Dun is a boundary-breaking artist of limitless imagination and inclusivity, conjuring a soundscape that makes use of everything from ancient relics to smartphones. This first American performance of Five Muses of Dunhuang brings to life forgotten instruments painted centuries ago on devotional murals in Chinese caves. As a conductor, Tan has unique insights into another perceptive witness and recreator of human ritual, Stravinsky, especially in this rarely heard transcription from a Chinese-themed opera. Stravinsky, with his keen ear for real-life rituals, leans into the real splashy Fireworks and Chinese-themed opera transcription.
Former White House gardener, neighborhood resident Gary Grimmette dies
Gary Grimmette, a Bolton hill resident since 2008 and gardener whose life took him from the coal mine hollows of West Virginia across the world to Asia, Europe and to Richard Nixon’s White House, died recently. He was 75.
Most recently Grimmette could be seen moving around on his electric scooter, or planting flowers and weeding in Maple Leaf Park, near where he lived in the Old Friends School apartments. He was especially close to and admiring of neighborhood children. The Baltimore Sun ran a warm obituary on April 8.
Grimmette was featured in the Bolton Hill Bulletin in Sept. 2021. He had settled into a quiet retirement by then, disabled by injuries and trauma stemming from his participation in the Vietnam war. He had volunteered for service as a medic but came to see the war as a grave mistake and later, he said, turned down a Purple Heart medal awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving.
Long Druid Hill Park makeover is a-l-m-o-s-t finished; maybe.
City officials say just a few more months until construction around Druid Hill Lake and the now-hidden 52-million-gallon water tank will be complete. By summer’s end, they say; it began in 2017 and was to have finished by 2022.
And then what? New construction projects are scheduled to make the lake, which is no longer a reservoir, a new recreation area. The city’s Recreation and Parks Department plans community meetings to provide updates on the project. The next hybrid meeting is set for June 4, with details to be shared on the department’s social media channels and website.
According to the Baltimore Banner, the water tank project will segue into a new capital project, the Druid Lake Vision Plan, that may someday include a bridge across the water, a fishing pier, shorelines, an amphitheater, a swimming area, cafe and a boathouse. But don’t hold your breath.
“In the next couple of months, we’ll have a better understanding of what things cost and what we anticipate to be able to provide or implement in the phase one of construction,” said Adam Boarman, the parks department’s chief of capital development and planning. The parks department is aiming for construction to begin at the end of 2026.
Midtown gets state money to plan art project on Eutaw Place
Midtown Benefit District has been awarded a $10,000 planning grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to celebrate the vibrant history of Bolton Hill and Madison Park through art!
The goal is to develop a stunning public art installation at the entrance to both neighborhoods, right in the heart of Eutaw Place. Over the next few months, Midtown will be engaging with stakeholders to establish a transformative project among our communities. This project is separate from BHCA’s work to install six sculptures donated by a longtime Bolton Hill art-collecting couple in parks around the neighborhood.
About The Bulletin….
The Bolton Hill Bulletin is published monthly except for July and August. It is designed by Elizabeth Peters. We invite others to help write, edit, provide photos or work on the business side. Send suggestions and comments to bulletin@boltonhillmd.org. Thanks to Paula Jackson, Sallye Perrin, Jim Proust, Lisa Summers and Lee Tawney, among others, for helping with this issue. Errors and omissions are the responsibility of the editor, Bill Hamilton.
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