Art Serpent was an installation that was one of the highlights of Artscape 2009, America’s largest Arts Festival held from July 17-19, 2009. Baltimore Office of the Promotion of the Arts (BOPA) organized a design competition in March 2009 which was won by Sanjit Roy, a fulltime SA+P faculty member in the Architecture program. Art Serpent was a 150’ long structure on Charles Street on the bridge over Penn Station that created a colorful, dynamic, and exuberant urban environment. The structure was made of recycled sailcloth in a nod to the maritime traditions of Baltimore. By using recycled materials at such a large urban scale, the project presents possibilities of environmental responsibility and sustainability as an enduring vision of urban public space. The design was fabricated on campus by SA+P students as a summer project, giving them experience in working on a real-life project and becoming a public contribution of Morgan State University to public art in urban spaces in Baltimore. Artscape 2009 had an estimated attendance of 400,000 people.
art serpent artscape 2009
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