UMBC Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Illuminates the Tower's Clock

June 2 - 23, 2011
Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, 21 S. Eutaw Street, Baltimore

Contact: Thomas Moore
Director of Arts Management
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

This release is available as a pdf file.

Beginning on Thursday, June 2 and continuing through Thursday, June 23, the clock face of Baltimore's Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower will be illuminated with moving projections created by Kelley Bell, an assistant professor in UMBC's Department of Visual Arts. Bell's project is part of the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower's centennial celebrations taking place during the month of June.

Bell will shine moving images from the inside of the tower through three of the four faces of the clock, creating artwork that can be seen for long distances across the city skyline. She remarks, "The distinct architecture of Baltimore City has been a source of inspiration to me, as an artist and as a designer. Baltimore is a city with wonderful hidden histories, and its urban landscape still continues to grow and change, sometimes for the good sometimes for the bad. It's a terrific canvas and subject to work with, and the opportunity to work in the Bromo Seltzer Tower is (literally and figuratively) one of the highest points of the work I've done here."

The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, located at 21 S. Eutaw Street, was constructed in 1911. The structure is a historic landmark and important symbol of the Baltimore skyline. The Tower was transformed into artist studios in 2008 and is now operated as a facility of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.

About Kelley Bell
Kelley Bell incorporates animation, illustration, and many other visual media in her graphic design practice. She started as a freelance artist in New York City, with a diverse portfolio of clients including MTV Networks, The Walt Disney Company, clothing designers Marithe Fracoois Girbaud, and Strictly Rhythm records.

In Baltimore, she established an independent graphic design studio, KBell Design, focused on print media for non-profit organizations in the Baltimore-Washington region. Past clients include youth media group Wide Angle Media, the Creative Alliance at the Patterson, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Maryland State Teacher's Association.

Her animated work appeared in and literally on Baltimore City in two series of public guerilla-style projections: White Light, Black Birds and Rise and Fall of the Land of Pleasant Living. These projects compared the benefits and downsides of urban development through imagery and animations projected on specific sites facing transformation (or destruction) due to economic and cultural factors. Bell's animations have been screened locally and as far away as Berlin, Germany. Screenings include the American Visionary Arts Museum, the Annapolis Film Festival, the Transmodern Arts Festival, and the University of Maryland, College Park. She was a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in 2004, and a semifinalist for the Sondheim Art Prize in 2010.

Bell holds an M.F.A. from UMBC in Imaging and Digital Arts and a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from Pratt Institute.