BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT
Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Baltimore's Emerging Art Community
BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT
Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Baltimore's Emerging Art Community
Baltimore, MD, US
Mission
BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT is an adaptive reuse initiative tasked with building a self-sustaining center for art and creative collaboration for the Baltimore community. Located in northeast Baltimore, BLIFTD provides space and programs for the visual arts, entrepreneurship, and community building within the historic American Can Company building. Utilizing a sliding scale pricing model, BLIFTD facilitates access for Baltimore artists who come from underrepresented and adjacent neighborhoods to its dynamic space for art-making, exhibiting, and selling. As an extension of Accomplished Art Services, we also offer opportunities for training in art handling, museum preparation work, and life skills.
Vision
BLIFTD’s Vision is informed by the collective input of its founder, Jeffrey Kent, community members, Baltimore patrons of the arts, and developers of the American Can Company building. We strive to cover the broad range of possible uses that may be undertaken in the BLIFTD space throughout the project's lifespan. Established in November 2024, this is the overarching Vision guiding the project:
BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT will be a creative space that offers a collaborative environment with a mix of artistic, cultural, and educational uses. The renovated multipurpose second floor of the American Can Company building will be designed for flexible art-making and exhibiting, community and private events, and educational programming. The activities within BLIFTD will be multigenerational and multicultural, providing a citywide and neighborhood resource that is financially sustainable for years to come.
Your Support Makes A Difference
Year one of BLIFTD represents a proving ground to test our Mission and Vision and hone our Objectives. By contributing to the BLIFTD launch campaign, you directly support the long-term sustainability of the project. Your donations will:
- Inform the scope of our first year of programming
- Support our sliding scale pricing model to attract artists from underrepresented Baltimore neighborhoods
- Ensure BLIFTD artists have the resources to create impactful work, challenge oppressive systems, and build solidarity across communities of disenfranchised artists.
About BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT
BLIFTD is a DIY-built and counter-cultural initiative in Baltimore, MD. Building from founder Jeffrey Kent's decades of work as an artist and cultivator of arts and maker hubs and his budding Accomplished Art Apprentices program, BLIFTD represents Kent's latest spatial venture, offering Baltimore-based artists vital space to construct new installation artworks, produce large-scale art projects, and receive mentoring and apprenticeship through collaborations with experienced artists.
BLIFTD supports the Baltimore community with a blend of art, cultural, and educational offerings with a special focus on supporting the dispossessed and the dreamers. Located on a 15,000 sq ft industrial floor of the historic American Can Company building, BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT utilizes arts programming, workshops, and collaborative events to unite diverse communities.
BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT inhabits a space recently occupied by e-commerce giants. The transformation of this space from commercial to communal and artistic is a symbolic gesture for the surrounding neighborhood of Canton, which lacks a center for the neighborhood's arts and culture endeavors.
An Extension of Accomplished Arts Apprentices
BLIFTD will provide additional space for Accomplished Arts Apprentices (AAA) programming. Founded and launched in 2020 by Jeffrey Kent, the AAA program aims to increase equity and inclusion in the arts, creative, and preservation trades with a specific emphasis on including people from marginalized communities in Baltimore. As someone who learned firsthand the value of supporting the fine arts through skills of preservation and installation, Kent sought out a collaboration with The Peale Museum to launch AAA and replicate his experience in the lives of others. He currently serves as the Peale Museum's Curator-in-Residence.
About the Founder
At Sub-Basement Artist Studios, Jeffrey Kent, founder of BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT, created the largest (13,000 square feet) art gallery in Baltimore at the time of its existence (2004-2014). It served as the launch pad for artists like Amy Sherald who became world-renowned for her portraiture of Michelle Obama in 2018. With the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT, Kent is building on that experience and his decades of work supporting and mentoring artists to create a new hub for artistic work and connection in the city’s northeast neighborhood, Canton.
Impact
Before the AAA collaboration with The Peale, Kent managed his arts programming and mentorship initiatives without a dedicated physical space. With the acquisition of the American Can Company space, Kent's reach and impact on the lives of nascent and established artists will grow exponentially, transforming the commercial space into affordable studios, maker, and practice spaces, and venues for art and performance.
The launch of BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT will build on the momentum of the city’s current art and cultural activity. Kent’s experience and deep network, combined with this palpable tipping point for Baltimore’s art scene, positions BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT and its artists to become a focal point of the US Eastern seaboard art scene.
Why Now?
An infusion of funding in the early months of BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT's launch will serve as an investment in the longevity of the project and its ability to become a permanent fixture in the American Can Company building.
BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT Values
- Compassion: We show empathy and care to all individuals.
- Transparency: We maintain openness in all our operations.
- Inclusivity: We embrace and respect all identities.
- Anti-Racism: We implement practices that actively combat racism.
Current Projects
Closing out 2024 and creating momentum for the start of 2025, BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT will implement the following groundbreaking projects and events:
BLIFTD STVDIOS Build Out
BLIFTD will be home to over 15 art studios and meeting spaces, an installation salon, an exhibition space, and a lecture hall. Renovations to create these dynamic maker and meeting spaces have begun, with the aim of promoting their rental availability by mid-December 2024.
Accomplished Art Apprentices
Beginning in December 2024, AAA programming will expand to include educational and creative opportunities with the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT.
LISTENING LOFT
Perched above the northern end of the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT space on the second floor of the American Can Company building is a spacious loft. Dubbed the 'Listening Loft,' this space will serve as an inviting space for budding and accomplished DJs and other musicians to practice and perform. By introducing an additional discipline to the space, the LISTENING LOFT will create greater visibility for the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT's resident visual artists' work and create more opportunities for collaboration.
BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT Inaugural Annual Silent Auction Event
On November 15, 2024, BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT will host its first annual silent auction fundraising event. This event will serve as the formal launch of a creative spatial venture. An invitation-only event, this inaugural gathering under the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT banner serves as a special preview of the 15,000 square foot space in Baltimore’s historic Can Company Building and the chance to bid on some of Jeffrey Kent’s most popular artwork from the last 20 years. All sales revenue from the auction will go toward the build and initial operational costs of the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT.
Placemaking
In addition to the programming and collaborations with Baltimore-based artists and apprentices, BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT will work with American Can Company building developers and local community residents to design an inviting and community-friendly atmosphere through creative landscaping and hardscaping projects. By employing an intentional placemaking process, BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT will maximize the communal shared value of the public realm surrounding the American Can Company building, strengthening the connection between local residents and the space.
Donate Now to BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT and share the love across social media: #BLIFTD
Rewards
Vitality Giver
Donate $250.00 or more
Amount over $30.00 is tax-deductible.
Receive an Accomplished Art Services t-shirt and a 20% discount on select artworks by Jeffrey Kent
0 claimed
Longevity Giver
Donate $500.00 or more
Amount over $30.00 is tax-deductible.
Vitality Giver rewards plus private studio visit with Jeffrey Kent (refreshments included, companions welcomed)
1 claimed
STVDIOS Supporter
Donate $1,000.00 or more
Amount over $130.00 is tax-deductible.
Longevity Giver rewards plus an original 8.5 x 11" drawing by Jeffrey Kent (unframed)
2 claimed
Community Supporter
Donate $2,500.00 or more
Amount over $1,000.00 is tax-deductible.
STVDIOS SUPPORTER rewards plus a Sip and Make Event with Jeffrey Kent for up to 10 guests; alcohol or non-alcoholic beverages.
0 claimed
Vision Patron
Donate $5,000.00 or more
Amount over $1,500.00 is tax-deductible.
Community Supporter rewards plus complimentary voucher to utilize one of BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT's meeting spaces for a day
0 claimed
BLIFTD Patron
Donate $10,000.00 or more
Amount over $2,500.00 is tax-deductible.
Vision Patron rewards plus donors at this level will also receive a complimentary voucher to utilize the BLIFTD STVDIOS PROJECT space for an event
0 claimed