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Baltimore Music and Performance Collection

 Collection
Identifier: wham

Content Description

The Baltimore Music and Performance Collection features posters, fliers, graphic material, local and national publications, and other material relating to the underground music and performance scene in Baltimore in the mid-1990s until 2019. The collection also includes ephemera from donor Tim Kabara’s activities in the music scene, such as ticket stubs and calendars.

Dates

  • 1993-2019

Creator

Historical / Biographical Note:

The materials in this collection represent distinct periods in the underground music and performance scene in Baltimore. The fliers characterize the dispersed, low-tech scene that existed before the prevalence social media, circa 1980-2005. Shows were often in houses or other pop-up, ephemeral venues, as evidenced by hand-written directions often included in flier design. In the mid-2000s, the scene galvanized around a group of performance artists and musicians who came to Baltimore from New York in search of a more accessible community. Under the name Wham City, this collective made their home in Baltimore’s Copycat Building, a bastion of creative output in the city’s arts district. Here, Wham City began to bridge the gap between the irreverence of early flier design and sophisticated poster printing via a concentrated circle of performers and an established venue in the city. Along with national popularity garnered by the integration of the internet and social media as an information-sharing resource, this group of performers, along with their various side projects and collaborations, solidified Baltimore as a veritable hub of innovative music and performance art.

Extent

1849 items

Language of Materials

English

Condition Description

Variable, stable.

Author
Mary Claire Price
Date
December 2022
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Decker Library Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Maryland Institute College of Art
1300 West Mount Royal Avenue
Baltimore MD 21217 U.S.A.
410-225-2273