Ghost Rivers Movie Night in Wyman Park Dell

Celebrate the completion of the public art project with a special screening of strange and wonderful water-themed vintage 16mm films selected by Bob Wagner & Teresa Duggan (hosts of Bob & Teresa's 16mm Movie Night).

Bob & Teresa plumb the depths of their vintage film collection and the Enoch Pratt Free Library's film archive to share a delightful evening of wet, wild, and wonderful movies. Highlights include Baltimore's Geography, Jones Falls: The Stream That Shaped A City, a rare 1983 document of Baltimore history and more...

This free event celebrates the completion of the remaining Ghost Rivers public art installation sites in and around Wyman Park Dell. Take a few minutes before the screening to explore Sites 1 and 2 of this recently-installed 1.5-mile-long monument to a buried creek that still flows hidden beneath the lawn of the park.

THE DEETZ

• 8PM. Screening starts at dusk.
• BYO blanket or lawnchair
• Popcorn and snacks available for purchase (supports Friends of Wyman Park Dell)
• Free and open to the public
• Reservations encouraged but not required
• Ample free street parking on north Charles Street and Art Museum Drive
• Rain date August 8, at 8PM

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This free event is supported by a grant from the and by

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is a neighborhood-spanning, multi-site public art installation and history walking tour by artist that visualizes a lost stream buried below the streets of Baltimore.

The creek Sumwalt Run vanished from Baltimore’s landscape in the early 1900s. It now flows hidden and mostly forgotten through storm sewers. You can catch echoes of its waters whispering from certain storm drains. Ghost Rivers reveals the hidden history and path of Sumwalt Run, which now flows through underground culverts beneath the Remington and Charles Village neighborhoods. Through a series of installations, wayfinding markers, and writings Ghost Rivers brings lost landscapes and histories to the surface. Along the way the project draws connections between Baltimore’s watershed, its social history, and the evolving relationships between natural and human environments.

Before Sumwalt Run’s ignoble turn as concrete culvert, it witnessed eras of Baltimore’s urban history. Its frozen waters appeared in ice boxes across the city, cut from the city’s first commercial ice pond and a later artificial ice factory. Trolley tracks crossed its ravine, bringing workers home from downtown factories. The Olmsted Company attempted to preserve part of the stream as a greenway, but real estate developers filled its valley (using debris from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1905, according to local lore). When Baltimore built a new sewer system in the early 20th century, Sumwalt Run and dozens of other creeks across the city were turned into buried storm sewers and disappeared from memory. Ghost Rivers reveals these hidden histories and offers a glimpse into past and future city landscapes.

Ghost Rivers is supported by

• Maryland State Arts Council
• Gutierrez Memorial Fund
• Maryland Heritage Areas Authority
• Chesapeake Bay Trust
• Baltimore City Department of Public Works
• Spiniello

Partners & additional project support

• Greater Remington Improvement Association
• Blue Water Baltimore
• Baltimore National Heritage Area
• Friends of Wyman Park Dell
• BCT Design Group

Additional research assistance

• Micah Connor
• Kathleen C. Ambrose
• Ronald Parks

Fabrication & installation

• Elemental Metalworks
• Equus Striping
• Public Mechanics
• Powder Coat Finishes
• Floyd Godsey II

Website development

• Public Mechanics & Oleksandr Khudonohov

Concept, design, research, writing

• Bruce Willen / Public Mechanics

Host or Publisher Public Mechanics