October 4, 2010

Homewood Museum to host experts on the American porch

Homewood Museum at The Johns Hopkins University, in association with AIA Baltimore Architecture Month, will this month present the 10th edition of its annual Baltimore’s Great Architecture lectures.

This year’s series, titled The Porch in America, will be held on the Homewood campus over three consecutive Mondays. “We have pulled out the stops to deliver an exceptionally exciting program for our 10th anniversary series,” said Catherine Rogers Arthur, Homewood Museum director and curator.

The series opens Oct. 11 with Mark Schara, an architect at the National Park Service. He will survey the forms and roles that the porch has assumed over the past 400 years of American architectural history, drawing upon the Historic American Buildings Survey and his experience in supervising architectural documentation projects across the United States.

Decorative arts authority Wendy A. Cooper, senior curator of furniture at Winterthur Museum and Country Estate and former curator of decorative arts at the Baltimore Museum of Art, will speak on Oct. 18. She will discuss painted furniture for garden rooms, porches and lawns in the years 1790 to 1825, contemporary to the building of Homewood.

Internationally renowned classical architect Allan Greenberg, who won the Richard H. Driehaus Prize in 2006, will close the series on Oct. 25. He will investigate the porch as an early manifestation of American political thought and explore how America’s founding democratic ideals are infusing the practice of architecture today.

Lectures will be held at 6 p.m. in 111 Mergenthaler Hall, preceded by receptions at 5 p.m. at Homewood Museum. Registration for the series is $48/$33 for museum and AIA Baltimore members, and students. Individual lectures are $20/$15 for museum and AIA Baltimore members, and students. A limited number of free seats are available for Johns Hopkins students.

Seating is limited, and advance reservations are required by going to www
.museums.jhu.edu or calling 410-516-5589.

Special-event parking is available at the University Baptist Church parking lot, which may be entered from North Charles Street and Greenway. Visitor parking is available on campus in the South Garage, 3101 Wyman Park Dr.

For registration and more information, including AIA/CES credits, the public may call 410-516-5589 or go to www.museums.jhu
.edu.