Events

Celebrate the end of summer by experimenting with natural dyes. Learn how colonists in the 18th century used natural coloring agents to dye wool and cloth. Join us in the Kitchen Garden as we look at plants and how they were used to color our world in the colonial period. Kids will make their own colorful tie dye shirts with contemporary dyes.  Advanced registration required with Parks Direct.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a performance by Puerto Rican vocalist Taisha Estrada. Rooted in the rich traditions of Latin and American jazz, Taisha captivates audiences with her innovative, multi-genre sound and compelling storytelling. Drawing inspiration from her Caribbean upbringing and the devotion to “La Patria” instilled by her grandparents, Taisha’s debut album, “Nostalgia Ajena (Foreign Nostalgia),” is a poignant reflection of her heritage, infused with the rhythms of bomba, and plena. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience Taisha’s dynamic performance, hailed by critics as a true testament to her artistry and authenticity.

A live tribute to the music of Curtis Lee Mayfield featuring the Brencore All Stars. “Over the course of a five-decade career, Mayfield innovated a hybrid form of spiritual and secular soul music, one that spoke to the democratic idealism and aspirational foot-soldiering of the civil rights and Black Power movements in the ’60s, and to the materialist upwardly mobilized ambitions of the postrevolutionary ’70s.” – Greg Tate.

A progressive art studio is a fine arts milieu in which people with disabilities can create and maintain meaningful lives in the arts. Highlighting the work of artists in progressive art studios including Make Studio (Baltimore), Art Enables (DC), Studio In-Sight of Cornerstone Montgomery (Bethesda), and VisAbility Art Lab (Rockville), this show celebrates the distances from which we have come since the end of notorious state institutions, such as Forest Haven hospital right here in Laurel. We have progressed toward increased rights and access for people with disabilities, and push for continued progress ahead. Look for more disabled art excellence at progressive art studio events in the fall, including “Outside Forces” at Art Enables in DC and “Cordially Invited” at Make Studio in Baltimore.
Make Studio is a nonprofit, community-based arts organization in Baltimore, MD, whose mission is to empower artists with disabilities to grow as professionals with visibility and voice in their communities. In a fine art studio environment, adults with disabilities can pursue and maintain lives or careers as artists.

Inspired by Renaissance still life paintings and representations of “nature morte,” Entropy developed out of Jenee Mateer’s interest in the recycling of energy in nature and art. The video and other images in this series are a metaphor for our layered collective consciousness and a reminder of eternal cycles of composition, decomposition, and re-composition, and our connection to the world around us.