Open Works Baltimore's mission is all about bringing creative opportunities to Baltimore City, making tools and knowledge accessible to all, and empowering people to build better futures. So when BMI executive director Anita Kassof approached Open Works about collaborating on donor gifts (3D cranes) for the museum's  Save the Crane campaign, the opportunity was a perfect fit for both organizations. To create the 3D-printed miniature cranes (replicas of the BMI's historic 1942 "whirley" crane), Open Works used hi-resolution scans from local 3D scanning and digital modeling firm Direct Dimensions, a valued BMI partner and supporter founded and led by BMI trustee Michael Raphael. The work was done by Open Works' digital operations manager Harrison Tyler whose background includes a degree in interdisciplinary sculpture from MICA and deep experience in digital fabrication.

Replica cranes in production at Open Works Baltimore

The BMI's Save the Crane campaign aims to raise funds to restore and light the museum's 100-foot-tall crane----once instrumental in Bethlehem Steel's prolific WWII shipbuilding effort----so this storied artifact can serve as a proud symbol of Baltimore's industrial history and a welcoming, iconic landmark for the City. Visitors who donate $25 in the Gift Shop to the Save the Crane campaign receive a 3D crane replica, and will soon have the opportunity to take home a Maryland-made version of the historic souvenir, produced by Open Works.

This partnership joins other preservation-related projects undertaken by Open Works, including a recent partnership with the MTA, which donated thousands of discarded aluminum road signs. Open Works is honoring the past by making new products from the old signs, milled on their CNC routers. Open Works' executive director Will Holman explained, "We get excited about projects like that because they are literally re-working the fabric of our city, forging new products from the fragments of our past."

Each Monday, Open Works features a member on their blog, giving exposure to their many artists, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and craftspeople. Check out the blog each Monday and stay tuned for new programs launching in 2018, including the Moms as Entrepreneurs (MAE) Academy at Open Works.

	Current crane replicas in the BMI Gift Shop. Thank you to Voodoo Manufacturing in New York for providing this great batch!

At Open Works (as at the BMI), the people who represent Baltimore's future are just as important as the creative innovations of the past. Will told us, "Community is one of our greatest features ----folks consistently come through the door to get access to all of our amazing facilities, but what keeps them coming back is our great member community and the steady creative hum you can find in our halls."

For more than 20 years the kids' cannery activity has been a highlight for school-aged children visiting the museum. Now we're making this experience available to local companies looking for a teambuilding activity to help foster a more cohesive, friendly, and productive work environment for their employees.       

Working the shucking station at Mr. Platt's cannery

Stepping into Mr. Platt's 1883 oyster cannery, participants assume the roles of foremen, can-makers, printers, labelers, steamers, shuckers, and can-fillers. As they engage in this lively, fully immersive experience about the challenges and opportunities that nineteenth-century workers faced, they gain new insights into issues that still shape the work experience today. Participants can also enjoy guided tours from skilled Museum Educators providing demonstrations of working museum artifacts. In the process, participants deepen their understanding of the ways that innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology have shaped Baltimore's industrial history.   

 

Matt Doud, president of Planit, a brand strategy agency in Baltimore, brought employees in for an immersive bonding experience. "What a cool and different teambuilding exercise! Working the cannery gave me and all of Planit's staff a fun way to see one another through a different lens...very different than what we've typically done in years past. And to be able to do it in this setting that is truly unique to Baltimore was a bonus," he says.

 

For more information on corporate team building at the BMI please click here.

While paint might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Baltimore industry, it is well represented within the BMI's collection and constituted a booming local industry from the end of World War I through the 1960s. One of curatorial assistant Robin Matty's favorite artifacts is this Hirshberg Paint Co. Stag paint color sample sign dated 1925-1939 (pictured on left). Her favorite thing about this object: the inclusion of paint samples as part of the ad!

 

In the 1840s, paint companies Hirshberg, Hollander and Company, and Hanline Company helped launch the paint industry in Baltimore. By the 1930s, brand recognition had become crucial for paint manufacturers hoping to market their products in the retail sphere, leading companies to generate innovative marketing materials. In 1941, the Hanline Company acquired Hirshberg Paints, assuming responsibility for Hirshberg's popular Stag brand, and continuing its strategic marketing tradition.

 

The Stag sign was given to the BMI by Thomas Eckard Sr., Vice President of Hanline Brothers Inc., who passed away in 1999. The donation was facilitated by retired paint industry veteran Mr. Thomas Mitchell ----who also facilitated the donation of many other paint-related items to the BMI, and who founded the Old Friends Paint Club, the donors behind the BMI's paint exhibit open from 2007 to 2015.

 

	A second Stag sign in the collection and a favorite of director of collections & exhibitions Jane Woltereck!

Other Hanline artifacts in the collection include correspondence, business records, historic photos, and Hanline Paints hats. And although Hanline ceased production in 1980, the paint industry, though smaller today, continues in Baltimore; Budeke's Paint of Fells Point, founded in 1868, is still in operation today.