Dogs versus art in Mount Vernon Place
Lots of people feel pulled to Mount Vernon Place.
The park is a National Historic Landmark District, one of the few grassy spots in downtown Baltimore that remains almost like it was 200 years ago. For young city-dwelling parents, it's a place to get some fresh air with their child. For downtown workers, it's a place to enjoy a quiet lunch. For newlyweds, it's a perfect setting for the after-wedding photographs. For homeless people it's a place to hang out -- at least until dusk, when police regularly roust them.
But, as Matt Fisher can attest, you haven't been pulled to Mount Vernon Place until you've been pulled there by a Basset Hound.
(Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)
Matt, a professional dog walker for Walk the Dog Baltimore, leashed up his first Mount Vernon client of the day Monday (a Basset named Buddy) and -- as is the routine -- was pulled to the park by a dog eager to do his business.
When they arrived, the stared for a while at the gold chain link fence that has sealed off the park, then went looking elsewhere for a place for Buddy's constitutional, settling on a nearby tree well.
"Dogs really like their routine," Matt said. "They like going in the same spot every day. Everybody has their comfort zone."
It was until he got home and got on the computer that Matt learned the fence that obstructed them was a work of art -- part one of an exhibit sponsored by the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Walters Art Museum called "Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square." The exhibit will continue to late May, though the fence will remain up only through March 29.
(City council member William H. Cole IV has asked the city Department of Recreation and Parks, which approved the project, to open up one of the four squares that make up Mount Vernon Place.)
Without access to the park, dog waste is more likely to end up in tree wells and sidewalks, Matt said, where some owners may be less likely to pick it up than they are at the park. (Some residents have even suggested that dog owners might be foregoing picking up their dogs' waste as a protest against the fence.)
Mount Vernon Place has long served as a de facto dog park -- a place where dogs and their owners meet and socialize. And, though there are a few other grassy spots nearby -- click here for the options -- "it's pretty much the only place to go," said Matt, who walks about 20 dogs a day, half of them in Mount Vernon.
Baltimore has only one official dog park, the Canton Dog Park, where dogs can roam off leash. A group in Locust Point is trying to start a second one -- in Latrobe Park.
Dog owners, as the Sun's story today points out, have been among the most vocal critics of the fence, one point of which artist Lee Freeman says is to increase public appreciation for the park.
Dog owners and many other residents say they appreciated it just fine before he came along.
It's a controversy that's going to continue -- and here's my advice for the doggie crowd (of which, though I reside in another neighborhood, I'm a member). Make your point civilly. Be a good citizen and pick up your dog's waste. Don't act like you own the world.
Leave that to the artists.
Comments
If that is to be considered art, I see no reason why the use of bolt cutters could not be considered art criticism.
Posted by: John | March 20, 2008 9:40 PM
The fact that few people realize this is an "art" installation when they encounter it makes me think that it is not very successful or thought out. Riding by on the bus, I assumed that the city had sealed it off for reseeding or some such maintainence. If the artist had done this to a neglected city block that was full of trash, I can see how blocking it off would make a statement, actually an important statement taht might make people reevaluate they feelings about vacant, unused space in the city. But to take a park that is well maintained and enjoyed and block it off does not make much sense to me.
Posted by: betsy | March 21, 2008 10:51 AM
Interesting blog post. I "read" the fence as a commentary on the state of legal, off leash dog areas in the City. As the article stated, there's only one in Canton, not much help to Mt Vernon residents.
One only need to look to neighboring counties and cities to see how woefully inadequate official off leash space is for dogs. Our fair city has one. There are five in Anne Arundel County and the same number in Montgomery County and in DC. Our neighbors to the north, Wilmington and Philadelphia, have, respectively, four and six designated park areas for dogs.
And, things really shine for our four legged friends a bit further north in NYC. There are 24 off leash areas in the Bronx and six designated fenced dog runs. Brooklyn has 22 designated off-leash areas, with 11 dog runs, and Manhattan has a total of 31 designated areas for dogs.
Again, Baltimore City has a grand total of one!
A group of dedicated citizens in the SE part of the City have been trying for close to five long years to get a designated fenced area for dogs in Patterson Park. We have met with our elected leaders, and with the Friends' group. And, we have gotten nowhere. While we have a great deal of community support, we have hit a brick wall when dealing with the officials and groups who could push this project forward.
I guess that the City's motto: Get in on it, doesn't apply to (wo)man's best friends.
Posted by: ellen in butchers hill | March 21, 2008 11:36 AM
Perhaps the dog owners in Mount Vernon could get the City to give them the much neglected John Eager Howard Park at Howard and Center Streets.
Posted by: Fred Furney | March 21, 2008 2:27 PM
Where's the macarini???? When ever I see everyday objects sprayed gold and proffered as art, I think of coffee cans with glued on macarini and sprayed gold being produced by children. I hope the parents of the gold fence artist did not spend hard earned doallrs at an elite art school so their child could make large versions of macarini art.
Posted by: steve bartley | March 22, 2008 8:21 AM