Location: Highlandtown, Baltimore, MD
Client: Creative Alliance, Conkling Street Garden
Fabricators: Elemental Metalworks
Budget: $15,000

Highlandtown is a neighborhood that embraces its diversity and our installation seeks to build upon that sense of community – enhancing what is already taking place within the Conkling Street Community Garden and activating a location away from the existing activity of Eastern Ave.

Gathering over a meal is one of the most ancient forms of community process, as people sharing food tend to appreciate each other at a profound level. ‘Breaking Bread’ is an installation focused on an oversized dining table, which affirms a cultural continuity built upon gathering, sharing, and eating food made well, together. What is already a strong communal feel, becomes enhanced with a seat at the table, a neighbor seated across from you, sharing food and conversing.

The three-part installation includes a sequence of steel ribs that form a gateway and act as a canopy of light, an illuminated steel and acrylic table illuminating those seated opposite each other, and illuminated panels mounted onto existing shipping containers at the end of the sequence, providing opportunities that project light out over the platform as a signal that communion is taking place. 

Together, the installation becomes a place for engagement, sharing food, and celebrating diversity, while seated together in one place, at one table…