Doors Open Baltimore: Tomorrow, Saturday October 5th, 2019

I was too busy to write about Open House London, which was the third weekend of September.

-- Open House Worldwide is a website for groups sponsoring "Open Houses" brought together by
-- Open City | London's architecture education organisation

But Open House New York is coming up, on Saturday October 19th and Sunday October 20th ("The best of Open House New York 2019," Time Out Magazine).

The Doors Open events are similar, and both "Open House" and "Doors Open" grew out of a program that was pioneered in Scotland in 1990.  It doesn't seem as if there is a "Doors Open" coordination organization similar to that of Open City. 

Baltimore has its version of the event tomorrow ("Doors Open Baltimore offers a peek inside 50+ new, historic buildings," Baltimore Business Journal).

-- Doors Open Baltimore website

 According to the BBJ:

The event has quintupled its attendance since 2014, when an estimated 2,000 people turned out to tour more than 40 buildings around Baltimore. Last year drew about 10,000 participants, organizers said.

Doors Open Baltimore costs about $30,000 to host, according to De Arcangelis, and is funded by a mix of business sponsorships and grant funding. Sponsors this year include Maryland Public Television and WYPR Radio, while grants came from the Abell Foundation, Maryland Heritage Area Authority and the Baltimore National Heritage Area, which has also contributed nearly $700,000 in capital and heritage investment funds to historic buildings on display at Doors Open.

The program grew to two days in 2017. The number of open buildings, meanwhile, has stayed about the same in recent years. That's because the event is mostly run by volunteers, De Arcangelis said.

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In my piece, "What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem," item #22 suggests the creation of a similar city-wide event. But I didn't discuss how this should be paired with a schedule for neighborhood events, although I did for "Arts All Night"

22. Create an annual city-wide "Doors Open" event for DC's local cultural institutions.

"Doors Open" events were pioneered in Europe, and are when a community's culture organizations band together to provide a coordinated schedule of events, usually over a weekend, where people get free access to various cultural sites and events, many of which are not normally open to the public.

In North America, Doors Open Toronto is probably the biggest. The Toronto Star even publishes an event guide. (2011 Doors Open Toronto Guide)

But Open House New York Weekend is increasingly a big deal. Pittsburgh created one, Doors Open Pittsburgh.

In DC the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium has had a district-specific Doors Open event for many years, as do the art galleries on Upper Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, but including the participation of AU's Katzen Center for the Arts and the Kreeger Museum. It's not exactly the same, but Georgetown Glow, an outdoor sculpture walk in December and January is growing into a great event.

Let's do this for the whole city.

(I meant to write about this during the government shutdown -- #DCIsOpen -- and it's still on my list.)