The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, is monument to outsider art, the creative spirit, and the search for truth. Step inside this glittering temple to intuition and inspiration to experience the museum’s marvelous “shows,” each of which comes from the singular mind of the museum’s founder and envisioner, Rebecca Alban Hoffberger.
The featured songs in this episode are by The Preschoolers from the compilation album Towson-Glen Arm FreakOuts 1992-1999.
The reading of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies is by KiteTales & Flex
Interested in starting a podcast at your organization? Check out my new book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step by Step Guide to Podcast on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits.
Thanks to this episode’s sponsor!
This episode is sponsored by The Lyndhurst Group. The Lyndhurst Group is a history, museum, and nonprofit consulting firm providing community-focused engagement strategies for institutional planning, organizational assessments, and interpretive direction.
How to Listen to Museums in Strange Places
Welcome to Museums in Strange Places. I’m your host, Hannah Hethmon, a museum consultant specializing in podcasting for museums, and this is a podcast for people who love museums, stories, culture, and exploring the world.
In this season of the podcast, I’m visiting the museums of Maryland to discover what stories they hold and how they reflect and shape this state’s unique cultural identity.
You can find and follow me/the podcast on Twitter and Instagram @hannah_rfh (I love to hear from listeners FYI).
The podcast is available on all podcast players and apps, just search “Museums in Strange Places” on any podcast listening platform:
Learn More
- The AVAM Story
- AVAM’s Seven Education Goals
- Rebecca Alban Hoffberger Bio
- A website with more information on Ingo Swann.
- “The good, bad and horrific of parenting on display at Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum” in The Baltimore Sun
- “American Visionary Art Museum holds 20th annual kinetic sculpture race” on Fox45 News
-
“How Do You Make a Museum for Outsider Artists?” in The New York Times
- “Secrets, psychics, Peeps: American Visionary Art Museum exhibit probes the great unknown” in The Baltimore Sun
Photos of the Museum
Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, photo via The New York Times
Exterior of the museum
Museum exterior
Outdoor label for the museum’s exterior mosaics.
Entrance to the museum
Museum exterior
outdoor sculpture garden
outdoor sculpture garden
Entrance to the museum
A spinning Icarus in the museum’s main hall/stairwell
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
Ingo Swann painting from the permanent collection
From the show, The Great Mystery Show, bio/description in the next image
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show, a chandelier in the shape of the DMT molecule.
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show, voodoo deities made of beads.
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
From the show, The Great Mystery Show
A spinning Icarus in the museum’s main hall/stairwell
A painting by Ingo Swann in the permanent collection
The museum gift shop
The museum gift shop
The museum gift shop
Exterior of the museum
ME!
From the current show, Parenting: An Art Without a Manual
From the current show, Parenting: An Art Without a Manual
From the current show, Parenting: An Art Without a Manual
From the current show, Parenting: An Art Without a Manual
Permanent collection
A statue of famous drag queen Divine in the permanent collection
Kinetic sculptures in the permanent collection
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