Arts & Culture
Art Space: The Ivy Bookshop’s Sculpture Garden is a Paradise of Poetry
For moments of reading or reflection, bibliophiles can enjoy the grounds, as well an interactive outdoor art installation.
Art Space is a recurring element in the UpFront section of our print publication that spotlights a local art project making an impact in the city at large. Here’s what’s going on this month:
Five years ago, after nearly two decades in a boutique Towson shopping mall, the Ivy Bookshop moved just down the street on Falls Road, and yet into an entirely different universe. The beloved indie bookstore’s new Mount Washington digs turned out to be a former meditation center, with an idyllic greenhouse and some three acres of lush gardens, open to the public—then and now.
For moments of reading or reflection, bibliophiles can enjoy the grounds, as well as Concrete Poetry, an interactive outdoor art installation by local artist Julia Kim Smith. Tucked into one leafy corner, 100 freestanding cast concrete letters can be rearranged to compose lines of poetry, with regular events featuring notable poets reciting their own verse.