Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your Charm City weekend.

 EAT

March 24: Grand Opening of Roll Ice Cream & Coffee

Roll Ice Cream & Coffee, 3222 Eastern Ave. 12-5 p.m. Free. 443-595-7655.

Even though Winter Storm Toby ruined the first days of spring, that won’t stop us from celebrating the new season with warm-weather festivities. This Saturday, head to Highlandtown for the grand opening of this brand-new ice cream shop, featuring the trendy frozen treat and Thai street-food eat, rolled ice cream. Enjoy free samples, enter to win free ice cream for a year, and watch a live performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids. And if you’re feeling brave, participate in their inaugural ice cream eating contest. Just brace yourself for the impending brain freeze.

 DRINK

March 23-25: Maryland Day Celebration

The Brass Tap at The Fitzgerald, 1205 W. Mt. Royal Ave. 11 a.m. Free. 888-901-2337.

It’s been nearly four centuries since a group of European settlers first stepped off their ships and onto Maryland’s western shore. Now, we’re celebrating the anniversary of those settlers discovering our great state with events across the city—from museum exhibits to county-wide festivals. At the Brass Tap, more than 20 breweries will showcase two of their best made-in-Maryland brews in this boozy tribute to the Land of Pleasant Living. Expect local favorites like Union Craft, Monument City, and Peabody Heights, DuClaw Brewing, Heavy Seas, and Maryland’s only woman and minority-owned brewery, Denizens Brewing Co. 

 SEE

March 23-25: School of Rock

Hippodrome at France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St. Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 & 8 p.m., Sun. 1 & 6:30 p.m. $49-107. 410-837-7400.   

Get ready to pledge your allegiance to the band. Based on the hit comedy film of the same name, Broadway’s School of Rock musical follows wannabe-musician-turned-substitute teacher Dewey Finn as he transforms his fifth-grade class into a pint-sized rock band. This weekend at The Hippodrome, hear all the original songs from the movie plus 14 new guitar-shredding pieces from composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Jack Black not included—sadly. 

 

 HEAR

March 23: Mortified

WTMD, 1 Olympic Pl., Towson. 7:30-10 p.m. $20. 410-704-8938. 

There’s probably nothing more embarrassing than reading your middle school diary in front of a crowd of strangers, and yet Mortified, the largest and longest-running project of its kind, is bringing grown men and women to the Towson radio station to do exactly that. This certifiably cringe-worthy evening of comedy comes to the stage with stories of love letters and home videos, reminding us all of one simple truth—at the end of the day, we’re all awkwardly human. If you can’t make it, tune in to 89.7 FM for a live broadcast.

 

 DO

March 23: Art After Hours: Moondust & Stargazing

The Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr. 8-11 p.m. $10-25. 443-573-1700. 

This Friday, immerse yourself in all things lunar in honor of The Baltimore Museum of Art’s newest installation, Moon Dust. At this cosmic party, dance beneath Spencer Finch’s shimmering installation to music by DJ Trillnatured, sip on moonshine by the Baltimore Whiskey Company, and experience the scents of night-blooming flowers with local body-care company Priya Means Love. From stargazing on the museum’s steps to making a take-home sparkling constellation, revel in the chance to experience the museum, fittingly, at night.

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Fox Court, a rather solemn room with its towering, stately columns and echoing acoustics, just got a little warmer under the soft, golden glow of Spencer Finch’s much-anticipated Moon Dust (Apollo 17). The installation—417 light bulbs suspended in air between floor and ceiling—went on view on Feb. 21 and will remain a fixture in the space until the fall of 2024.

Anne Mannix-Brown, senior director of communications and marketing at the BMA, says she noticed a lot of foot traffic throughout opening day, and notes that you can see the installation from the street through a large window.

The piece spans 45 feet and represents the molecular structure of the moon dust that was collected during NASA’s Apollo 17 space mission. Bulbs in four sizes are meticulously arranged into their molecular structure, much like the three-dimensional models of colored atoms we studied in school science classes as children but on a much grander scale.

In 2012, Finch, based in Brooklyn, New York, put on view a more-permanent large-scale piece in Baltimore: a curtain wall made of glass that stretches across Johns Hopkins Hospital building, with blue and green hues reminiscent of Claude Monet’s work.

Joanne Gold, who with her husband Andy Stern loaned Moon Dust to the BMA, says she fell in love with the piece and jokes that she’d install it in her home if she had the space. “It’s a masterpiece . . . it’s so exquisite,” she tells a crowd of museum donors during an opening-night reception. After seeing it exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2009, she purchased it in memory of her mother.

That year also marked the 400th anniversary of the beginning of Galileo’s detailed observations of the moon through a strong telescope he’d made—not a coincidence, as this anniversary got Finch thinking about the moon as subject.

Finch says he has a “conceptual interest in representing the world,” which is evidenced in his pieces that examine the Great Salt Lake, bee flight patterns, the Milky Way, pollen, and clouds.

He admits that it’s, as he puts it, “terrifying to put up a piece that’s so permanent”—especially when you don’t know exactly what it will look like until it’s completely installed and lit. But he likes its new home. “It’s very exciting to see it today . . . I feel like it works in this space,” he tells the audience that has gathered under its light. “You can feel like you’re sort of in this galaxy.”

As the artist points out, the piece is at once a microcosmic and macrocosmic abstract depiction of the cosmos, as it suggests the molecular structure of moon dust as viewed under a microscope but also fills the space overhead much like a vast, starry sky. He hopes it engages a sense of wonder, regardless of how it’s perceived.

When asked why his work is often specific to time and place, Finch says, “I find in that deep observation an opportunity for poetry,” and acknowledges 19th-century scientists alongside Emily Dickinson as inspirations. “Emily Dickinson looks at the natural world with an incredible intensity,” he says, “opening it up to something poetic and beautiful.”