#ArtHappensHere Banner Installed in Memorial Park
A new banner by Rockville artist Liliane Blom has been installed in Memorial Park to celebrate the reopening of Montgomery County’s creative economy.
The banner features Blom’s painting “Mid Autumn” with a portrait of Nepalese-born Karuna Skariah, an educator and mother in Ellicott City. Memorial Park is across the street from the Takoma Park library at 101 Philadelphia Avenue.
Murals and banners designed by local artists have been installed in multiple locations in the #ArtHappensHere project sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Public Arts Trust. The public art installations highlight the reemergence of our creative community after a difficult year of disruptions caused by pandemic lockdowns.
The City of Takoma Park was selected as one of the venues for a banner. “We’re excited to display Liliane’s banner as a sign of the city’s commitment to the arts and racial diversity,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “We also are so glad that we are now rescheduling a wide array of arts events at the Takoma Park Community Center starting in September after the building reopens to the public.”
The Takoma Park Arts series features free concerts, plays, art exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, poetry readings and other events organized by the City’s Arts and Humanities Division. Please sign up for our weekly e-newsletter for details about all of our upcoming events.
Liliane Blom is a multi-media artist who fuses video, photography, and painting in artwork which is often interactive, immersive, and environmental in scope. Her featured piece Mid Autumn is from a series called Four Seasons which Liliane describes here.
“Four Seasons showcases women of many ages (from 14 to 90) and ethnicities, including immigrants to our state representing nine countries on five continents. The series reflects both Rockville’s and the world’s diversity. The series is meant to empower the viewer to see the beauty and value to be found at all ages and in all ethnic groups and is intended to combat stereotypes and ageism in a way that is both subtle and powerful. It is created to remind us that nature and humans are intimately and eternally entwined and that we need to protect the earth. Each of my women personifies one of the seasons and as its “Spirit/Queen” is surrounded by the flora and fauna of that time of year. They embody nature, the seasons, and the great circle of existence.”
