Published Date: 09-09-26

Do you have a sudden craving for Maryland blue crabs with copious amounts of Old Bay® Seasoning? Are you finding yourself drawn to the filmography of cult filmmaker John Waters, and are you pronouncing his name as John Wooders? Are you in need of a spicy fish cake on a cracker with yellow mustard, as is so often enjoyed in the critically acclaimed Baltimore-based HBO series The Wire?

If so, you may be experiencing a serious case of Baltimore withdrawal, and the only cure is a trip to B’More, as soon as possible.

When you’ve had your fix of delicious crabs and attended an Orioles game at Camden Yards, you can slow things down and relax with a tour of some of the city’s great cultural attractions, which we’ve carefully curated for you. Baltimore is, after all, a city that has given us some of our great artists, from Edgar Allan Poe in the 1800s to standup comedian Stavros Halkias in the 2020s.

Without further ado, here are 8 of our favorite creative destinations in Baltimore.

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American Visionary Art Museum

A fashion show for dogs, a tiny puppet show, and a disco-themed Halloween craft night. These are just a few of the programs on the calendar for the American Visionary Art Museum. This museum and cultural space celebrates art produced by self-taught artists, often by those with no formal arts education.

The museum is eccentric, a little psychedelic, and lots of fun! After all, “Adults are obligated to have fun, so kids will want to grow older,” as a quote from kinetic sculpture pioneer Hobart Brown eloquently states on the museum’s website.

In addition to its otherworldly collections and community art workshops, AVAM hosts free outdoor movie screenings as part of their “Flicks from the Hill” series.

Eubie Blake Cultural Center

The Eubie Blake Cultural Center was born out of a long tradition of community organizing in support of the arts, tracing its roots back to Baltimore’s Neighborhood Parents Club, which founded an after-school arts program for the city’s youth in the 1960s. Named after Baltimore native jazz legend Eubie Blake, the center today hosts exhibitions, musical performances, and cultural programming centered around Black culture and history.

The fourth floor of the center holds Eubie Live, an intimate music venue featuring some of Baltimore’s most talented artists.

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

For over a century, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has been one of the United States’ premier artistic institutions. BSO is unique among American orchestras as the only major orchestra established as a branch of the municipal government, a testament to the city of Baltimore’s commitment to the arts. 

Today, BSO is a modern cultural fixture in Maryland, hosting performances, community programs, and educational opportunities at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore.

This season, you can catch some of the greatest hits in the classical canon such as Mozart and Prokofiev, but also exciting pop offerings like Steve Hackman Conducts His Taylor Swift: The Symphony Era and Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar.

Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum

Of Baltimore’s many legendary creatives, Edgar Allan Poe is perhaps its most beloved. There are reminders of Poe everywhere in the city: Even the local NFL team, the Baltimore Ravens, are named after one of Poe’s most famous short stories. And, there’s nowhere Poe-heads are as likely to congregate as at the Poe House & Museum.

This national historic landmark is just as delightfully creepy as any of Poe’s literary works would have you expect. In addition to tours of the home, the Poe House also offers Poe-themed tours of the city and hosts the annual Poe Fest International (we’re saying Poe a lot, aren’t we?), an event that draws Poe fans from around the world to celebrate the legacy of Edgar Allen (last name redacted for repetitiveness).

Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower

The pitch is simple: Take an underused 15-story historic building in downtown Baltimore and turn it into a gathering space for the city’s creative community. This is Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, a 2008 project of the Baltimore office of Promotion & The Arts. Since opening, the tower has provided artists, writers, jewelers, and designers a space to create and sell their works. Guests are able to experience free exhibitions and musical performances by artists from around the region.

On the 15th floor, beneath the still-functioning historic tower clock at the top, is the Emerson/Maryland Glass Museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of Bromo Seltzer’s iconic blue glass bottles. It’s cooler than it sounds, trust us.

The Senator Theatre

John Waters, the “Pope of Trash” himself, is Baltimore’s most iconic filmmaker, and his favorite theater in the city is The Senator – a beautifully restored art deco movie palace from the 1930s that shows both new films and beloved classics.

Waters has premiered several of his films at The Senator, including the famously Baltimore-based musical, Hairspray.

The Walters Art Museum

The Walters Art Museum is in the heart of Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon neighborhood and is proudly free to all. The museum houses collections dated across thousands of years of history, with current exhibitions dedicated to medieval paintings, Latin American art, and selections from the North American Collection in commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary.

The museum is dedicated to serving the wider Baltimore community, a mission that it fulfills by offering community art classes, public spectating sessions of art conservators at work, and guided art history tours through the campus.

Graffiti Alley

In the State of Maryland, graffiti is a serious fineable offense that can even lead to prison time. But in one alley in Baltimore, street artists are free to spray to their hearts’ content. Graffiti Alley came to be when the nonprofit arts organization Graffiti Warehouse bought a dilapidated building with the hopes of turning a popular drug-use corridor into a place where artists from around the city could gather and hone their craft.

Today, visitors from around the Baltimore area flock to Graffiti alley to appreciate great street art and to express themselves through creativity. Every square inch of the alley is painted in bright colors, and there are countless contributions from local artists to be viewed.

The nonprofit also connects building owners to artists to commission murals and graffiti works on their properties. It reminds us of our own foray into street art here in L.A. with our #StreetCreative campaign. You could say it’s right up our alley!

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That’s our roundup! We hope you’ve had a good time on your virtual visit to Baltimore. Take a couple of pit beef sandwiches and bags of crab chips for the journey home. See you next time!