Last May, on the 100 block of West North Avenue, Baltimore performance arts group Fluid Movement gathered more than twenty-five adults on the sidewalk outside of its studio at the Load of Fun Studios and Galerie for a hula hooping fundraiser. Local children stood watching, and buses slowed to a near stop as drivers shouted words of encouragement. "It felt like guerilla performance art," says Trixie Little, a burlesque dancer and one of the event's organizers, "but it was just hula hooping."

Despite its modest objectives, the four-hour fundraiser for Fluid Movement's upcoming water ballet represented the new energy and quirky vibrancy that is now associated with Load of Fun's community of artists. A year after moving into new studio spaces in the 24,000-square-foot former office-furniture warehouse, the group of twenty-four eclectic visual and performing artists are infusing life into a long-neglected stretch of the city's Midtown neighborhood. "In the artistic community, I just think there is power in numbers," says Little, "and when artists gather together, wonderful things happen."

Its name (a few cleverly selected letters from the sign of the prior owner, Lombard Office Furniture) notwithstanding, Load of Fun is more than just fun and games. Since owner and manager Sherwin Mark began renting his building to artists in November 2005, he has earned a reputation within the local development community for creating a viable and replicable model of neighborhood renewal. By offering raw, affordable work space to artists, Mark, also an artist, has struck a rare combination of financial feasibility and community presence that is helping to transform the neighborhood.

"What Sherwin has done is create a terrific model of how other people who have large spaces can be helpful to the artists and create activity around the building without spending a lot of money," says Will Backstrom, who, as vice president for Community Reinvestment Act lending at Bradford Bank, provides real estate and development advice for people interested in investing in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District (the state-designated, arts-based incentive zone in which Load of Fun resides).

Perhaps no one is more pleasantly surprised by the role the building has come to play in the area than Mark himself, who attributes the success to a seeming stroke of bad luck. After falling in love with the three-story building in 2004, he purchased it one year later. "It was at a point in my life where I decided I had to do this for my own personal well-being," he says. "Not for gobs of money, but just because I knew it was going to work." His intent was to transform the building into approximately eight live/work units. When he applied for the state historic tax credit he needed to finance the rehab, however, he was turned down.

"Suddenly, I was stuck with a building I'd have for a full year before I could re-apply for the tax credit," says Mark, a native South African who teaches photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He did some light construction, such as erecting walls and improving safety and ADA compliance, and then posted advertisements for no-frills, low-rent studio space at MICA and on artists' websites. "People started flocking in," says Mark, who fully leased the building in two months.

The building itself was a draw for many of the artists, who include found-art artist Spoon Popkin and painter Jerry Prettyman, who operates his gallery in his rented space. The early 1900s automobile showroom offers a functioning car-size freight elevator and loading docks that provide easy movement of supplies, high ceilings and large windows for good ventilation and natural light, and the original car showroom that now functions as a gallery. "Load of Fun has this fresh-start feeling, like anything can happen, it can go anywhere—a feeling that was harder to find among other studios around town," says sculptor Jesse Berger, who commutes to his studio from Washington, D.C.

Since its opening, Load of Fun has hosted a variety of workshops and events such as ALTscape, a festival that coincided with the city's Artscape, and it routinely provides meeting space for organizations such as Poetry in Baltimore and Showroom, an experimental music and performance group. "The building is full of so many fun, interesting people," says Little, who rents a 2,000-square-foot space complete with a trapeze. "I love how every time I go there, there is some new art on the walls, installation, building project, band playing, poetry reading, or bizarre impromptu fashion show. It's a
totally inspiring creative environment."

So much so that it's inspiring change even outside of its walls. MICA has recently located some of its graduate studios in a building across the street from Load of Fun, and other local businesses are beginning to buy property in the area. As the neighborhood grows, the market for live/work space will likely grow, and Mark and his building stand to benefit from his early investment, says Charlie Duff, executive director of the Midtown Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reviving the area. "It is here that Sherwin's genius shows itself," Duff says. "Everything that he has done to Load of Fun now will have value when the use of the building changes. The building has ecological succession built into it."

For now, Mark is sticking with his current plan: provide artist space and in turn, change the neighborhood. "It has a dynamic," he says. "I could go and get a tax credit and make condos and it wouldn't change the neighborhood.
But this does."

—Alice Ockleshaw writes regularly about architecture and design.