A Communal Offering

Anonymous Requiem
Stevenson University
2002
Conversation Piece
Goucher College
2000
Music, Art & Beautiful Things
Evergreen Museum
2005
It Starts with Family
Creative Alliance at the Patterson
2004
Autumn Leaves
Area 405
2014
Autumn Leaves
Area 405
2014
It Starts with Family
Creative Alliance at the Patterson
2004
Beyond Beautiful: One Thousand Love Letters
Area 405
2019
Autumn Leaves
Art by Nicole Buckingham
2014
Music, Art & Beautiful Things
Masks by Baltimore Freedom Academy students
2005
Beyond Beautiful: One Thousand Love Letters
Kondwani Fidel
2019
Beyond Beautiful: One Thousand Love Letters
Maria Broom and Simone Speed
2019
Autumn Leaves
Peter Bruun and participants
2014
Peter Bruun
First Form
1992, 27” x 27”, 1992
Autumn Leaves
Peter Bruun with participants and his drawings
2014
Maps on Purpose
Harlem Park map quilt
2008
Threads Unbroken
Community Conversation
2019
New Day Campaign
"Sticks & Stones”
2018
It begins with the studio.
A painting.
A drawing.
For most artists, that's the art: what lies within a work's four edges.
For Peter Bruun, that is often only the beginning.
There is more to do.
For its meaning to be activated,
a painting needs…
…its intended setting.
Or a drawing needs…
…its intended setting.
And even then the art is incomplete until that setting is animated by communal experience—exhibition events bringing the art fully to life.
Events involving visual art by other artists, practicing and non-practicing alike…
…professional performances…
…ritualistic ceremony…
…and always, sharing and fellowship.
Peter’s art is not just what he paints and draws, not just the exhibitions, and not just the events: it is all of it.
No distinctions between his varied art activities…
…from paintings that stand on their own…
…to studio projects involving so many others
...to curatorial and social projects with layers of community participation…
...it is a practice that is seamless and whole…
Creating connection and delivering affirmation.