The Peale Illumination Project
Illuminating Baltimore Through Art, Storytelling, and Innovation.
Kelley Bell's Inaugural Installation Illuminates The Peale's Stories
In May 2026, The Peale launched the Illumination Project, a new public projection arts initiative that reimagines one of Baltimore’s most historic buildings as a canvas for contemporary artistic expression, storytelling, and civic engagement.
Kelley Bell’s “Shadow Play,” presented by The Peale, May 22–24, 2026
The initiative debuted with a large-scale projection installation by Baltimore artist Kelley Bell, whose work transformed the façade of The Peale into a living tapestry of images, movement, memory, and place. Presented over three evenings, the installation invited visitors to experience Baltimore through light and storytelling while gathering around one of the city’s most significant cultural landmarks.
More than a temporary artwork, the Illumination Project marks the beginning of a long-term effort to establish The Peale as a center for projection art, public storytelling, and creative experimentation. The initiative builds upon the museum’s unique history while exploring new ways artists can engage audiences in public space.
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Kelley Bell: Inaugural Artist
The inaugural Illumination Project installation featured the work of Baltimore artist Kelley Bell, whose decades-long exploration of the city’s neighborhoods, people, architecture, and cultural landscape made her an ideal artist to launch the initiative. Using projection as both artistic medium and storytelling tool, Bell transformed the exterior of The Peale into a dynamic work of public art. Images moved across windows and brick surfaces, creating a dialogue between the historic architecture and the contemporary experiences of Baltimore’s communities.
The installation encouraged visitors to slow down, gather together, and see familiar places in new ways. It demonstrated how projection art can transform architecture into a platform for storytelling while creating shared cultural experiences that are free and accessible to all. By bringing contemporary visual art directly into public space, Bell’s work expanded access to artistic experiences while highlighting the power of creativity to connect people across generations and communities.
Public Art for a New Era
Projection art has emerged internationally as one of the most compelling forms of contemporary public art. Unlike traditional exhibitions, projection-based works can engage entire buildings, streetscapes, and public gathering spaces, creating experiences that are immersive, temporary, and deeply connected to place.
For artists, projection offers opportunities to work at an architectural scale. For audiences, it provides access to contemporary art outside traditional gallery settings. For cities, it creates moments of discovery and wonder that strengthen civic identity and cultural vitality.
The Peale believes Baltimore is uniquely positioned to become a leader in this growing field.
Located in the heart of downtown Baltimore, surrounded by cultural institutions, government buildings, historic landmarks, and vibrant neighborhoods, The Peale offers an ideal setting for projection-based public art that engages both residents and visitors.
Illuminating Baltimore Then and Now
The Illumination Project is uniquely suited to The Peale because of the museum’s extraordinary connection to Baltimore’s history of illumination and innovation.
In the early nineteenth century, Rembrandt Peale helped introduce gas lighting to Baltimore through his role in establishing the Gas Light Company of Baltimore. The arrival of gaslight transformed the city, extending civic life beyond daylight hours and helping shape Baltimore into one of America’s earliest illuminated urban centers.
For more than two hundred years, The Peale has stood at the intersection of creativity, science, innovation, and public life. The Peale Illumination Project continues that legacy.
Where gaslight once illuminated Baltimore’s streets, the Illumination Project uses projection, digital media, and contemporary artistic practice to illuminate Baltimore’s stories. The initiative embraces light not simply as a technology, but as a medium for expression, reflection, and community connection.
The Peale’s historic façade becomes more than a backdrop. It becomes an active participant in the artistic experience, linking Baltimore’s past to its future through contemporary visual culture.
Looking Forward
The success of Kelley Bell’s inaugural installation demonstrated the extraordinary potential of projection art to transform public space, spark conversation, and foster meaningful community engagement.
As the Illumination Project grows, The Peale intends to commission increasingly ambitious works that celebrate Baltimore’s creativity while providing artists with opportunities to experiment, innovate, and engage new audiences.
Just as The Peale helped illuminate Baltimore in the nineteenth century, the Illumination Project seeks to tell Baltimore’s stories in the twenty-first.
Kelley Bell’s installation marked the beginning of that journey.
Building a Program, Not a Single Event
The Peale’s Illumination Project was conceived as an ongoing initiative rather than a one-time installation.
The Peale envisions the Illumination Project as a platform through which artists can explore projection, moving image, animation, photography, sound, digital storytelling, and emerging technologies in ways that activate public space and engage broad audiences.
Future projects may include:
- Major projection commissions by local, regional, national, and international artists
- Seasonal winter projection festivals and public art activations
- Community storytelling projects developed with Baltimore neighborhoods
- Artist residencies focused on light, projection, and immersive media
- Sound and projection collaborations through The Lab @ The Peale
- Partnerships with schools, universities, libraries, archives, and cultural organizations
- Experimental projects incorporating artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and other emerging technologies
By investing in artists and public-facing creative experiences, the Peale’s Illumination Project seeks to strengthen Baltimore’s cultural ecosystem while positioning the city as a destination for innovative public art.
The Lab @ The Peale
The Illumination Project is also closely aligned with the mission of The Lab @ The Peale, the museum’s research and development initiative dedicated to exploring the future of storytelling, cultural engagement, and emerging technologies.
The Lab supports experimentation across disciplines, bringing together artists, historians, technologists, educators, designers, and community members to develop new approaches to public engagement.
Projection art represents a natural extension of this work, combining creativity, technology, and storytelling in ways that make culture visible and accessible beyond traditional institutional boundaries.
Through its Illumination Project, The Peale is exploring how historic places can serve as platforms for contemporary artistic practice while remaining rooted in community needs and local stories.
Why the Illumination Project Matters
Public projection art allows museums to engage audiences beyond their walls, activate civic space, support artists working with emerging technologies, and create cultural experiences that are free and accessible to all.
At a time when cities are searching for ways to strengthen community connection, animate public space, and support creative economies, projection art offers a powerful tool for civic engagement.
Through its Illumination Project, The Peale seeks to commission artists whose work explores Baltimore’s neighborhoods, history, culture, and future while creating opportunities for residents and visitors to gather around shared experiences. By investing in artists and public storytelling, The Peale’s illumination Project contributes to Baltimore’s cultural vitality and reinforces the city’s reputation as a center for creativity and innovation.
