November
17, 2005|By ABIGAIL TUCKER |
ABIGAIL TUCKER,SUN REPORTER
So
it ends, this season of many-legged landmarks and crabby puns. Never again will
the city's so-called "Crabulance" be dispatched to doctor the massive fiberglass
crustaceans that have suffered greatly since they went on display around town in
May.
Hooligans snapped twigs off the Crab Apple. They roughed up, and
autographed, the Orioles crabs standing guard at Camden Yards. They stole one
from an Eddie's in Roland Park and then, inexplicably, put it
back.
But
that's all past now. This weekend, the shellfish will be auctioned off, their
fates sealed by the drop of a gavel (actually, a crab mallet). Some will remain
on view in public spaces; others will go home with their owners.
In
either case, no longer will Eric Friedman - the designated Chief Crab Wrangler -
have to ponder the physics of the 75-pound sculptures in their 400-pound bases,
which, somehow, still manage to topple over.
"I hope they all find
good homes," said Friedman, a community
investment specialist
in the mayor's office who helps oversee the Crabtown Project, which commissioned
the sculptures to raise money for city schools.
Sixty festively
themed crabs - which local artists designed to resemble everything from Scrabble
boards to Edgar Allan Poe - will be auctioned at a cocktail event Saturday night
at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Immediately afterward, 80 more will be
available for
online bidding, in
a format a lot like eBay. (Call it cBay? Old Bay? Oh, it's hard to
stop!)
Twenty-five sculptures have already sold, and - earlier this
year - dozens of local groups paid $3,000 a pop to sponsor a crab for the
summer. The city-managed Believe in Our Schools
Fund, which
receives all proceeds, has earned more than $250,000.
But what do you
do with a giant crab? Last time huge sculptural sea creatures were auctioned off
in Baltimore (2001: the Fish Out of Water project), many fish were installed on
private lawns, overlooking pools and golf courses.
"Of course, some
people will put them in their yards," said Debbie Cameron, the Crabtown
Project's chairwoman. "A lot of people have talked about buying them and giving
them to a school. That's what I'm going to do."
But some corporations
are apparently quite soft-shelled as far as their sponsored crustaceans are
concerned, and they don't want to let go. Apparently, a painted crab will adorn
at least one company Christmas card.
And the Johns Hopkins University
grew so attached to its helmeted Lax Crab that the school paid $30,000 to rescue
it from the auctioneer's gavel. Hopkins wanted to support city schools, said
Salem Reiner, the university's
director of
community relations. Besides, everybody liked the crab, which wears a Hopkins
lacrosse jersey and a roguish grin.
"There was an interest in keeping
the crab on campus," Reiner said.
Perhaps the other crabs will fetch
a similarly high market price. In 2001, the fish sculptures sold for an average
price of $8,000. And at Saturday night's auction, the crowd will be drinking
crabitinis.
Source:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2005-11-17/features/0511170110_1_crab-sculptures-eric-friedman
Another
article about the
project:
http://www.ehow.com/info_7954578_community-art-projects-crabs-baltimore.html
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