The Mixing Bowl
A community-building framework rooted in shared meals, storytelling, and creative exchange.
The Mixing Bowl is a shapeshifting event series that travels throughout Baltimore, bringing people together through four core elements: food, storytelling, shared resources, and documentation.
The series began as a private, invitation-only gathering of local creatives. Each Mixing Bowl brought together a different group of people in a different Baltimore space to share a meal and engage in a moderated conversation around themes of art, community, and public health. These gatherings were intentionally intimate, involving fewer than ten participants, creating space for deeper dialogue and relationship-building across disciplines, generations, and lived experiences.
Because these conversations felt too valuable to remain within the room, they were documented and archived. Recording the gatherings allowed Arts Collective to preserve the ideas, stories, and perspectives being shared while creating opportunities for those conversations to reach a broader audience.
Blue Light Junction
June, 2024
The first Mixing Bowl was designed in collaboration with our partner The Social Boot Network. Use of the beautiful space at Blue Light Junction was made possible through a barter.
June, 2024, in Baltimore City, 8 local creatives gathered around a table on a Sunday afternoon. Each person had been instructed to bring a dish or a drink as well as a physical item of significance to them. Their contributions were accompanied by stories which melted away any unfamiliarity that was present.
Following what was a delicious and nurturing meal, the cameras began rolling and our moderator, Alexis Tyson, set the scene by sharing our first prompt.
2 hours later.
History.
Curiosity.
Laughter.
Empathy.
Pain.
Hope.
Art.
The conversation continued in small groups as we cleaned up. The chemistry between those individuals was not something you could have predicted, only hoped for. Luckily that would not be the last time the group got together.
One of the goals of the Mixing Bowl is for there to be action that comes from these gatherings. Those relationships didn't end when the table was cleared, they became the foundation for Subject Tew Change, a collaborative storytelling series that continues to bring the group back together through filmmaking, conversation, and creative practice.
As The Mixing Bowl has evolved, Arts Collective has begun experimenting with public formats that maintain the same core elements while inviting greater community participation. Public Mixing Bowls continue to center food and connection, while incorporating new ways for people to engage through storytelling, resource sharing, and creative activities. Storytelling booths, artist activations, performances, and community conversations all serve as extensions of the same foundational ideas.
Enoch Pratt Free Library - Central
October, 2025
PSA Non-profits can reserve EPFL spaces for free for up to 4 hrs
Our first public Mixing Bowl welcomed more than 35 people ranging in age from 3 to over 70. Students, educators, organizers, journalists, entrepreneurs, artists, and retirees all gathered around the table(s).
Shared meal catered by Di Pasquale's
Storytelling Booth where community members recorded oral histories
Resource exchange connecting people with opportunities, equipment, funding, education, and collaborators
Music by DJ Dolla throughout the evening
Preview of Subject Tew Change
Despite taking place on the same day as the Baltimore Running Festival, we had a great turnout and once people entered the space they pretty much stayed the whole time. We had been prepared to facilitate conversations but the people who came out really just wanted a space to connect and had no problem keeping the conversations going on their own.
As the library prepared to close people were still talking, exchanging contact info, and asking when the Mixing Bowl would be. We even had a rush of participants wanting to record oral histories at the very end because they hadn’t wanted to leave their table convos earlier. By the end of the afternoon, we had documented over 400 years of lived experience.
While the format continues to evolve, the core elements remain consistent. This flexibility allows The Mixing Bowl to adapt to different communities, spaces, and partnerships while remaining rooted in Arts Collective’s mission, vision, and values. Rather than imposing a single model in every setting, The Mixing Bowl is designed to respond to the people and places involved. A gathering in a neighborhood community center may look different from one hosted in an artist studio or cultural institution, but each is shaped by the same commitment to connection, storytelling, and collective imagination.
At its core, The Mixing Bowl is rooted in the belief that the people most capable of shaping Baltimore’s creative future are already here.
