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Marisa Morán Jahn, ReCreation (detail of cartwheel vignette), 2024.
Museum Stairway
Installed across three floors of the National Public Housing Museum’s stairway, ReCreation is a monumental floor to ceiling mural that celebrates the energetic, ground-up civic initiatives led by working families and Black mothers in Baltimore from the late 1960s through the 1970s, including many public housing residents.
The installation features archival black and white photographs of kids and adults cartwheeling, dancing, relaxing by the seaside, and stepping in time to marching bands. Set against colorful backgrounds of hand-dyed and mono-printed paper created by past Artist as Instigator Marisa Morán Jahn, these vignettes highlight a largely unknown—but exceptional—moment in history, characterized by citizen-led organizing in Baltimore’s Black communities, including tenants of public housing becoming leaders in the management of their homes.
The wallpaper will also be featured in late 2025 at Carehaus Baltimore, the U.S.’s first care-based co-housing project co-founded by Jahn, architect Rafi Segal, and developer Ernst Valery. Presented in this second context, the audience will include older and disabled tenants, caregivers and their children, and neighbors whose interviews helped shape the body of artwork.
ReCreation was created by Marisa Morán Jahn during an Artist as Instigator residency at the National Public Housing Museum, in collaboration with Micah Campbell-Smith, Community Developer; and Dr. Sarah Szanton, Dean of Nursing at Johns Hopkins. Additional project support provided by studio assistants Em Flaire and Ananya Mishra.
From baseball to boxing to basketball, sports have a long history in public housing. Like kids from anywhere, kids growing up in public housing made fun however they could. The excitement of being a part of a team cultivates a sense of community. Public housing sports leagues have provided a sense of safety and comfort in their spaces. Learn more!
Marisa Morán Jahn, the National Public Housing Museum’s Artist as Instigator, is creating a multi-hued wall covering for the new building that draws inspiration from historic imagery of public housing playgrounds.
Some of the earliest public housing developments were designed with the intention of creating a better quality of life for their residents, including ample space for recreational activities and events. In this article, we will take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and explore some examples of the fun and joy that could be found in early public housing communities.
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