Baltimore Architecture Foundation, alongside partner Baltimore Heritage, are proud to present the second annual Love Letters Live – a revamped Doors Open kick-off event. Join us for a casual evening of storytelling showcasing a variety of voices, perspectives, and special places in Baltimore as we take our letter writing campaign to the stage!
Hosted by the The Peale in their second floor Old Council Chambers, the event will include light fare, wine and non-alcoholic beverages. The event is free; RSVPs are appreciated.
Christiana Limniatis is Program and Outreach Manger for Preservation Maryland, working to grow and expand dynamic and wide-ranging preservation services across the state. Originally from New York State, Christiana was previously the Director of Preservation Services at Preservation Buffalo Niagara and has also worked as a preservation consultant in Louisiana and Tennessee. In 2011 she completed her coursework towards a MA in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University and has a BA in History/Political Science from The College of Saint Rose.
Jonathan Dimes is the Creative Director of JDimes MediVisual, a company he created in 2004 after two decades as an in-house Medical Illustrator and Art Director. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1993 with a MFA in Medical and Biological Illustration, he began his career at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine illustrating cutting edge procedures while serving on the faculty of the Art as Applied to Medicine Medical Illustration masters program. In his spare time Jonathan photographs and documents murals around the city as @themuralhunter and the grit, the great, and everything in between as @charmcityquirk.
Kevin Tervala is the Eddie C. And C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art. A Baltimore native, he arrived at the BMA in 2015 as AAAPI’s (Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands) Curatorial Fellow and assumed his former AAAPI position in 2017. In the last seven years, he has curated seven temporary exhibitions, spearheaded the expansion and reinstallation of AAAPI’s collection galleries, consulted on several contemporary art projects, and chaired the BMA’s Cultural Property Working Group. In addition to his curatorial duties, he is an active researcher with interests in early modern central African textiles and colonial-era art from Kenya and Tanzania. Kevin strongly believes in educating the next generation of art scholars and enthusiasts and has taught African studies, art history, and museum studies at Georgetown University, George Mason University, Hunter College (City University of New York), John Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland, College Park.
Arica Gonzalez is the Executive Director of The Urban Oasis, a transformative community initiative in West Baltimore that reimagines neglected urban spaces into vibrant hubs of connection, culture, and renewal. A lifelong resident of the Panway neighborhood, Gonzalez began her journey by reclaiming a blighted alley and a vacant lot, rallying neighbors to envision and build a safer, greener environment for their families. Her leadership turned these spaces into thriving community assets. Beyond her work with The Urban Oasis, Gonzalez collaborates with the Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project, advocating for inclusive, trust-based community leadership.
After 14 years at Rider University, F. William Chickering was designated Dean Emeritus of University Libraries. While at Rider, he also served on the faculty of the Baccalaureate Honors Program, and the Gender Studies Program. Previous to that, he served as a Dean of Libraries for 22 years at Pratt Institute. While at Pratt, Chickering also spearheaded and supervised multi-million-dollar renovations of two historic New York City landmark buildings on the Brooklyn Campus. In New York, he served two terms as president of the prestigious, New York Library Club, founded by Melville Dewey, and participated in a variety of other professional organizations. For three years, he was president of the Times Squares, New York City’s largest square dance club. Mr. Chickering has been honored to serve on the board of the Peale since the summer of 2018, and to serve president since the fall of that year.
Nakita Reed is a Senior Associate at Quinn Evans and award-winning architect with experience in the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings, with a focus on sustainable strategies in design and construction. She serves on the board of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and is a co-chair of the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Heritage Buildings (ZNCC). She is also the host of Tangible Remnants, a podcast for lovers of existing buildings that explores the intersection of architecture, preservation, sustainability, race & gender.
Ben Egerman is a public librarian and researcher living in Baltimore. His work with Preservation Maryland on the Maryland LGBTQ Historic Context Study yielded a preliminary list of over 300 sites related to LGBTQ+ history in the state and an interactive map displaying them, and has been recognized by the American Historical Association’s Committee on LGBT History, who awarded the project the Allan Berube Prize for community history in early 2024. He has worked with a fellow librarian and two community elders to bring various stories from Maryland’s LGBTQ+ past to audiences in libraries, universities, and community groups across the state. He aims for his work to lie at the intersection of community building, advocacy, and public history.
