contact
EMAIL: bmorektowninfo@gmail.com
Our Team
Phaan Howng
Creative Director and FabricatorPhaan Howng is American born Taiwanese artist who has lived and worked in Baltimore since 2013.
Growing up and living in cities with small Asian populations, Howng understands the importance of how different Pan-Asian backgrounds have representation by forming into a larger familial and supportive community. It's from this experience and her own move to Baltimore that she believes in the value and importance of ensuring the Asian community's presence by fostering connections with current and new residents.
Howng was named Baltimore Magazine’s Artists of the Year 2025. Currently, she has a large-scale outdoor public sculpture, Big Ass Snake(plant)s On A Plane, at 1718 N. Charles St. Garage, as part of Inviting Light, an illuminated yearlong public art event curated by Derrick Adams. She recently curated the Asia North Festival’s 2025 art exhibition, EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS for the Asian Arts and Culture Center at Towson University.
Howng received her BFA in Painting from Boston University in 2004 and her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2015. Howng has had solo and two-person exhibitions at galleries and museums including the Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD), the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery through Smithsonian Gardens (Washington, D.C) Dinner Gallery (New York City, NY), PRACTICE (Philadelphia, PA), and MonoPractice (Baltimore, MD), Art in Buildings (New York City, NY), Asian Arts and Culture Center (Towson, MD), and MoCA Arlington (Arlington, VA). Her work has been commissioned by CityCenter (Washington, D.C.), American Express Platinum and Meta.
Design and Branding Project ManagerHayelin Choi
is a South Korean born , mission-driven designer, illustrator, and educator who has lived and worked in Baltimore for the past ten years. She is interested in visualizing the Asian American community in the US.
When Choi started her grad school at MICA, she was elated to find nearby Korean signs in the neighborhood that made many international students, including her, feel a sense of belonging in Baltimore. However, she was disappointed to see buildings demolished and restaurants closing shortly after.
Her MFA thesis used bibimbap ingredients as a visual connector to graphically represent a diversity of individuals residing in “Koreatown” (Charles Village and Station North), showing how different groups have become woven into the community.
As a designer and illustrator, she has worked with educational and non-profit organizations, including Amnesty International, UNICEF, The Johns Hopkins University, City Parks Foundation, and Radish Lab. She is also an author and illustrator of five children’s books that have been published in South Korea, China, and the U.S. Choi received her BFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and an MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019. She currently teaches Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art.