Category: Feature
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Nylon Nature: Grenfell Rugs and Arctic Production
by Chloe Rybacki With carefully tufted white fur outlined in black, this woolen polar bear on an ice floe occupies center stage in a woven Arctic seascape. Surrounding the bear, dense rows of multicolored fabric blend to form parallel backdrops of sea and sky, their subtle colors accentuated by the rug’s wide dark border. This […]
BMA Staff | 08.28.2025 -
What Is Legacy Made Of? Found Objects and Material Culture in the Sculptures of Valerie Maynard
Multidisciplinary artist, archivist, and culture worker MacKenzie River Foy served as Valerie J. Maynard Legacy Intern in 2023–24, in the inaugural cohort of the collaborative internship program created by the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The internship honors artist Valerie J. Maynard (1937–2022; pictured above), a pioneering member of the […]
BMA Staff | 08.19.2025 -
Challenge Accepted!
The BMA and more than 20 Maryland organizations take action for a greener future In 2023, Governor Wes Moore announced the goal of achieving 100% clean energy in Maryland by 2035. To support this critical and ambitious target, the BMA established a citywide eco-challenge, inviting civic and cultural leaders throughout the Baltimore region to commit […]
BMA Staff | 06.24.2025 -
Black Earth Rising
On view through September 21, 2025 The splendor of the natural world is explored by some of today’s most celebrated artists of color and Native identity in Black Earth Rising, named by The New York Times and ESSENCE magazine as a must-see exhibition. Each of these monumental paintings, sculptures, and films demonstrates a form of resisting […]
BMA Staff | 06.24.2025 -
Q&A with Ekow Eshun, Guest Curator of Black Earth Rising
Black Earth Rising revels in nature’s beauty and reveals new ways of understanding social justice and climate change Presented as part of the Museum’s Turn Again to the Earth environmental initiative, Black Earth Rising invites visitors to see the beauty and power of nature through the eyes of leading artists. What inspired you to curate […]
BMA Staff | 06.10.2025 -
Home Wherever I Go
For the fall 2024 semester, the BMA welcomed a graduate cohort in curatorial practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art to center a seminar class on a careful examination of the Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum initiative. To learn about the diverse contributions needed to realize this expansive project, students convened weekly with a wide range of BMA staff […]
BMA Staff | 02.21.2025 -
Bodies of Water
For the fall 2024 semester, the BMA welcomed a graduate cohort in curatorial practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art to center a seminar class on a careful examination of the Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum initiative. To learn about the diverse contributions needed to realize this expansive project, students convened weekly with a wide […]
BMA Staff | 02.14.2025 -
Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem?
Whom do we honor, and how? The powerful installation More than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022 asks these questions while bringing attention to the efforts of many community health workers (CHWs) who heroically served Baltimore patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The artist behind the installation, LaToya Ruby Frazier, was […]
BMA Staff | 01.22.2025 -
Infinite Weight
Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum is a wide-reaching project that proposes Indigenizing interventions to address and refuse the oppressive hierarchies of coloniality that pervade the realm of culture and serve as the underpinning of museums. The project encompasses community engagement, a series of nine monographic and thematic exhibitions, institutional interventions, public programs, and an untraditional catalog. In […]
Staff | 10.16.2024 -
Behind the Dust: Conservation of a Gitenga Mask
This Gitenga mask caused great excitement when it came to the BMA’s conservation lab for treatment, as the object is impressive both in size (33 ½ x 35 ½ x 19 inches) and in presence. But upon taking a closer look, conservators could see that the majority of the feathers, especially in the back, were deformed […]
Staff | 09.26.2024