BMA, MICA, and JJC Announce Three Artists for MICA Summer Residency Program

BALTIMORE, MD (June 17, 2024)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and the BMA’s Joshua Johnson Council (JJC) today announced Anna Divinagracia, Dirk Joseph,and Dr. Yemonja Smalls have been selected for the 2026 Summer Artist-in-Residence program at MICA jointly sponsored by the three organizations. Launched in 2022, the residency program provides selected artists the opportunity to work in studios within MICA’s Fred Lazarus IV Center over the course of eight weeks in June and July, allowing them to expand their work and scale, as well as embed themselves within the college community. Artists will also have access to MICA’s world-class fabrication studios, which include a two-dimensional prototyping studio, digital fabrication labs, biofabrication lab, and wood shops.

For the first time, the Summer Artist-in-Residence program has been expanded to support three working artists. Divinagracia, Joseph, and Smalls are all Baltimore-based artists who were selected by a five-panel jury comprised of Ann Walsh (MICA), Lehna Huie (JJC), and FAITH McCorkle (BMA), as well as Murjoni Merriweather and Rodney Jermaine Elliot (Qrcky), the 2025 JJC artists-in-residence.

“We are thrilled to be able to continue and expand this important collaboration in 2026, supporting three wonderful artists,” said Rose McNeill, JJC Chair. “We have been excited each year to facilitate and witness the growth that occurs through relationships strengthened by the BMA, JJC, and MICA. The artists tell us how rare it can be to have a studio and a welcoming community to work in and the gift of resources to develop their practice.”

Anna Divinagracia (b. 1997, Davao City, Philippines) is an interdisciplinary visual artist and curator, whose work is inspired by her shared experiences growing up in the Philippines and coming of age in Baltimore. Born in 1997 in Davao City, Philippines, Divinagracia’s artistic journey began at a young age when she discovered her passion for viewing and capturing the world around her through her camera. With a particular curiosity towards the intricacies and nuances of Filipino and American culture, Divinagracia uses her art to explore themes of love, destiny, home, identity, and acculturation as an immigrant. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Morgan State University and has participated in residencies and fellowships with Creative Alliance and Our Art Room Agency. She has also worked as a teaching artist at The Walters Art Museum through the Through Our Eyes program. She currently works as a Digital Marketing Coordinator at Chesapeake Arts Center. Divinagracia’s artwork has been exhibited in various galleries and universities across Baltimore, at the Umbrella Art Fair in Washington, DC, and on a billboard in Los Angeles, CA.

Dirk Joseph (b. 1967, Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Baltimore-based visual artist, muralist, puppeteer, filmmaker, art teacher, and community arts facilitator. For more than 30 years, he has worked as both an artist and educator. In 2016, he formed String Theory Theater, a traveling puppetry troupe with his daughters. Born in Trinidad and raised in New York, Joseph has called Baltimore home since 2002. Recurring themes throughout his work include dreaming, ritual, spirituality, nature, community, decolonization, and questions of what it means to live authentically and collectively. Across both his artwork and workshops, he explores how play, storytelling, and creativity contribute to personal growth, cultural continuity, and shared meaning in a society where identity and culture are increasingly commercialized. His work also reflects an interest in how colonial systems have shaped modern social values, often prioritizing individualism and extraction over communal ways of living. Informed by engagement with nature and the study of Indigenous cultures and communal traditions, Joseph encourages reflection on the inherited assumptions and social frameworks that shape everyday life. He has been hosting pop-up events at a multipurpose art space at 2103-B Charles Street that he is developing into a community art center called the Art Lab that will officially open this summer.

Dr. Yemonja Smalls (b. 1972, Hershey, Pennsylvania) is a multidimensional artist who has spent over 20 years professionally seeking to understand people and building supports to help them live their best lives. Dr. Smalls holds a Ph.D. in in psychology and works as the Division Chief of Operational Excellence for the Maryland Department of Health’s Developmental Disabilities Administration. Her extensive work with people with developmental disabilities has deeply informed her artistic practice and strengthened her fascination with the complexities of relationships, human behavior, connection, and resilience. As a sculptural cartographer of connections, Dr. Smalls’ mixed-media works examine the visible and invisible threads that bind people together while revealing the tension, beauty, fractures, and healing that exist between them. She employs varying materials, layered textures, and fragmented forms to understand how the backstories of love, trauma, resilience, and human experiences shape bonds with self and others. Dr. Smalls’ creations have been presented at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, the Frederick Douglass Issac-Meyers Maritime Museum, Hill Center Galleries, Harold Washington Library, South Side Community Art Center, Howard University, and the Sojourner Family Peace Center, among others, as well as many private collections.

Ann Walsh is the Fabrication Studios Manager at the Maryland Institute College of Art, as well as a Baltimore-based artist whose work fluctuates between multi-media flights of fancy and practical wood-based craft. Lehna Huie is a member of the Joshua Johnson Council and a multi-disciplinary artist and cultural worker of Jamaican heritage. FAITH McCorkle is the Public Engagement Coordinator at the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as an award-winning transdisciplinary artist, cultural producer, and storyteller. Murjoni Merriweather is a Baltimore-based sculptor and a 2025 JJC Artist-in-Residence. Rodney Jermaine Elliot (Qrcky) is a Baltimore-based artist and a 2025 JJC Artist-in-Residence.

The Joshua Johnson Council (JJC) is an affiliate group of the BMA and one of the oldest museum support groups dedicated to Black Diaspora artists and their art. Named after an 18th-century African American portrait painter, the JJC has 40 years of furthering its mission of forging meaningful connections between the BMA and Baltimore’s African American communities. JJC members are artists, administrators, museum professionals, collectors, and others who share the same goals. The group supports artists through programming initiatives in conjunction with the BMA, its virtual platform JJC Talks, museum internships, and by supporting acquisitions. The directives of the JJC have seen over three decades of artist support and development, creating a body of work that is truly visionary, intergenerational, and responsive to the needs of the moment. 

Founded in 1826, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a premier epicenter of art and design education and the nation’s oldest continuous degree-granting college of art and design. Based in Baltimore, MICA is entering its third century with renewed purpose and a deep commitment to its city and the wider world. MICA delivers an education that combines a rigorous fine arts foundation with design, liberal arts, and real-world experience—preparing students to apply art and design to real-world challenges. Through creative entrepreneurship, professional practice, and community and industry partnerships, MICA graduates build sustainable careers, launch ventures, and contribute meaningfully to the creative economy. To learn more about MICA’s Bicentennial, visit mica.edu/200.