BMA Stories
BMA Stories is much more than what's on view, though we cover that too! BMA Stories explores the questions art raises, the conversations it sparks, and the stories that surround it.
Bark Cloth Defies Categorization
As much of a textile as it is a painted canvas or a work on paper, barkcloth—made from the inner bark of trees—confounds Western notions of art.
A Night Supporting the BMA and The Last Resort Artist Retreat
On Sunday, June 25, the BMA’s newly-appointed Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director Asma Naeem and BMA Board Chair James D. Thornton will host A Midsummer Night’s Gala, an art benefit supporting the BMA and a group of extraordinary artists connected to the Baltimore region.
16 New Acquisitions on View This Summer
This summer, sixteen new acquisitions make their BMA debut. Below, read about three of these recent additions and plan your next visit with a comprehensive list of new works on view and a map of where to find all sixteen.
The Hip-Hop History of Pharrell Williams’ Buffalo Hat
The iconic hat worn by Williams is on view in The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century. It’s one of the more than 90 works that show how hip hop has reconstructed the contemporary canon of music, fashion, and art from the streets to runways and galleries,
All Eyes on Me
The exhibition catalog features New York-based writer and curator Ebony L. Haynes’ phenomenal format-breaking foreword, All Eyes on Me, published below.
A Legacy That Can’t Be Celebrated in Silence
For the exhibition, Baltimore-based musicians-producers Abdu Ali and Wendel Patrick created a 45-minute soundscape that plays throughout the galleries. For it, they mixed and reinterpreted hip hop’s greatest artists, influences, and allusions with ambient sounds from camera shutters clicking to vinyl scratching.
Watch the Throne
Asma Naeem, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, explores hip hop’s ever-expanding reach and the role art museums must play in support of the canon in the exhibition catalog’s leading essay excerpted below.