Story Tag: BMA Stories

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 from many departments.

Black Earth Rising

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.

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.

A Cautionary Tale, as Told by Emmanuel Massillon

can recall many instances when museumgoers looked at Emmanuel Massillon’s “Mud Libation” (RIP Fredo Santana) with curiosity, admiration, and awe. This hip-hop-inspired sculpture commands attention: viewers are dwarfed by it. I overheard a visitor ask, “Is it coffee?” referring to the doubled Styrofoam cups perched on the dirt that Massillon had meticulously arranged.

Louis Fratino in Conversation with Virginia Anderson and Katy Rothkopf

The following text is excerpted from two interviews held on August 25 and 26, 2025, between the artist Louis Fratino and BMA curators Katy Rothkopf and Virginia Anderson. The exhibition Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again is on view at the BMA through September 6, 2026.

Shinah Solomon Etting: Jewish Matriarch of Early Baltimore

Charles Peale Polk, Mrs. Elijah Etting, 1792, oil on canvas, 35 5/8 x 27 5/8 in. In 1792, Shinah Solomon Etting (1744-1822), a Jewish widow, sat for her portrait in Baltimore. Her portraitist, Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822), was a member of the Peale family, and many of his relatives—including his…