BmoreArt

This Week: NMWA xChange, fiber artist + activist Tanya Aguiñiga, the 14Karat Cabaret at MAP,  Betty Cooke’s Legacy at The Walters, F.E.A.S.T. Mutual Aid Call for Proposals at VisArts, and more.

BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.

To submit your calendar event, email us at [email protected]!

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NMWA xChange: Alma Woodsey Thomas and the Little Paris Group
Tuesday, September 14 • 12-12:45
presented by National Museum of Women in the Arts

This monthly talk show, a spin-off of the award-winning BMA x NMWA series, connects viewers to NMWA and its mission to champion women artists. Join as hosts from the museum interview special guests including artists, educators, and curators; consider topics relevant to our world; and offer insight into collaborations that NMWA is fostering while its building is closed for renovation.

In the first episode of NMWA xChange, the museum’s associate curator Virginia Treanor, PhD, and senior educator Adrienne L. Gayoso welcome independent scholar, art historian and curator Adrienne L. Childs, PhD. This discussion centers on artist Alma Woodsey Thomas and her connection to the “Little Paris Group,” a Washington, D.C.-based collective of Black artists established by Loïs Mailou Jones and Céline Marie Tabary.

Childs is an associate of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Her current book, Ornamental Blackness: The Black Body in European Decorative Arts, which explores the representation of Black figures in European decorative arts, is under contract with Yale University Press.

Free. Registration required.

Contemporary Voices: Tanya Aguiñiga
Tuesday, September 14 • 7-8pm
presented by GW Textile Museum

Join artist Tanya Aguiñiga for a discussion of fiber art as activism on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fiber-centered interventions through performance, site-specific installation, community-based collaborations and object making have helped Aguiñiga and others voice the emotions felt at the edge of two cultures. In the face of injustice, fiber and textile techniques have been her companions in creating works of healing and empowerment.

In this virtual talk Aguiñiga unpacks the specifics of why fiber and textile-based materials have been the most effective conduit for her to bridge worlds at the border. She will discuss design thinking, give a brief history of art at the border and explore fiber works by other artists carried out at the border. Program participants will receive a guide to best practices for community engagement.

About Tanya Aguiñiga

Tanya Aguiñiga was born in San Diego, California, and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. An artist, designer and craftsperson, Aguiñiga works with traditional craft materials, such as natural fibers, and collaborates with other artists and activists to create sculptures, installations, performances and community-based art projects. Drawing on her upbringing as a binational citizen who crossed the border from Tijuana to San Diego daily for school, Aguiñiga’s work speaks to her experience of divided identity and aspires to tell the larger and often invisible stories of the transnational community.

How to Participate

To participate, register online to get a link and instructions for joining the program on Zoom. Simply follow that link at the time the event starts  (7 p.m. EDT). When you register, you can also request to receive a reminder email one day before the program with the link included.

About Contemporary Voices

Meet innovative artists and scholars whose practice draws on textile materials, techniques or knowledge. This series is presented in partnership with the Textile Society of America and is supported through the museum’s Cynthia and Alton Boyer Fund for Education. Browse upcoming programs

Photo by Gina Clyne

Unlocking the Exhibition: Creating Losing Winter
Thursday, September 16 • 6-7pm
presented by Maryland Center for History and Culture

Repercussions: Redefining the Black Aesthetic
Thursday, September 16 • 6pm
@ Eubie Blake Center

“More than 50 years removed from the 1960s new abstraction movement, contemporary Black artists are creating abstract works that add new layers to what we consider fine art. This work is important to analyze as these artists tell new stories, inserting themselves into the conversations affecting the modern world.”

–Thomas James, Curator

Meet the Artists

ADEWALE ALLI
ALEXANDRE AMEGAH
ANTONIO MCAFEE
ASHA ELANA CASEY
BRIA STERLING
CHARLES PHILIPPE JEAN PIERRE
DESMOND BEACH
KY VASSOR
LEHNA HUIE
LIONEL FRAIZER WHITE III
QRCKY
REBECCA MARIMUTU
SARAH STEFANA SMITH
SULDANO ABDRIRUHMAN
VICTORIA WALTON
WELSEY CLARK

The 14Karat Cabaret: Baltimore…Paris…The Gutter | Opening Reception
Thursday, September 16 • 6-8pm
@ Maryland Art Place

The 14Karat Cabaret: Baltimore…Paris…The Gutter

Exhibition On View: September 16 – Saturday, November 6, 2021

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 16, 2021 | 6pm to 8pm

Maryland Art Place is proud to announce an exhibition showcasing the history of The14Karat Cabaret, a performance project located at MAP for over 25 years.Directed and organized by Baltimore artist Laure Drogoul, the project was conceived as a place to experiment with new forms, challenge societal expectations and experiment with new genres of art making. The project presented hundreds of local, national and international artists. The14Karat Cabaretexhibition at MAP will feature ephemera, photos, posters, performing objects and video of the history of the project from its beginning in 1989. Expect pop-up performances throughout the run.

The exhibition will be on view Thursday, September 16 – Saturday, November 6, 2021.

Virtual Artist in Resident Hannah Brancato | Artist Talk
Friday, September 17 • 1:30pm
presented by VisArts

The Montgomery College Visual and Performing Arts Department of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus presents the first artist talk of Fall Semester 2021 featuring virtual artist in resident Hannah Brancato. Hannah Brancato (she/her) is an artist and educator based in Baltimore, who is dedicated to mobilizing visual culture to uproot and resist white supremacy and rape culture. The artist talk will be given at 1:30 PM on Friday, September 17^th. Please go to register for thi​s artist talk. This event will be held via ZOOM webinar. This event is free and open to the public. montgomerycollege.edu/artsinstitute to register for this artist talk. This event will be held via ZOOM webinar. This event is free and open to the public.

About the Artist: Hannah Brancato’s practice is grounded in collective storytelling, and the creation of public rituals to bring people’s stories together. Currently, she is documenting the role of art in social justice work through her creative and teaching practice. Brancato is a faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson University, and UMBC. Her work has received widespread media coverage, including Afterimage, Ms Magazine, Voice of America, Bmore Art, the Washington Post, MSNBC, Surface Design Journal, and Fast Company.She will be Montgomery College’s Fall 2021 Artist in Residence.

Hannah is co-founder of the survivor led collective FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture and was part of the collective until 2020. FORCE produced creative interventions to disrupt rape culture and build a culture of consent, and was nationally known for producing large-scale public art campaigns, including the Monument Quilt. Hannah was a 2015 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow to launch FORCE’s Baltimore based survivor collective, Gather Together and as part of FORCE, is the recipient of the 2016 Sondheim Artscape Prize. Hannah began to acknowledge her own experience as a survivor in 2008, while working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence at House of Ruth Maryland and establishing Advocate Through Art, an awareness campaign by and for domestic violence survivors.

Regeneration // Resiliencia | Reception
Friday, September 17 • 6-7pm
@ Howard County Arts Council

On August 21, the Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) opens two new exhibits at the Howard County Center for the Arts: Regeneration and Resiliencia.

Regeneration features large-scale mixed-media sculptures and installations by Marcia Wolfson Ray and Micaela de Vivero. Ray collects wood from local environments to explore concepts of regeneration and the ways that humans are connected, while de Vivero uses soft, malleable, and porous materials to create installations investigating the relationship between viewers and space.

Resiliencia showcases works by Julia Justo, Dulce Pinzón, and Christine Sloan Stoddard. These artists use interdisciplinary methods to explore social and political concepts through photography, mixed-media, film, and installation. 

Both exhibits will be on display from August 21 through October 2, with a free public reception on September 17 from 6-8pm in conjunction with the Arts Council’s Road to the Arts weekend.

Current gallery hours are Tuesday-Thursday from 10am-8pm and Saturday from 10am-4pm. NOTE: Gallery hours may be expanded or reduced in response to evolving local public health guidelines and restrictions; please call 410-313-ARTS (2787) or visit hocoarts.org to verify hours before visiting.

To learn more about HCAC programs and exhibits, call 410-313-ARTS (2787) or visit hocoarts.org.

Betty Cooke’s Legacy
Sunday, September 19 • 2-3pm
@ The Walters Art Gallery

Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line is the first major museum retrospective of the Baltimore artist’s work. On the opening day of the exhibition, join Ellen Lupton, the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); Fred Lazarus, President Emeritus of MICA; and Jeannine Falino, independent scholar and curator of Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line, for a discussion moderated by Jo Briggs, Jennie Walters Delano Associate Curator of 18th- and 19th-century Art at the Walters. The speakers discuss Cooke’s inventive jewelry using simple, geometric forms and the Store Ltd., the art and design store Cooke has run for over five decades.

This program takes place in the Walters’ Graham Auditorium.

This program is part of a series inspired by Cooke and her artistic practice that is explored in the exhibition Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line, on view at the Walters Art Museum from September 19, 2021–January 2, 2022. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, with an essay by Jeannine Falino and reflections by a number of friends and collectors. The Circle and the Line: The Jewelry of Betty Cooke is published by the Walters Art Museum in association with D Giles Limited; it is available for purchase at the Walters Museum Store.

About the Speakers:

Jeannine Falino explores the relationships between design, craft, and art in American culture. As the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, she published Silver of the Americas, 1600–2000 (2007). Ms. Falino has curated numerous exhibitions in decorative arts and design, among them Artistic Luxury: Fabergé—Tiffany—Lalique, (Cleveland Museum of Art 2008) featuring these legendary firms in an international context. At the Museum of Arts and Design, she produced the major survey Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design(2011), and What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder’s Vision (2014), an exhibition on the role of advocacy and philanthropy in American craft. At the Museum of the City of New York, she co-curated Gilded New York: Design, Fashion & Society (2013-17). New York Silver, Then & Now brought contemporary artists and designers in dialogue with historic silver (Museum of the City of New York, June 2017-May 2018).  www.jeanninefalino.com

Ellen Lupton is the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Lupton has authored numerous books on design processes, including Thinking with Type, Graphic Design Thinking, Graphic Design: The New Basics (with Jennifer Cole Phillips), and Extra Bold (with Farah Kafei, Jennifer Tobias, Josh Halstead, Kaleena Sales, Leslie Xia, and Valentina Vergara.) She is Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. Recent exhibitions include The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, How Posters Work, and Beautiful Users. She received the AIGA Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Fred Lazarus served as president of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) from 1978 to 2014. Before coming to MICA, he was staff assistant to the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1975 to 1978, President of the Washington Council for Equal Business Opportunity from 1971 to 1974, and a staff associate for the National Council for Equal Business Opportunity from 1969 to 1971. He currently serves on the boards of Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, Maryland Independent Colleges and University Association, Arts Every Day, and as the Chairman on the Central Baltimore Partnership. He has served on numerous boards, including Maryland Art Place, the Afro-American Newspaper, American Visionary Art Museum, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and the Maryland State Department of Education’s Fine Arts Advisory Panel. Mr. Lazarus received his M.B.A from Harvard University in 1966, his B.A. from Claremont-McKenna College and an Honorary Doctorate of the Science of Arts from Osaka University for the Arts, Osaka Japan in 1999. Mr. Lazarus has received a Baltimore City Mayor’s Arts Award, a Howard County Arts Award, and the National Art Education Association’s Distinguished Service Award among others. Fred and his wife, Jonna, reside in Baltimore.

Sight Unseen: maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore” 
Sunday, September 19
SNF Parkway

Sight Unseen and The SNF Parkway are thrilled to welcome, filmmaker, Sky Hopkina who will present his feature film maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore.” A poetic, experimental debut feature circling the origin of the death myth from the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore follows two people as they wander through their surrounding nature, the spirit world, and something much deeper inside. At its center are Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier, who take separate paths contemplating their afterlife, rebirth, and death. Probing questions about humanity’s place on earth and other worlds, Sky Hopinka’s film will have audiences thinking (and dreaming) about it long after.

Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington and spent a number of years in Palm Springs and Riverside, California, Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Portland he studied and taught chinuk wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non fiction forms of media. He received his BA from Portland State University in Liberal Arts and his MFA in Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and currently teaches at Bard College in Film and Electronic Arts.
His work has played at various festivals including ImagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival, Images, Wavelengths, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Sundance, and Projections. His work was a part of the 2016 Wisconsin Triennial and the 2017 Whitney Biennial and the 2018 FRONT Triennial. He was a guest curator at the 2019 Whitney Biennial and was a part of Cosmopolis #2 at the Centre Pompidou. He was awarded jury prizes at the Onion City Film Festival, the More with Less Award at the 2016 Images Festival, the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at the 54th Ann Arbor Film Festival, the New Cinema Award at the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival and the Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Individual Artists in the Emerging artist category for 2018. He was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2018- 2019, a Sundance Art of Nonfiction Fellow for 2019, a recipient of an Alpert Award for Film/Video, and is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

Sight Unseen is a Baltimore-based film series that focuses on contemporary image based work that explore innovative ways of working with materiality, sound, and narrative. The series has been running since 2012 and is curated by Margaret Rorison. Sight Unseen screenings have been regularly occurring at the SNF Parkway Theatre since June 2017.

For more information about Sight Unseen and to browse a catalog of past screenings, visit http://sightunseenbaltimore.com/.

Calls for Entry // Opportunities

Part-time Arts Coordinator Wanted
@ Towson Arts Collective

TAC is looking for a part-time arts coordinator! TAC’s Coordinator will be a warm, outgoing spokesperson for TAC, with the role of facilitating the growth of Towson Arts Collective’s programs as well as membership, patronage, partnerships, and sponsors.

Pay & Schedule

10 hours per week in TAC’s gallery at $20/hour

Qualifications

• The ability to understand and promote the role of Towson Arts Collective, a 501c3 nonprofit arts organization that has the educational mission to empower artists to create a prestigious arts center for the public

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Excellent organizational skills, including scheduling of volunteers and meetings

• Ability to facilitate meetings, events and events

• Ability to delegate tasks and train volunteers

• Basic record keeping of expenses and income from sales

• Ability to use and update TAC’s website and posts on social media

• Work with TAC’s Board effectively to expand programs and funding, including grants

• Background in the philosophy of the importance of the Arts in the Society, and ability to present these ideas and pragmatic solutions for the support of Towson Arts Collective to community leaders, educators, patrons, and businesses.

How to Apply

Applicants must email a cover letter, resume and references to [email protected]. Use “Coordinator Position” as your email subject.

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | Call for Applications
deadline September 17
sponsored by John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation decided to suspend its Latin American and Caribbean competition for the year 2021 while we examine the workings and efficacy of the program. The U.S. and Canadian competition is unaffected by this suspension.

The application for the 2022 United States and Canada competition is now available. All applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. or Canada at the time of application. The application deadline is Friday, September 17, 2021. Follow this link to access the application. Note that we have a new account-based application system. All applicants, including those who have applied in the past, must first create a new account at the above link.

Further details regarding the application process can be found in Application Resources, Submission Materials, and the Guide to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Online Application.

Important Notes

Persons who have already received a Guggenheim Fellowship are not eligible to apply for another.

Guggenheim Fellowships are not available for the creation of residencies, curriculum development, or any type of educational program, nor are they available to support the development of websites or blogs.

Our awards are intended for individuals only; they are not available to organizations, institutions, or groups.

Guggenheim Fellowships are not open to students (undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate).

We regret that our awards are not available to support the writing of literature for children or young readers, or support any other type of work (e.g., films, plays, etc.) intended for young audiences.

Anthology, oral history, e-book, or textbook projects are not supported by our awards.

Published writing not regarded as appropriate for our competition includes self-published works, publications for which the author has paid, and publications by publishers who do not engage in a process of critical review of submitted work. In addition, genre work (e.g., mysteries, romance, fantasy, etc.) is not within our scope.

For all writers, if you have mainly published in periodicals, or on websites, it might be premature for you to apply here at this stage of your career, given the rigorous nature of our competition.

Artist’s Multiples | Call for Entry
deadline September 18
sponsored by but, also

“but, also” is excited to announce a call for artist’s multiples just in time for the holiday season. Our dear friends at Wikipedia said it best albeit with some weird grammer…

“Artist’s multiple is a series of identical art objects produced or commissioned by artist according to his or her idea, usually a signed limited edition made specifically for selling. Multiples have been called the most accessible and reasonably priced contemporary art on the market, value for money.[citation needed] They could be multiples of a 2D print, 3D sculpture or installation piece. The multiple offers artists a way of selling work without compromising their artistic integrity and makes their work accessible to a wider market. Multiples are united by their lack of uniqueness, usually regarded as a prerequisite in a work of art.[1] Many are by artists who work solely with the concept of the multiple. The challenge to the artist is in finding ways of realizing an idea that can be repeated time and again. Thus part of the creative challenge comes in researching new methods and sourcing new materials, leading to some unlikely collaborations between artist and fabricators.”

CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2021 – The Secret Garden | Call for Artist
deadline September 19
sponsored by ITS LIQUID

ITSLIQUID Group is pleased to announce the open call for CONTEMPORARY VENICE – THE SECRET GARDEN, international exhibition of photography, painting, video art, installation/sculpture and performance art, that will be held in Venice, at ITSLIQUID Art Space, from October 15 to November 05, 2021, and in other prestigious venues and historical buildings.

CONTEMPORARY VENICE analyzes the relationship between body and space, and the hybridization between identities and cultural/physical/social/urban settings in contemporary time, through two main sections: MIXING IDENTITIES and FUTURE LANDSCAPES.

Deadline for applications is September 19, 2021 (11.59 PM of your local time)

Click here to take part in the selection.

Baltimore Ravens Mural Project | Request for Proposals
deadline September 20
sponsored by BOPA

The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) in collaboration with the Baltimore Ravens seek Baltimore-based emerging & professional visual artists to produce creative, uplifting, and community-centered artwork designs that will be translated into decorative murals for painting on exterior walls to be implemented in the City of Baltimore and replicated digitally for the inside of M&T Bank Stadium.
The purpose of the Art Projects is to improve the appearance of an area, raise the profile, and tell the story of Baltimore in the revitalization of the city. The inclusion of artwork in public places increases quality of life in Baltimore’s dynamic communities, celebrates local artists, and promotes accessibility to the arts. The commissioned artwork should include and reflect the following element/themes:

• Baltimore Ravens and community impact
• Maryland/Baltimore pride and culture
• “Our City. Our Team.”
• The brightness and potential of our hometown

Eligibility
This opportunity is open to emerging and professional artists residing in the City of Baltimore. Employees of BOPA and Baltimore Ravens are not eligible to apply. Two artist finalists will be commissioned to create finalized digital designs for fabrication and implement a painted exterior wall mural at pre-selected work sites.

Call of the Wild | Call for Entry
deadline September 26
sponsored by Towson Arts Collective

lease forward images to [email protected]

for this new show. Please bring your completed entry form when work is dropped off on Septmber 26th.

The name says it all, animal art in all its iterations.

TIME LINE

Sun., September 26 | Drop off from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Sun., October 24 | Pick up from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Reception | Thurs., October 7 | 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Visit our Call for Entries page for details and entry form.

F.E.A.S.T. at VisArts 2021 MUTUAL AID | Call for Proposals
deadline October 1
sponsored by VisArts

Throughout the pandemic individuals have participated in supporting their community through actions spanning from helping a neighbor to creating a new free grocery delivery service. Artists and makers have dedicated their creative efforts for projects like the Auntie Sewing Squad, B’more Community Fridge, and the Wherewithal Grants distributed by WPA. The outpouring of altruism and empathy many felt during the past year has helped to protect individuals and communities in the midst of disaster. While we have each been permanently changed as a result of covid-19, the feeling of urgency is beginning to fade, as it often does after a crisis.

As a result we ask:

What if mutual aid organizations are the ones setting the precedent for a model of support?

How can we continue to nurture the treasured generosity we have seen since March of 2020?

How can we sustain mutual aid practices into our new future?

F.E.A.S.T. 2021 encourages artists, thinkers, and organizations to expand their everyday practice and create project proposals that address the theme of MUTUAL AID. Imaginative, sustainable, and provocative projects that explore mutual aid are welcome! F.E.A.S.T. 2021 advocates for proposals that join art with social, cultural, political, economic, historic, and environmental dynamics.

Project proposals offer opportunities for creative interaction within or between our communities. Great ideas specific to one community may also inspire action in another.

• Restore active relationships with a wider community!
• Cultivate many-sided experiences!
• Join diverse partners for inclusive investigations!
• Continue the generation of empathy and engagement!

Proposals are evaluated for artistic innovation, community impact, feasibility, proposal clarity, and content.

F.E.A.S.T. at VisArts (Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics) is a bridge between artists and the community. F.E.A.S.T. is designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund projects that use art and creative thinking to impact the community. Participants will listen to & review a series of project proposals and converse with the artists and thinkers behind each idea. Attendees cast a vote for their favorite proposal, and by the end of the event, the artist who garners the most votes is awarded a grant comprised of the event donations. This year we will be hosting a virtual F.E.A.S.T. over Zoom. Tickets by donation, $15 minimum, 100% of donations go to fund the micro grant of up to $2000.

F.E.A.S.T. at VisArts is based on F.E.A.S.T. in Brooklyn’s  (www.feastinbklyn.org) model for sustaining artist projects directly through community participation.