BmoreArt

This Week: The Stoop Holiday Hootenanny at The Senator, Ainsley Burrows opening reception at Hotel Indigo, Monument Lighting activities at The Waters and MCHC, BJC Holiday Sale, Made in Baltimore hosts Highlandtown Holiday Night Market at the CA Creativity Center, spoken word poetry with Lady Brion and friends at the Lewis Museum, opening reception for Huaqi Liu at Waller Gallery, MICA Art Market, The Nutcracker at Chesapeake Arts Center, MORTIFIED 10-year anniversary at Creative Alliance, Baker Artist Portfolios Spotlight at The Peale, and New Door Creative celebrates 20 years — PLUS open call for “A Media Quilt Project” at Maryland Art Place and more featured opportunities!

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]!

 

BmoreArt Newsletter: Sign up for news and special offers!

Subscribe

 

We’ll send you our top stories of the week, selected event listings, and our favorite calls for entry—right to your inbox every Tuesday.

 

 

< Events >

 

The Stoop Holiday Hootenanny: An evening of holiday stories and music
Tuesday, December 8 :: 7-9:30pm
@ The Senator Theatre

The Stoop Holiday Hootenanny: An evening of holiday stories and music
Tuesday, December 3, 2024: 7:00 pm

Join The Stoop at the beloved Senator Theatre for an evening of holiday stories and music!

 

 

 

Ainsley Burrows: A Magnetic Cluster of Suns | Opening Reception
Wednesday, December 4 :: 5-7pm
@ Hotel Indigo

Hotel Indigo | 24 West Franklin Street | Free & Open to the Public

Maryland Art Place, in partnership with Hotel Indigo Baltimore is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Maryland-based artist, Ainsley Burrows. The exhibition is on view at Hotel Indigo, located at 24 West Franklin St. from  November 15 – January 16. A public reception will take place Wednesday, December 4 from 5 to 7 PM.

About the artist: 

Ainsley Burrows (b. 1974 in Kingston, Jamaica; based in Baltimore, MD) is a full-time multidisciplinary artist who explores untold stories and  unspoken emotions. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Burrows’; creative pursuits as a poet, musician, performer, and painter deeply influenced one another. Burrows’; professional artistic journey began after a life-altering car accident in his early 20s, which led him to abandon an MBA program and fully commit to his passion for art. He toured the world as a poet and performer until 2009 when he expanded his artistic expression to include painting.

Please join us on Wednesday, December 4 from 5 to 7 PM at Hotel Indigo for the opening reception celebrating the solo exhibition of Ainsley Burrows. Hotel Indigo is free and open to the public. Please visit Hotel Indigo website for hours of operation.

 

 

Monument Lighting
Thursday, December 5 :: 5-8pm
@ Mount Vernon Washington Monument

:: Additional Events ::

Monument Lighting Activities in the Museum
Thursday, December 5 :: 5:30-7:30pm
@ The Walters

Celebrate the holiday season at the annual Monument Lighting in Mount Vernon, a joyous event culminating with a spectacular fireworks display. In conjunction with Monument Lighting, organized by the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, stop by the Walters Art Museum from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. for free activities for all ages. Come inside and enjoy dance performances by students from the Peabody Preparatory, make snow globe art, have fun with our photo booth, and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate (while supplies last). For more information about Monument Lighting, visit the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy’s website.

Hot Cocoa & Holiday Cards
Thursday, December 5 :: 5-8pm
@ Maryland Center for History and Culture

Warm up at the Maryland Center for History and Culture during the annual Washington Monument lighting. Organized by the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, this tradition has taken place in Baltimore since 1971. Visit MCHC to enjoy holiday postcard decorating, and fix yourself a delicious drink at a hot cocoa bar to commemorate the unofficial opening of the holiday season in Baltimore. The Dan Meyer Choir joins us in our Meyerhoff Courtyard to perform classic holiday carols.

Museum admission is free all day on Free First Thursday.

 

 

The Annual BJC Holiday Sale
Friday, December 6 – Sunday, December 8
@ Baltimore Jewelry Center

Every year the BJC hosts an annual Holiday Sale that provides our community of makers the opportunity to sell their work.

This year, our annual holiday sale will be held Friday, December 6th (from 6 – 9p), Saturday + Sunday, December 7th + 8th (from 12 – 7p) with an online portion extending until December 16th.

Artists will set up their work in the studio for patrons and all sales will go through the BJC (with a 75%/25% artist/BJC split). Participating artists’ work will also be for sale on our website.

The BJC will promote the event and have staff on hand to moderate and run sales. We also have special programming planned in the gallery and the studio that will coincide with the sale and entice people into the space.

 

 

Highlandtown Holiday Night Market
Friday, December 6 :: 4-9pm
@ Creative Alliance Creativity Centerhttps://creativealliance.org/event/2024-highlandtown-holiday-night-market-2/

Made In Baltimore is partnering with the Highlandtown Arts District to host a holiday night market on Friday, December 6th, 2024 from 4-9pm. The market will take place at Creative Alliance in The Patterson and the Creativity Center, directly across the street, during the Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk, which draws hundreds of attendees monthly! This evening will also feature Highlandtown’s annual tree lighting and holiday celebration.

 

 

The Journey to Everything: A Spoken Word Poetry Event with Lady Brion and Friends
Friday, December 6 :: 6:30pm
@ Reginald F. Lewis Museum

Experience a night of poetry with a host of community poets using their craft as wordsmiths to express their personal and ongoing experiences living life to the fullest as people of color in today’s America. Featured artists include Lady Brion, Nia June, Tony Keith, Jr., DaTruthDaPoet, Ephraim Nehemiah and music by Brandon Woody. Lady Brion and DJ Cuff will host this curated spoken word event. Desert refreshments will be served.

This program is in conjunction with the art exhibition, Danny Simmons: The Journey to Everything. Read BmoreArt’s review of the exhibit here.

 

 

Huaqi Liu: From the Balcony | Opening Reception
Friday, December 6 :: 6-8pm
@ Waller Gallery

Waller Gallery and independent curator Minglu Zhong are thrilled to present ‘From the Balcony’ December 6, 2024 — January 10, 2025, an evocative gallery show featuring an exquisite selection of new works alongside a collection of previously unseen pieces by the oil painting artist Huaqi Liu. This is a reflection on Liu’s unique practice of capturing the intangible forces that shape human existence. The works trace the origins of his narrative, revealing how Liu’s art transcends visual representation to delve into the essence of being, while examining the impact of environmental, societal, and cultural changes on personal destinies. Altogether, these form a phased poetry of his time abroad.

In another poetic twist, the Chinese character for “destiny” intriguingly contains the character for “cloud.” This unexpected association offers a striking analogy, where the cloud serves as a symbol for destiny, embedding an abstract, philosophical concept within a tangible, sensory image. Liu captures the dynamics, textures, and spatial forms of clouds across various movements, media, and scales, reflecting their ephemeral nature and our inherent unpredictability.

We hope to see you at the reception! Refreshments will be provided :）
Feel free to share this LINK with your friends and anyone who might be interested.

 

 

MICA Art Market x Holiday Edition
Saturday, December 7 + Sunday, December 8

Art Market is a a two-day holiday market featuring three floors of creative work made by MICA students, alumni, faculty, and staff. It’s a great opportunity to invest in emerging artists and small businesses, engage with Baltimore’s creative community, and treat yourself and/or your loved ones to one of a kind creations! We hope that you will join us for the 16th edition of this incredible MICA event this holiday season.

 

 

The Dance Foundation of Maryland and Morton Street Dance Center Present: The Nutcracker
Saturday, December 7 + Sunday, December 8
@ Chesapeake Arts Center

On December 7 and 8, the Dance Foundation of Maryland and the Morton Street Dance Center will present a truly special Nutcracker at Chesapeake Arts Center. Combining glittering traditional Nutcracker magic with a dash of inventive surprise, this production celebrates holiday spirit, spectacle, and the enchanting beauty of ballet.

Director Donna L. Jacobs says, “We are so thrilled that our locally produced Nutcracker, which has become a holiday tradition for so many families, features new elements–little surprise gifts–each year. Our guests this year will be treated to enhanced costuming and the addition of an African element in the Land of the Sweets.”

Featuring a diverse cast of more than 50, including children and professional artists, The Nutcracker will delight audiences of all ages.

 

 

MORTIFIED – Ten-Year Anniversary Show Winter Formal
Saturday, December 7 :: 7pm
@ Creative Alliance

Celebrating the tenth Anniversary of Mortified in Baltimore! Enjoying the stories and then, we’ll drop the disco ball and dance the night away!

Dress to impress in your best Winter Formal attire, think ’70s, ’80s, and ‘90’s for your chance to win our “Best Dressed” contest and tickets for a future show.

The wildly popular Mortified Baltimore, produced by Alex Hewett and Adam Ruben, stars everyday adults sharing their most embarrassingly real teenage diary entries, poems, love letters, lyrics, and locker notes… in front of total strangers.

 

 

Baker Artist Portfolios Spotlight Event
Sunday, December 8 :: 2-4pm
@ The Peale

Please join us as we showcase the work of select Baker artists.

Over 150 Baltimore-Area artists bring some of the region’s newest art off the web and onto the walls of America’s oldest museum. Each year, up to 1,000 artists create a Baker Artist Portfolio, at www.bakerartist.org, making it one of the largest digital collections of work by Baltimore-area artists. This exhibition invites any artist with a Baker Artist Portfolio to show one piece of art at The Peale.

The Baker Artist Portfolios were created in 2009 to support artists and promote Greater Baltimore as a strong creative community. The portfolios  are open to artists over the age of 21, working in all disciplines, who live and work in Baltimore City and its five surrounding counties.  The Baker Artist Portfolios were created by the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, and are a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

Learn more about the Baker Artist Portfolios, browse art, or start your own portfolio at www.bakerartist.org

 

 

New Door Creative Celebrates 20 Years!
Sunday, December 8 :: 2-5pm

New Door Creative announces its twenty-year anniversary with an exhibition and reception at 1601 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland on December 8th, 2024, from 2 to 5 PM. The milestone exhibition will feature a collection of work by artists who have exhibited at New Door during the past two decades.

Originating on Baltimore’s historic Antique Row, New Door Creative became a pioneer exhibition venue in Baltimore’s Station North Art and Entertainment District in 2004. Relying upon a sincere passion for creative expression, critical interactions with a range of international artists, and a sense of the wealth of untapped imagination, the gallery has featured artists from around the globe in projects engaging stories that reference personal, cultural, and social critique, and who share a unique experience that transcends mere technique. Major exhibitions have explored themes such as confinement, displacement, migration, personal and emotional encounter, and the pursuit of championship; work that does not reiterate popular conversations but introduces new narratives that enable curiosity and contemplation.

Founding director, artist, and curator Michelle Talibah has dedicated the venue to prominent and under-represented talent. New Door exhibitions have featured work by legendary artists such as Faith Ringgold, Valerie Maynard, Richard Mayhew, and David C. Driskell whose contributions to defining the canon known as African American art are undisputed.

The gallery continues with a focus on the practice of artists inspired by their unique passion. New Door Creative featured artists include mixed media portrait artist Morgan Monceaux, spirit painter Judy Tallwing, ’blackstraction’ artist Sheila Crider; painters James Phillips, Tafa, Bruno Metura, and mixed media/fiber artist Maria-Theresa Fernandes.

 

 

< Calls for Entry >

 

Thread: Open Call
deadline December 5

☆*:.｡. Very excited to announce Thread! .｡.:*☆

Thread is an upcoming exhibition and artist book celebrating Baltimore’s local disabled artists. The deadline for submission is December 5th at 11:59pm EST.

There is no one theme selected for Thread— artists should select work that they are proud of and would like the opportunity to display. We are accepting work in any medium including physical and digital formats. This open call is for artists who identify within the spectrum of Disabled, Chronically Ill, Neurodivergent, Mentally Ill, Deaf, +.

★彡All selected artists will be featured in Make Studio’s gallery space and will be gifted a copy of the companion art book from the show.★彡 This show is curated by Celeste Tooth with exhibition assistance from Camilla Gu and Cedar Clark. This exhibition was made possible by the France-Merrick Foundation’s Fellowship program at Maryland Institute College of Art, Make Studio Baltimore, and MICA’s MOSAIC Center for Diversity, Equity, & Community. The reception for Thread will be featured in Art Around Hampden.

This is a juried show; submitting this form does not guarantee that your work will be selected. Please email [email protected] with any questions or access needs. Alternative accessible modes of application are available upon request.

If Accepted: Exhibition drop off dates are January 7th-11th. Tuesday-Friday between 9:30am-3:30pm or sat 10:30am-1pm. Earlier drop off dates available by appointment.

♡ Please join us for the reception on January 16th from 5pm-8pm. The exhibition will be on display through February 15th. ♡

 

 

The Bray Artist Residencies
deadline December 19

Through summer and long-term studio experiences, The Bray Resident Artist Program offers an unprecedented opportunity to work within a community of global artists actively creating new work.

At The Bray, artists from around the world with a vast range of experiences and diverse aesthetic approaches, cultures and perspectives come together.

Residents of The Bray have the opportunity to be in community with other makers to share discoveries, frustrations and triumphs, and work together over an extended period of time. Studio experiences at The Bray are as varied and unique as the individuals involved.

The Resident Program establishes life-long friendships and connections that open new paths, develop careers, and change lives.

 

 

MSAC Public Art Project Grants
deadline December 19
posted by Maryland State Arts Council

The Public Art Across Maryland (PAAM) New Artworks Grant offers funding to artists and organizations to support the planning, creation, and installation of new local public art projects. Project Grant awards up to $30,000 to organizations to support the fabrication and installation of new public artwork. The artwork must have been developed through a community process, and be fully designed including identification of the artist(s) creating the work.

 

 

Rotterdam Photo 2025
deadline December 20

For the 2025 edition, our theme is Shared/Connected. Rotterdam Photo is happy to announce the launch of the general open call. Apply before December 20th and just us as we celebrate and scrutinize the intricate tapestry of connection and sharing through the visionary eyes of the new generation of photographers. More information about the open call can be found here.

 

 

2025 Teen Portrait Competition
deadline December 23
posted by National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced its 2025 Teen Portrait Competition, which is open to students between the ages of 13 and 17 residing in the U.S. and its territories. Teens are invited to submit original digital photography to this national competition hosted by the Portrait Gallery’s Teen Museum Council. Artwork by the winners for each of the two age groups (13–15 and 16–17 years old) will be displayed near the museum’s upcoming “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition. Opening May 3, 2025, “The Outwin 2025” will showcase portraits from artists ages 18 and older selected from the museum’s triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The teens’ winning portraits, alongside those that receive honorable mentions, will be viewable online.

Teen Portrait Competition winners will be selected by the National Portrait Gallery’s Teen Museum Council, a group of high school students from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, who create interactive programs inspired by the Portrait Gallery’s collection as a way to increase teen engagement with the museum. There is no fee to enter the teen competition, and submissions are limited to one per person. Works must be submitted via email to NPG-TeenPortraitCompetition@si.edu by Dec. 23.

“The National Portrait Gallery hosts its Teen Portrait Competition to give young artists a platform to share their perspectives on American history and current issues faced by teens and young adults today. The program also highlights the evolution of portraiture as a genre that captures American identity,” said Sahtiya Hammell, education specialist, National Portrait Gallery. “When I was a teacher, teens would constantly struggle with their lack of power and agency. A national competition where winners will have their work on view at a major museum really underscores that what teens have to share is important and is essential to the evolution of the art form and our country’s progress into the future.”

The 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition celebrates the art of contemporary portraiture by showcasing artwork from across the country. At the same time, this competition “by teens, for teens” widens the lens to include the distinct viewpoints of young people across the U.S. and its territories.

The full list of the Teen Portrait Competition’s rules and requirements is available online, along with more information about the Teen Museum Council.

 

 

Open Call: “A Media Quilt Project”
deadline December 29
posted by Maryland Art Place

This large-scale participatory media project will utilize the concept of a traditional quilt through submissions and the lens of current video technology.

Through this OPEN CALL, (for Baltimore City and Baltimore County residents) Media Artist Mandy Morrison with Curator Aleem Allison, will select a collection of uploaded short videos that explore themes commonly portrayed in traditional quilts, such as comfort, friendship, love, gratitude, history, family, inequality, emotional and physical scarring, and loss. Using video mapping, these individual short videos will be organized into a larger projected time-based “Media Quilt” to be projected in Gallery 410, a downtown (Bromo Arts District) gallery space with large street-facing windows.

The gallery’s location on the corner of Mulberry and Eutaw Streets, is an area with significant car and foot traffic. The all-glass windows of the gallery will create an immersive and dynamic display, especially during the dark evening winter months (January-March) when the projection will be most striking.

This is a project that portends to bring a wide range of individual art and arts-adjacent communities into dialogue that will consist of one singular and evolving piece. Along with the exhibition and opening, there will be community engagement initiatives involving both contributing artists and local communities with a primary focus on those who live in or have businesses in the Bromo-Arts District.

Planned engagement activities include: Intermittent Friday and Saturday night media-jam sessions with refreshments during the exhibition of “A Media Quilt Project” and an Artist Talk and Roundtable with participants hosted by Allison and Morrison. All selected artists will receive a modest honorarium, and be listed in publicity/promotional materials.

DEADLINE for submissions be on Dec. 29 (11:29PM)
This project is administered by Maryland Art Place with the support of the Robert
W. Deutsch Foundation and the Maryland State Council on the Arts

 

 

Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship at The Driskell Center
deadline December 30

The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park is currently accepting applications for a one-year, 2025-2026 postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the Mellon Foundation. The fellowship provides curatorial training and supports scholarly research on the David C. Driskell Center collection. The fellow is fully integrated into The Driskell Center staff with duties, privileges, and status equivalent to those of an assistant curator. Time is divided between assigned projects and general curatorial work within the department, including research on the collection and new acquisitions, work on the presentation and interpretation of the collection, participation in aspects of special exhibition and publishing projects, and opportunities to give public lectures.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate scholarly excellence and a strong interest in a museum career. Applications are requested from scholars whose interests and areas of expertise align with The Driskell Center’s collections and programs. Specifically, the fellow will fully participate in preparing a unique exhibition project devoted to celebrating the first 25 years of The Driskell Center to open in Fall 2026. This will include developing the exhibition framework, creating the object checklist, determining layouts, preparing exhibition interpretation, writing for the exhibition catalog and/or contributing written content for web-based platforms, and, where possible, contributing to in-person public programming for audiences in College Park, as well as virtual programming for nationwide audiences. Cover letters and statements must specify how this project aligns with the applicant’s scholarly expertise and interests.