BmoreArt

This Week: Virtual artist talk with Kei Ito at UMBC, TU BLAQ Spaces artist talk + reception, SANDTOWN film premiere at SNF Parkway, Maryland Arts Day, The Future of Here exhibition opening at The Peale, Existence Beyond Code panel discussion at MCHC, Soil to Skin opening reception + artist talk at Silber Gallery, JCC talk with V Walton at the BMA, Station North Second Friday Art Walk, Transformer DC’s Heartbreaker’s Ball, and Tom Miller Week begins across town — PLUS apply for the Bethesda Painting Awards 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]!

 

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< Events >

 

Kei Ito: Beyond the Mushroom Cloud | Virtual Artist Talk
Tuesday, February 11 :: 5-6pm
presented by UMBC

Kei Ito is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is centered around utilizing the conceptual framework of photography to visualize the invisible. Mainly employing camera-less photographic techniques, performance, and installation, Ito creates large-scale installations and a variety of photographic projects that excavate hidden histories. As a third-generation atomic bomb victim living in the US, Ito employs his generational history as a series of case studies that often applies the language of monuments and memorials, initiating a journey of healing and growth while inviting audiences to explore nuanced social issues and honor the memories of those lost to both historical and contemporary tragedies.

Ito’s artistic contributions have been widely recognized and featured in both solo and group exhibitions. His works have garnered attention in publications such as The Washington Post Magazine, Hyperallergic, BBC Culture & Art, BmoreArt, The Denver Post, ESSE Magazine, and various newspapers worldwide. Notably, his pieces are included in institutional collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Norton Museum of Art, the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, the Candela Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Johns Hopkins University, and the Georgia Museum of Art.

 

BLAQ Spaces | Artist Talk & Reception
Wednesday, February 12 :: 5:30-8:30pm
@ StarTUp at the Armory

The TU LGBTQ+ Alumni Alliance is partnering with Special Collections & University Archives and the Center for Student Diversity to celebrate the efforts of Black students, faculty, and staff who have made TU’s campus more diverse and inclusive. View artwork from TU alumni and community members and learn about the history of TU’s BLAQ Spaces.

Schedule
5:30pm | Doors open
Guests can walk through the gallery, participate in collage-making, and enjoy light snacks and beverages. A cash bar will be available.

6:30pm-7pm | Welcome + History of BLAQ spaces
•Introduction of exhibition
This exhibition features TU graduates upholding this legacy across different mediums from collage to film, exploring the ways we view BLAQness through culture, sexuality, and shared history.
•History presentation by Jae Allen ’22, Archives Associate in the Towson Special Collections and University Archives

7:15pm-7:45pm | Artist Talk
Featured Artists
•Andrew Awanda ’23 (Photography)
•Bria Sterling Wilson ’23 (Collage, Photography)
•Donnoy Morgan ’24 (Graphic Design)
•Jason Mukeni (Film Video/Audio)

Registration
Free for current students
$5 for recent alumni (2019-2024)
$10 for alumni, guests, faculty and staff

Please consider making a donation at checkout. Your gift will directly benefit the Raft Woodus Student Success Programs Fund to support future initiatives.
If you’d like to give to the Center for Student Diversity or the Pride Operating Fund, click the link below, select Office of Inclusion and Institutional Equity, then choose the specific project you’d like to support.
https://towsonuniversity.givingfuel.com/towson-fund

TU Shuttle Route:
If commuting from Towson University main campus, please take the Kenilworth/Armory Shuttle Route from Towsontown Garage or Center for the Arts. Make sure to have your TU OneCard.  https://www.towson.edu/parking/shuttle/

Join the LGBTQ+ Alumni Alliance to stay informed on news and events.

 

 

SANDTOWN | Baltimore Film Premiere
Wednesday, February 12 + Thursday, February 14 :: 7:30-9:30pm
@ SNF Parkway

It’s finally time for the Baltimore premiere of SANDTOWN. Please join us at the Parkway Theatre for this special two-night event. This documentary film has been more than 30 years in the making and we’re excited to finally bring it to the community that it seeks to portray. Tickets will go fast, so don’t wait to grab yours. Special thanks to Intersection of Change for co-hosting the event.

 

 

Maryland Arts Day
Thursday, February 13
@ St. John’s College

Join us for Maryland Arts Day, the largest annual gathering of arts professionals in the state! This statewide event brings together over 500 participants from every county and Baltimore City—connecting artists, educators, administrators, volunteers, trustees, and lawmakers from across Maryland.

This is your chance to show your strong support for the arts and their vital role in Maryland’s economic and cultural growth.

 Event Details

• Date: Thursday, February 13, 2025
• Location: Francis Scott Key Auditorium, St. John’s College
  60 College Drive, Annapolis, MD 21401

Maryland Arts Day is held in person. Don’t miss this opportunity to make your voice heard and advocate for the arts!

 

 

The Future of Here | Exhibition Opening
Thursday, February 13 :: 5-7pm
@ The Peale

Join us for the Opening of The Future of Here: A Glimpse of a River Culture to Come.

The Future of Here is an invitation to reimagine our place along the Jones Falls River and the Chesapeake Bay in a distant future beyond our fossil-fueled present. Consider what local landscapes and cultures might look like in a time far beyond the Baltimore we know now. What artifacts might people of that future time produce, and how might they make creative use of the many things we leave behind? The exhibition features work made by a collective of artists and researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the fall of 2024, anchored in a class co-taught by visual artist Jordan Tierney and environmental anthropologist Anand Pandian. We present artifacts and evidence from our collective journey into the future.

Each week last fall, we surrendered ourselves to the landscapes of our urban watershed, and our imaginations of what this place could one day become. We made our way through railway underpasses and neglected streambeds, turning our senses from the commotion of city streets to the vibrant yet unseen riverscape. Priming our brains with poetry and ethnobotany, historical maps and speculative fictions, we tuned into the rhythms of the city’s hidden environments and the creatures who live there. We recorded subtle sounds, patterns of light, pawprints and landmarks, studying how these places respire, blossom, and decay. We invented a new culture for the distant future and the roles its people might have, imagining how they might live with this environment and the relics of our own time.

 

 

Existence Beyond Code: AI and Us
Thursday, February 13 :: 6-7pm
@ Maryland Center for History and Culture

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes integrated with modern technology, how do we adapt and utilize it? Artists and historians gather to discuss the ways they have integrated technology into their creative and professional pursuits. The panel welcomes Kevin Johnson Jr., artist; Jason Harris, founder of the BlkRobot Project; and Angela Carroll, art historian and consultant. The panel is moderated by Devlon Waddell, curator of Existence Beyond Code.

 

 

Soil to Skin | Opening Reception + Artist Talk
Thursday, February 13 :: 6-8pm
@ Goucher College Silber Gallery

Soil to Skin, a collaboration with Goucher College Art Galleries and Pellis /\ Terra, unveils a powerful synthesis of art, science, and community dialogue to address the legacies of land use, pollution, climate change, and environmental justice. Through interactive sculptures, archival photography, paintings, and collaborative public programming, the exhibition seeks to deepen our understanding of environmental issues while inspiring cultural shifts toward a sustainable future.

Artists: Lynn Cazabon, Se Jong Cho, Melissa Penley Cormier, Elena DeBold, Brooks Dierdroff, Rachel Gaurdiola, Artemis Herber, Sky Hopinka, Ara Koh, Jonna McKone, Nicole Salimbene, and Raymond Thompson Jr.

On view: February 13 – March 28, 2025

 

 

JJC Talks: V Walton
Thursday, February 13 :: 6:30pm
@ The Baltimore Museum of Art

The Joshua Johnson Council presents the latest iteration of JJC Talks with ceramicist V Walton. Walton, who recently exhibited at Swann House Gallery curated by Derrick Adams, will share their ceramic practice and recent work.

This virtual conversation will be livestreamed on the BMA’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
About the Artist

V Walton is a multidisciplinary artist and educator, based in Baltimore. They have an MFA in ceramic art from Alfred University and a BFA with a focus in ceramics from Towson University. Walton explores the wonder and complexity of Black identity, creating sculpture and video works that center the narratives of women and gender-expansive people. V draws from her own life: reflecting on the intersection of her identities, their chronic illness-disability and queerness. Their work illustrates the societal and interpersonal dynamics that build and break us down simultaneously, making multi-layered connections between clay[terra], nature, and the body. V is an adjunct professor at Maryland Institute College of Art.

 

 

Station North Second Friday Art Walk -Valentine’s Edition
Friday, February 14 :: 5-9pm

Join us in February for the first Art Walk of 2025! February marks ONE YEAR of monthly Art Walks! Art Walks are a great date-night activity or a great way to meet new people. Come on out and share our LOVE of art! This series of monthly self-guided tours of all the art and culture that Station North (near Baltimore’s Penn Station) has to offer is a grassroots, artist-led effort organized by community members and stakeholders. Spanning the neighborhoods of Charles North, Greenmount West, and Barclay, Station North is a diverse collection of artist live-work spaces, studios, galleries, rowhomes, and businesses, all just steps away from Penn Station and several higher learning and cultural institutions in the heart of Baltimore.

See below for venue list (coming soon)! Join us every Second Friday of the month for MONTHLY Art Walks in the neighborhood.

Check out the map for venues and create your own self-guided tour! Map will continue to be updated: https://shorturl.at/fuCV6 Printed maps available at some venues. Follow @stationnorth on Instagram for updates and map pdf!

 

 

A Gothic Romance – Transformer’s 9th Annual Heartbreakers Ball
Friday, February 14 :: 6-10pm
@ Transformer DC

Join Transformer for a counter-culture celebration of free creative expression inspired by all things Goth. Featuring dark & stormy drink specials, occult parlor games, and glamorously melancholic performances from the haus of bambi & Pussy Noir.

Channel your inner Byron, Brontë, Bauhaus & my bloody valentine. The Best Dressed Goth of the night will win an artwork of their choice from Transformer’s FlatFiles, which will be presented throughout the event.

Love may tear us apart, but art will bring us together. Come join us!

 

 

Tom Miller Week
Saturday, February 15 – February 22

The Fifth Annual Tom Miller Week will take place from February 15–22, 2025, with events hosted at the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center, the Maryland Center for History and Culture, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. This weeklong celebration honors the life and work of renowned artist Tom Miller through community art-making, an oral history circle, and the auction of a never-before-seen screenprint.

A key highlight is Out of the Woodwork! Bringing Tom Miller’s Legacy to Light, an exhibition showcasing locally owned artworks and memorabilia, many of which have surfaced from unexpected corners of the community since the celebration began five years ago.

The event also includes an online auction of Justice is not Blind, a striking screenprint Miller created in 1995 for the Monumental City Bar Association (MCBA) of Baltimore. This 24” x 28” piece, portraying Lady Liberty in a Black form lifting her veil to gaze upon Baltimore residents, has never been publicly displayed. The auction will be hosted through Give Butter and is sponsored in partnership with the Black Art Today Foundation. Proceeds from the auction will be equally divided between the MCBA and Blackives, LLC. The funds will support the creation of a Friends of Tom Miller group, dedicated to celebrating Miller’s legacy and preserving his artwork throughout the city. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to own a rare piece of art!

On February 18, Blackives, LLC, in partnership with the Eubie Blake Cultural Center, will host Tom Miller Day, featuring word from Tom Miller’s family, a reading of Can A Coal Scuttle Fly by Baltimore actor, poet, vocalist, and songwriter Keith Snipes, and a live performance by Rufus Roundtree and Da B’More Brass Band. The week concludes on February 22 with a family-friendly art-making activity and oral history circle.

Tom Miller Day was first declared by Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke in 1995 after Miller became one of the first African Americans from Baltimore to receive a solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Although Miller’s whimsical Afro-Deco style is celebrated in murals and museums across the city, no event commemorating his legacy had been held for two decades. In 2021, Blackives, LLC established Tom Miller Week to honor his contributions annually and preserve his contributions to the city.

Join the Celebration
Celebrate Tom Miller’s enduring legacy by attending this year’s events and donating to the project. Your tax deductible donations will help fund the festivities, including installations, catering, and contractor expenses. Donations accepted through the Black Art Today Foundation. Checks can be made payable to Black Art Today, include a memo for Tom Miller Week 2025, and mailed to:

Black Art Today
9103 Woodmore Centre Dr. #207
Lanham, MD 20706

 

 

< Calls for Entry >

 

 

Philip C. Curtis Artist in Residency
deadline February 17
posted by Albion College

We are accepting applications for the 25-26 Philip C. Curtis Artist Residencies at Albion College. Albion anticipates offering two ten-week residencies, one falling during the Fall 2025 semester (August – December) and one during the Spring 2026 semester (January – May). The residency provides housing within walking distance to campus and the Bobbitt Visual Arts Center, a studio, a solo exhibition, and a generous stipend. The program is intended to provide emerging artists the opportunity to pursue their work in a supportive environment within the Department of Art and Art History at Albion College.

The Artist-in-Residence will be expected to be available as a resource to the faculty and students in the department. The residential work period is considered full-time work, and the artist will establish a predictable working pattern. The Department of Art and Art History will provide a studio space with 24-hour access to our facilities. The private studio is approximately a 17×16 foot room with an 11-12 foot ceiling, including spotlights and high windows for natural light. There is a sink, at least one large table, a cabinet, polished concrete floors, and 16×8 feet of surface for tacking materials. The other walls are painted cinder blocks.

While the artist’s accessibility and availability to students is an essential aspect of this residency, it should not be at undue expense to the artist. The chair of the Department of Art and Art History will help design the residency schedule in consultation with the selected artist and will serve as the contact between the Artist-in-Residence and the College.

 

 

Crafting Their Future – Fourth Annual Women’s History Month Exhibition
deadline February 18
posted by Chesapeake Arts Center

This exhibition highlights all forms of craft work only. Examples include but are not limited to; quilting,  needlework, embroidery, sewing, ceramics, textiles, crochet, weaving, and knitting. Artwork must be made by Women Artists in the Maryland or D.C. area and created within the last 2 years.

There are also no restrictions on size as long as the work can be properly installed in the gallery. Artwork must have been created within the last 2 years. Artwork that has been previously exhibited cannot be shown more than once in CAC’s exhibitions. New artwork must be submitted. If artwork portrays nudity, please be mindful when submitting the artwork. Chesapeake Arts Center’s galleries have visitors of all ages. No violence or profanity is allowed. Artists may submit up to 5 artworks for review. 

ABOUT: Join us this Women’s History Month for our fourth annual exhibition highlighting this year’s theme , “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” which will honor the profound influence of women in the craft sphere. This exhibition highlights how traditional crafts, once viewed as domestic tasks, have become vital forms of cultural expression and economic empowerment. The feminist art movement of the 1970s significantly elevated these crafts while highlighting other mediums, such as textiles, ceramics, and performance, and turning them into powerful creations for challenging societal norms and advocating for gender equality, ultimately reshaping the art world and inspiring future generations through creativity, resilience, and encouraging a broader dialogue about gender, power, and the value of women’s contributions.

 

 

The Burke Prize
deadline February 18

The Burke Prize is a biannual contemporary art prize for a new generation of artists working in a world of expanded media with a foundation in glass, fiber, clay, metal, or wood. Selected by a diverse and distinguished jury of curators, artists, and scholars through an open-call application process, the Burke Prize winner receives an unrestricted award of $50,000.

One Burke Prize artist will also be selected for the biannual Burke Residency at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass. The Burke Residency artist will receive a one-month to five-week residency with all the benefits and opportunities awarded to artists selected for The Studio’s Artist-in-Residence program.

Inspired by the disciplines that shaped the American studio craft movement, the Burke Prize is named for Marian and Russell Burke, two longtime supporters of MAD and passionate collectors of craft. Established in 2018, the Burke Prize honors exceptional artists, 45 or under, working in the United States, whose highly accomplished work is conceptually rigorous, relevant, and pushes the boundaries of materials and creative processes.

 

 

Emerging Artist Fellowship 2025
deadline February 19
posted by Bethany Arts Community

In 2022, Bethany Arts Community (BAC) identified the need and opportunity to support a longer-term fellowship specifically for emerging artists ages 21+. In 2025, BAC welcomes their third Emerging Artist Fellowship, running in two cohorts from May 22 to September 11, 2025 and July 24 to November 13, 2025.

This fellowship is designed to offer a creative home to emerging artists as they transition and deepen their professional careers and artistic practice. With provided support from BAC, Emerging Artist Fellows will be able to devote uninhibited energy towards creativity.

Emerging Artist Fellows will be in a community of artists and culture workers from a broad range of disciplines, including our Fall Multidisciplinary residents, local studio artists, BAC staff and board members, those presenting programs on campus and more! In addition, EA Fellows will be invited to participate in education and enrichment programs, curatorial planning, and peek into the “back-end” of art institutions.

Bethany Arts Community strives to empower the voices of emerging artists in shaping their own careers and future programs at BAC and beyond.

The Emerging Artist Fellowship cohorts run for about sixteen weeks each, May 22 to September 11, 2025 and July 24 to November 13, 2025. Artists are provided room & board, a private studio, and a $250 stipend per week. Meals will only be provided during other residency programs, approximately 5 weeks of the Emerging Artist Fellowship. Artist is responsible for transportation to and from BAC and any supplies or materials they may need for their practice.

 

 

Bethesda Painting Awards
deadline February 26
posted by The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District once again invites local artists to submit work to the 21st annual Bethesda Painting Awards. This juried art competition awards $14,000 in prizes to four selected winners. The Bethesda Painting Awards was established by Carol Trawick in 2005.

 

 

Mid Atlantic Arts USArtists International
deadline February 26

USArtists International® supports in-person performances by artists from any state or territory in the U.S. at engagements at international festivals, global presenting arts markets, and other eligible engagements outside of the United States. The program funds individuals and ensembles across all performing arts practices and disciplines.

Mid Atlantic Arts is committed to the development and expansion of both the careers and artistic goals of U.S. performers by providing connections to audiences, presenters, curators, and their peers through the USAI program. By elevating the voices that reflect a vibrant array of creative expression, we are able to celebrate and share the diversity and imagination of the United States.

Grant support range: Matching grants of up to $11,000 toward eligible travel expenses.

 

 

Arts/Industry Residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center
deadline February 28

For more than fifty years, Arts/Industry has been connecting artists with the resources, technology, and materials of Kohler Co., and providing a place to explore new ideas, processes, and perspectives. Artists from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.

Each year, up to twelve artists are selected for residencies in the Pottery or Foundry areas of the factory through a competitive jury process. No experience with clay or cast metal is required, just an interest in pursuing a new body of work and being open to new ideas.

Arts/Industry residencies are three months in length and divided into three cohorts. There are four artists-in-residence in each cohort—two in Pottery and two in Foundry. Residents are expected to commit to the full three-month period. Artists-in-residence receive 24-hour access to studio space, industrial materials, use of equipment, technical assistance, photographic services, housing, round-trip transportation, and a modest weekly stipend.

 

 

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation Curatorial Open Call
deadline February 28

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation is excited to announce the fourth in a series of open calls, giving curators, academics, and art historians a platform to stage an exhibition at The 8th Floor, our gallery and event space, at 17 West 17th St. near Union Square, NYC.

We are searching for emerging researchers and cultural presenters to work with us to realize their pre-existing, and as-yet unrealized exhibition concept. Proposals with an experimental and/or pedagogical approach are sought for thematic group presentations. Applicants should be engaged in research which addresses themes relating to the Foundation’s mission of art and social justice, championing equity, education, access, and underrepresented narratives and practices.

The selected curator will be given an honorarium of $3000 for their work on the exhibition and $2000 for their essay in the accompanying catalog. In addition to an exhibition budget, they will be guided and supported in their administrative, planning, and promotional endeavors by the curatorial team at the Rubin Foundation. This commission is open to those who fulfill the criteria for this application and there is no fee to apply. The finalist will engage in all associated programming, in tandem with the resulting exhibition.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration regardless of race, color, sex, gender, age, national origin, religion, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, marital status, or any other protected status. Please note that solo applicants need to have a visa to work in the US or be permanent US residents/citizens.

 

 

Variations Project
deadline February 28
posted by Rapid Lemon Productions

How to Participate

​1. Come to the Variations Party (Saturday, January 18, 2025, 2–5pm, Strand Theater, 5426 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214). If you miss it, don’t worry—source material from the party will be posted here. This is the event where, each year, we explore the theme and generate sparks of ideas—the beginnings of stories. Then…

2. Go write a 10-minute play! (See Guidelines below.) Deadline for submission is 11:59pm on February 28, 2025.

3. Readings of submissions will occur during March with the authors available for discussion and to receive feedback, after which point writers will have the opportunity to make revisions before final selections are made.

4. Shortly after the readings, we will announce the group of roughly 7 to 12 plays which will be produced on stage—and start rehearsals!

5. The stage production, directed by Lauren Davis, will take place July 5–27, 2025 at Strand Theater.

If you’d like to participate or have a question, please drop us a line using the “Contact Us” link or email [email protected].

 

 

OPEN CALL: NaturePLACE Arts Residency
deadline February 28

The NaturePLACE: Collaborative Arts Program, formerly the Urban Field Station Collaborative Arts Program, is currently accepting applications for the 2025 cohort of its Arts Residency Program. Artists working in all forms of artistic expression (visual, writing, social practice, music, performance, film, woodworking, etc.,) are welcome to apply.

About NaturePLACE
NaturePLACE (People, Landscapes, Arts, Creativity, Ecologies) is a hybrid virtual, community-centered residency program hosted by the USDA Forest Service in partnership with The Nature of Cities. A collaborative transdisciplinary program where artists are paired with natural and or social scientists, land managers, or practitioners to work together, drawing on knowledge from their disciplines respectively to explore social-ecological systems. Works of art may result, but the aim of this program is to foster transdisciplinary collaboration, mutual understanding, diverse representation, and enhanced communication, above the production of a final work or project. (See Program Aims for more information)

Theme: Nature Connects Us: Baltimore, Nature, & You
●  Why does nature matter to you?
●  Where do you find nature?
●  What place in nature feels like home?
●  How do you care for nature and how does nature care for you?

We are seeking an artist interested in collaborating with the Baltimore Field Station around these questions, tied to exploring and understanding people’s relationship to and with nature. This call for artists is inspired by the USDA Forest Service’s Campaign “Nature Connects Us,” which centers individuals and their unique experiences with national forests and grasslands by exploring a sense of place. We aim to apply these exploratory questions about relationships to urban nature in Baltimore to further build relationships with communities in a way meaningful to them. See more about the “Nature Connects Us” campaign here.

 

 

Artists Submissions 2025
posted by Genius Guice Studios

Our Gallery Space known as Genius Guice Studios has recently celebrated 3 years. Under the direction of B. Robinson, owner of The Black Genius Art Show – We have produced/curated over 50+ activations with some of the nations emerging and established artisans.

Genius Guice Studios features a diverse range of media and styles, including painting, sculpture, fashion, photography, and performance art. GG also includes community engagement events such as artist talks, workshops, and performances, providing opportunities for artists and audiences to connect and collaborate.

We are a hybrid creative space with a phamily appeal.  We are located in Downtown Baltimore within the Bromo Arts District.  We are a few steps away from some of the areas major attractions and if you did know it….YUP! Your are the next big attraction!

We produce one day shows, week long exhibitions and 1 month experiences.  We operate in both commissioned sales and paid in advance rentals of your desired space.