This week’s news includes: Amy Sherald cancels Smithsonian NPG show, The Walters wins an appeal, Robyn Murphy appointed BOPA CEO, a review of Benign Aggressors at Pazo Fine Art DC, NAS and the BSO, Peter’s Inn garlic bread, Motzi Bread’s Russell Trimmer, Baltimore by Baltimore takes it to the house, music education in BCPSS, and rapper/activist Erricka Bridgeford — with reporting from Baltimore Magazine, Baltimore Fishbowl, The Baltimore Banner, and other local and independent news sources.
Header Image: Amy Sherald “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024)
independent publication.
To support our work, consider
becoming a subscribing member.
Amy Sherald Cancels Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship of Trans Artwork
by Maya Pontone
Published July 24 in Hyperallergic
Excerpt: The painter Amy Sherald has rescinded her upcoming exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, DC, citing censorship concerns. The artist told the New York Times that she learned the museum was considering removing her portrait of a transgender Statue of Liberty in line with President Donald Trump’s anti-trans mandates.
“I entered into this collaboration in good faith, believing that the institution shared a commitment to presenting work that reflects the full, complex truth of American life,” the artist wrote in a letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III yesterday, July 23, according to the Times.
“Unfortunately, it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived,” Sherald said.
Maryland Supreme Court rules Walters Art Museum is a private entity, overturning lower court’s decision
by Baltimore Fishbowl Staff
Published July 29 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Excerpt: The Walters Art Museum is a private entity, not a public one, according to a ruling by the Maryland Supreme Court on Tuesday.
With its decision, the Maryland Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had established that the museum is a public entity.
“We are gratified that the majority of the Maryland Supreme Court has ruled in support of the museum’s position,” said Kate Burgin, Andrea B. and John H. Laporte Director and CEO of the Walters Art Museum, in a statement.
Robyn Murphy Appointed Permanent CEO of BOPA
Press Release :: July 25
Mayor Brandon M. Scott and Board of Directors for the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) are pleased to announce that Robyn Murphy has been appointed as the organization’s permanent Chief Executive Officer, following her tenure as Interim CEO. The appointment, approved by Mayor Brandon M. Scott and unanimously supported by BOPA’s Board of Directors, affirms Murphy’s strong leadership and deep commitment to the city’s vibrant cultural community.
Murphy brings a thoughtful, collaborative approach to this position and has demonstrated an unwavering focus on equity, access, and opportunity for artists, cultural workers, and creative communities across Baltimore.
“Robyn is a lifelong Baltimorean, proven leader and convener who has a vision that deeply understands the creativity, energy, and talent that define Baltimore,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “Her ability to foster innovation, inspire confidence, build and maintain relationships makes her the right person to fill this Important role.”
“Robyn Murphy is the right type of leader for this moment,” echoed Board Member Derrick Chase. “She’s a gifted communicator who listens to creatives and builds the necessary ecosystem to move Baltimore’s art community forward.”
Since stepping in as Interim CEO at BOPA, Murphy has worked closely with staff, partners, and stakeholders to stabilize BOPA’s core programs while laying the groundwork for meaningful growth. “It’s an honor to serve the city I love through this new role,” said Murphy. “Baltimore’s creative community is one of the greatest strengths of our city. I’m energized by the opportunity to help elevate its voices, expand its reach, and ensure BOPA remains a strong and responsive partner to artists and audiences alike.”
As BOPA embarks on executing its slate of programming in FY26 — including Free Fall Baltimore, the beloved Artscape festival, and a revitalized Public Art Commission — Murphy’s appointment promises to guide BOPA into an impactful new era.
Learn more about BOPA’s Board of Directors at promotionandarts.org/about-us/board-of-directors/
:: See Also ::
After BOPA turmoil, Robyn Murphy named arts group’s permanent CEO
by Wesley Case and John-John Williams IV
Published July 25 in The Baltimore Banner
Pazo Fine Art Benign Aggressors
by Katherine Markoski, Ph.D.
Published July 28 in East City Art
Excerpt: At Pazo Fine Art, Benign Aggressors is the gallery’s fourth annual summer exhibition dedicated to artists who live and work in the Washington and Baltimore areas. This smartly curated show brings together contributions from Enise Carr, Alex Ebstein, Maggie King Johns, and Anne Clare Rogers, spanning painting, printmaking, mixed-media work, and sculpture. Although the gathered works are formally wide-ranging, they share a simultaneous commitment to the languages of abstraction and a world beyond the aesthetic. Indeed, throughout the exhibition, we see the selected artists variously infusing non-representational form with the materials, systems, and rhythms of our everyday lives, pointedly drawing out the complexities that regularly run through them.
On entering the gallery, we first encounter Alex Ebstein’s Stargazer (2024), one of the show’s most arresting works. Within this vertically oriented composition, we find a mini-compendium of modes of abstraction—the languages of the grid and the gestural appearing alongside the biomorphic. Yet Ebstein quickly sets her project apart, both materially and conceptually. Eschewing paint on canvas, her mixed-media work is primarily composed of differently colored and shaped segments of yoga mats that have been slotted together. As we recognize this, our focus begins to shift from the realm of the pictorial to that which we inhabit. We become attuned to the physicality of the cuts standing behind the work’s parts as well as to the tactility of the knobbed surface and the embodied labor supporting the whole. It is even tempting to see the work’s juxtaposition of forms as akin to a yoga flow; the dimensional teardrop shapes as sweat generated by maneuvering the body—not unlike like Stargazer’s component pieces—into proper positioning. The most pointed yoking of the aesthetic and the everyday occurs in the upper right corner. Grounded, as it were, in art history, Ebstein stitches shooting stars into the mass-produced mat to remind us that the work and the world are inextricably knitted together.
Nas makes history with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performance
by Tavon Thomasson
Published July 24 in AFRO News
Excerpt: One of hip-hop’s most celebrated artists brought his lyrical genius to Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on July 23, joining the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) for an unforgettable performance that captivated fans both old and new.
Performing his iconic album “Illmatic” with full orchestral backing, hip-hop legend Nas made history as the first internationally renowned rapper to share the stage with the orchestra in its 109-year existence. The concert sold out in just 48 hours, a testament to the excitement surrounding this bold fusion of hip-hop and classical music.
“I’ve never seen it like this before,” said Jackie Mislyan, a volunteer usher with BSO for 20 years. “When I pulled up outside and there were these long lines of patrons waiting to come in—I’ve never seen anything like that. I’m sure it’s happened before, but I’ve personally encountered it.”
The Dish: How Peter’s Inn turned garlic bread into a signature Baltimore app
by Christina Tkacik
Published July 30 in The Baltimore Banner
Thirty years in, Karin Tiffany is still getting surprised by life in her Fells Point restaurant.
“We’ve had to close mid-service for a toilet overflowing because some grown-ass woman put a tampon down it,” she recalled.
Sure, there have been ups and downs since Karin took over Peter’s Inn with her husband Bud on Sept. 3, 1995. There was a 2017 fire that forced the restaurant to shut down for nearly a year, and then the pandemic.
Through it all, the irreverent attitude of its owners — and their crazy good food — has propelled Peter’s Inn from a rowhouse tavern to the pantheon of Baltimore restaurant legends. (John Waters is a fan.)
“We’re like cockroaches,” said Bud, who lives above the bar with his wife. “We just keep coming back.”
It’s here that seemingly simple food is transformed, as if by magic pixie dust. Just take their garlic bread, one of those iconic dishes along the lines of the Greenberg potato skins at The Prime Rib or the bookmaker salad from Sabatino’s. Thick slices of broiled toast are spread with a divine mix of herbs, gorgonzola and pine nuts, tasting almost exactly like bread dipped in the butter left behind from really delicious escargot.
“I could eat it forever,” said longtime customer Steve Koster. He’s been coming to the restaurant since it was a biker bar owned by Pete Denzer. Back then, business cards for the establishment called it “a no-bullshit drinking bar,” Koster said. “Things used to get raucous and drunken.” It’s much different now.
Karin can picture with clarity exactly what she didn’t want Peter’s Inn to be like when she and Bud bought the business from a friend: “This is going to sound catty, but the owners of Kelly’s on Eastern Avenue many, many years ago.” The elderly owners, a married couple, sat on doughnut cushions on the barstools, nursing cups filled with ice and Miller Light. They did not get up for customers. “I didn’t want that for me and my husband,” Karin said. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be fancy.’”
She was proud when people said the intimate restaurant reminded them of something out of Paris, a city she’s never traveled to.
Over the years, they decorated the spot with portraits of Karin’s ancestors — descendants of Samuel Fuller, a pilgrim who arrived on the Mayflower. “I think most people think we just really thrifted really well. They belong to us. They’re my family,” she said of the austere paintings, which clash perfectly with the Velvet Underground song inevitably playing on the sound system.
But Karin said her puritanical roots left a void in the food department. “I always think, like, what would you do if you’re on ‘Top Chef’ or one of those shows, and they’re like, ‘What speaks to you? What did your mother cook?’ Nothing,“ she said. ”WASPs don’t really sit around cooking.” Her uncle occasionally prepares clam dip. As a result, Karin takes an unbiased approach to cuisine. “I’m open to making anything.”
For the garlic bread, Karin said she perfected another version made by a cook who sometimes rented the kitchen from Denzer. Both she and Bud are protective of what goes into the exact recipe for what they call “Streckfus spread,” named after writer Truman Capote’s middle name.
Though the website for Peter’s Inn lists the spread for sale online, “I haven’t sold it in a while because I get a little weirded out about it leaving my premises,” Karin said. “Somebody could also go and send it to the University of Pennsylvania and figure out every ingredient, and bam.”
Beyond the garlic bread, there are just a few other constants at Peter’s Inn, where the menu changes weekly. One is the steak, always finished with European clarified butter on top, as well as Karin’s “Caesar-esque” salad dressing.
Peter’s Inn’s ability to stay fresh while maintaining its core identity has endeared it to many generations of diners. Karin tries to appeal to a wide swath of people with a menu that’s “pretty classic, without too much crazy.”
“Sometimes we have 80-year-olds and we have 22-year-olds, the palates are so different,” she said. ”So I want everybody to be happy and zippy, so it’s flavorful, but not overly spicy.”
Bud said that changing the menu every week helps the couple stay committed to their work three decades in. “The complexity of our menu has definitely slowly evolved over the years,” he said, ”and by challenging ourselves every week, it keeps it entertaining for us as well.”
This story was republished with permission from The Baltimore Banner. Visit www.thebaltimorebanner.com for more.
Citizen Baker: The man behind Motzi Bread stays focused on the yeast among us
by Dan Rodricks
Published July 26 in Baltimore Brew
Excerpt: If at an early hour of a Thursday or Friday you happen to walk east along 28th Street and cross Guilford Avenue – if you’ve been living right and your timing is good — you might catch Russell Trimmer putting the finishing touches on his classic rye at Motzi Bread.
You can watch him take a scoring razor to the top of each of 12 loaves just before sliding them into an oven set at 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
The corner shop, a former pharmacy and liquor store, has a large window because, when he designed his bakery, Trimmer wanted lots of natural light pouring into his workspace.
He wasn’t thinking about putting on a show for passersby. But the result is a kind of public performance venue, a window into a baker’s laboratory.
Baltimore by Baltimore festival to celebrate house music at August event
by Marcus Dieterle
Published July 28 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Excerpt: After taking a beat in July, the Baltimore by Baltimore festival series will return in August with a celebration of house music.
The Baltimore by Baltimore waterfront music and maker series is held the first Saturday of each month from June through October (excluding July) at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Amphitheater, located at 201 E. Pratt St.
From 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 2, house music will be the highlight of the festival, titled “House at the Harbor.” The lineup will feature DJ Wayne Davis; DJ Oji; DJ Thommy Davis; DJ Meesh; and DJ Biskit, who is also producing the event.
Will teacher-sharing bring instruments and music lessons to Baltimore students?
by Bri Hatch
Published July 22 in WYPR News
Excerpt: Baltimore City Public Schools has a music education problem.
Only 4% of the district’s elementary schools and 11% of its middle schools offer band or orchestra classes. That means most young students miss out on the cognitive and emotional benefits of learning to play an instrument — especially those in predominantly Black or low-income neighborhoods.
But city school leaders are trying to change that. Starting next fall, the district will pilot a teacher-sharing model for instrumental music education — hiring one teacher to split their time between two schools in need.
“We didn’t always have the funds right to support instrumental music across the district,” said Chan’nel Williams, fine arts coordinator for Baltimore schools. She’s been pushing for the teacher-sharing pilot for years. If this round goes well, another shared teacher will be hired each year hereafter.
Activist turned rapper: Erricka Bridgeford celebrates resilience with ‘I Did It’
by Michelle Richardson
Published July 27 in AFRO News
Excerpt: Erricka Bridgeford is known by many different titles, and now she has added another to the list: rapper. The multi-hyphenate Baltimore native released a powerful and motivating song, “I Did It” that is written by her son, Paul. The record is paired with a video that’s reminiscent of Nas’ “I Know Can,” showcasing the joy of children playing and rapping along to positive lyrics.
“‘I Did It’ feels like a celebration,” said Paul Bridgeford. “I did everything that I put my mind to, everything that I set out to do. And she’s my mom, so I’ve watched her throughout her whole life and career, constantly evolving, and I really wanted to reflect that in a song.”
Paul Bridgeford has been writing music since he was 15 years old and has been a rapper for 10-plus years. He goes by the name Bmore Lovechild and will release a full album later this year on Empire Records called “Family Tides.”
