This week’s news includes: Hamilton Gallery will close later this month, CityLit and The Phillips Collection receive major funding, Voyages returns to The National Aquarium led by Tim “Chyno” Chin, Baltimore Children & Youth Fund (BCYF) Community Exhibition, Jodi Picoult will headline Carroll Book Festival, remembering Anita Novak Klein and Muriel Hasbun, Submersive Productions announces The Pansy Hour, the end of Camp John Waters, art and society in Hyperallergic, Dr. Steven Nelson appointed to Sam Gilliam Foundation Executive Director, Robert Blackson takes over at Kent Cultural Alliance, and Folger Shakespeare Library announces exhibition surveying Black women in Shakespeare.
Hamilton Gallery to close its doors after more than 20 years of nurturing local artists
by Aliza Worthington
Published June 9 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Hamilton Gallery, a nonprofit art and art education gallery in the Hamilton neighborhood of Baltimore, announced that it would be closing its doors for good on June 30, 2026.
On Monday, their Facebook and Instagram pages posted the below notice with the message:
To our wonderful neighbors and supporters,
After 20+ years of hosting arts events in Hamilton, Baltimore, MD, Hamilton Gallery will cease operations and close on June 30, 2026. It has been a great run!
Thank you for your patronage.
We do not have plans to reopen at this time. If things change we will let everyone know.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Arts Collective Board of Directors and artist members.
CityLit Project Receives National Inaugural Literary Arts Fund Grant
Press Release :: June 4
CityLit Project is proud to announce that it has been selected as one of 40 literary organizations and publishers nationwide to receive a general operating grant through the inaugural Literary Arts Fund.
The Literary Arts Fund awarded a combined $7.7 million in unrestricted funding to organizations across 19 states and Washington, D.C. Recipients were selected through a competitive open call process, with applications reviewed by panels and writers representing diverse genres and backgrounds. Together, the 40 organizations supported more than 10,000 individual authors and reached over 9 million readers and audience members in the past year.
The artist and woman-led CityLit Project has worked to redefine how the literary arts are represented in the local, regional, and national landscape for more than two decades. With a small staff of one full-time and two part-time artists, a working board of creatives, a Leadership Council, and a dynamic group of professional volunteers playfully known as Gladiators, they feature five annual signature events. The unrestricted nature of this grant will allow CityLit to invest resources where they are most needed, while continuing to expand access to programming.
“For nearly a quarter of a century, CityLit Project has championed the literary arts by serving writers and readers across Baltimore and beyond,” said Founder and Interim Board Chair Gregg Wilhelm. “This support from the Literary Arts Fund is further proof that CityLit’s programs and partnerships are a vital part of the region’s cultural fabric and of the crucial conversations that energize us.”
The Phillips Collection Announces Landmark $15 Million Gift to Advance Its Future
Press Release :: June 10
The Phillips Collection today announced a $15 million gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation—the largest in the museum’s history. This landmark investment provides critical leadership funding for advancing the museum’s 2025–29 Strategic Plan and its highest priorities: preserving and enhancing physical spaces for collections, exhibitions, staff, and guests; investing in staff, with a special emphasis on sustaining excellence in art conservation; modernizing digital infrastructure to strengthen workplace capabilities and operational efficiency; and deepening connections with DC communities through responsive and enriched programming. The gift affirms and reinforces the museum’s position as a dynamic, forward-looking cultural institution—one that continues to evolve its stewardship of art, engagement with audiences, and role in civic and cultural life.
The donation marks a significant milestone in Vradenburg Director and CEO Jonathan P. Binstock’s tenure and builds on a comprehensive strategic planning process launched in 2023 to position the museum for the future while reaffirming its legacy. Of the $15 million grant, $11.75 million will significantly strengthen the Phillips’s endowment, including permanent funds dedicated to conservation leadership, sustained investment in the museum’s staff, and support for a newly established capital reserve. Together, these investments will provide the museum with greater stability and agility to address essential infrastructure needs in the years ahead. The grant also funds the first comprehensive facilities needs assessment within the museum’s current footprint, which will guide long-term planning for maintenance, enhancement, and strategic adaptation of the Phillips’s historic and modern spaces.
National Aquarium Says “I Do” to Baltimore’s Food Scene for Voyages: Chapter 8
Press Release :: June 4
The National Aquarium’s Voyages series returns July 16 with Chapter 8—an after-hours event for adults blending conservation, science, and the art of food, featuring a delicious creative, collaborative experience led by Tim “Chyno” Chin, aka @thebaltimorefoodie/ @boywiththebluebeard. Chyno, a culinary content creator and food personality, has assembled a team of award-winning Baltimore chefs to create an edible interpretation of the Aquarium’s environment. Guests will examine the relationship between Baltimore, the blue food movement, and the city’s flourishing culinary scene.
This relationship will be brought to life through a metaphorical union between the National Aquarium and Baltimore City itself, as Chyno’s immersive Voyages event transports guests into a wedding reception unlike any before. Guests will be welcomed with music performed by Chanel Kelly, also known as the Trap Cellist, as they pose for a wedding photographer and toast to the bride and groom.
Throughout Blue Wonders, food stations will serve easy-to-eat food inspired by the diets of the animals nearby. From meaty proteins to charming veggies, the night’s menu, created by four talented chefs, will delight every palate. Chyno’s culinary team assembled for Voyages includes Chef Amanda Mack, Chef Cia Carter, Chef Samara Greene-Scott, and Chef Kiara Young, four dynamic Black female chefs leading the charge within Baltimore’s culinary scene.
BCYF Community Exhibition- City Council Pres. Zeke Cohen, Councilwoman Porter Attending
Press Release :: June 10
The Baltimore Children & Youth Fund (BCYF) will host its 2026 Community Exhibition tomorrow, Thursday, June 11, transforming 4MLK at the University of Maryland BioPark into a walkable, two-floor experience where residents can get a firsthand look at how voter-approved public funding is supporting grassroots youth programs across Baltimore. Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen and Councilwoman Phylicia Porter will attend and be available to engage with media on site.
Designed as a “science fair for grown-ups,” the free event will bring together BCYF-funded organizations, youth-serving leaders, residents, city officials, and community partners for an evening of interactive exhibits, youth performances, storytelling activations, civic engagement, and public input around the future of youth programming in Baltimore.
Featured experiences at the event will include exhibits from BCYF grantee organizations including CHARM, Nuestras Raíces, Expanding Boundaries International and The Equity Project Foundation, youth performances and open mic moments, a Baltimore Youth Master Plan (BYMP) station where residents can share ideas and sign up to help shape the future of youth programming, and a “Mayor for a Minute” video booth where participants can record short messages about their dreams for Baltimore.
Jodi Picoult to headline inaugural Carroll Book Festival
by Aliza Worthington
Published June 10 in Baltimore Fishbowl
The first ever Carroll Book Festival is sure to be a page-turner, with Jodi Picoult as the headliner at the Carroll County Farm Museum.
The festival takes place on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., building on and spreading the county’s reputation as a book-loving community which supports authors. Activities will include a children’s character breakfast, ticketed author events, book signings, vendors, author panels, and of course, book sales.
Nabbing Picoult as a headliner is huge, as she visits Westminster just before she releases her 30th novel, “Hollow Bones.” Lisa Picker, director of communications with Carroll County Public Library made the announcement on social media last week. Picoult is a New York Times bestselling author, with 12 of her books debuting at the number one spot.
Remembering MICA fabric artist and beloved grouch Anita Novak Klein
by Rafael Alvarez
Published June 8 in Baltimore Fishbowl
The old guard arts scene in Baltimore lost an important member this spring with the death of Anita Novak Klein, a longtime MICA employee whose primary medium was fabric. She was also known for whimsical paintings of chickens and cats which adorned the shelves and cupboards and kitchen drawers of her home above Lake Montebello.
Antia was the widow of wood scavenger and cabinet maker David H. Klein, who passed away at 71 in 2014. She died in her sleep sometime during the night between April 7th and 8th, just shy of her 83rd birthday. Together the couple collected outsider art before it was widely fashionable and turned their Lake Avenue home, built in 1919, into a place of warmth, color and whimsy.
In Loving Memory of Muriel Hasbun
Newsletter :: June 5
It is with profound sadness that I share the news of the passing of Muriel Hasbun, an extraordinary artist, dear friend, and one of the most important voices in contemporary art focused on memory, identity, and the human experience.
For many of you, Muriel’s work opened spaces for reflection on memory, migration, family histories, and the ties that connect us across generations. Through photography, archives, and installations, she developed an artistic practice that invited us to look more deeply, remember more consciously, and connect through empathy.
Her legacy will endure through the extraordinary body of work she leaves behind, including the El Laberinto collection, as well as decades of research, artistic creation, and commitment to cultural memory.
Her works are held in major museums and institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and numerous public and private collections that will continue to preserve and share her legacy for future generations.
Submersive Productions Announces The Pansy Hour, A New Immersive Celebration of Queer History, Joy, and Resistance Coming to Baltimore This Fall
Press Release :: June 9
In celebration of Pride Month, Submersive Productions is proud to announce The Pansy Hour, a bold new immersive theatrical experience premiering in Baltimore this fall. Created by an all-queer Creative Team and brought to life by a predominantly queer cast, The Pansy Hour is a vibrant, magical journey into queer history—one that honors the past while imagining liberatory futures.
Set against the backdrop of the Pansy Craze of the late 1920s and early 1930s—a brief but dazzling era of queer visibility, nightlife, and artistic expression—The Pansy Hour invites audiences to step into a secret speakeasy where dreamers, artists, lovers, and outsiders gather to create a world of their own. Blending immersive performance, ritual, drag, music, and storytelling, the production asks: What if queer people, even in one of history’s most oppressive eras, carved out a pocket of joy for themselves?
The Pansy Hour invites audiences to step inside that world. The performance becomes a shared space—one shaped as much by the audience as the artists themselves. It’s not just a show—it’s a living, breathing experience of history, community, and possibility.
Will life go on after Camp John Waters ends? A Baltimore gathering for filmmaker’s superfans provides possible answer
by Ed Gunts
Published June 8 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Baltimore has always been the center of filmmaker John Waters’ universe, the place where he made all 16 of his movies. Last weekend, it was the place to be for his superfans as well.
Sixty-five of Waters’ biggest fans came to Baltimore from around the country for three days of filthy fun and revelry, including a Garage Dance Party and bar hop on Friday night, a visit to Divine’s gravesite on Saturday, tours of filming locations in Hampden and Fells Point, and a “Dinner with the Dreamlanders” to close out the weekend.
“It’s a labor of love,” said Maureen “Mo” Mack Nair, one of the organizers. “We only charge enough to break even.”
Society’s Repair Begins With Art
by Laura Raicovich
Published June 1 in Hyperallergic
In the summer of 2024, amid the chaos of the US election debate, I started ice-dyeing throw pillows and vintage linens as a way to avoid doomscrolling. By the following summer, I needed to do something with my hands that was more complex to keep me sane, and to quell my family’s concerns about the massive quantities of pillows accumulating in our closets and on our couch. Googling “best jewelry class in NYC,” Time Out New York suggested I sign up for Carolina Iwanow’s weekly classes in Williamsburg. Soon, those four hours every Tuesday in Carolina’s studio were not only a balm to my rage and aching heart for all that was unfolding in the world but also gave me the mental space to engage more fully in what it takes to resist. By December, when I was facing two months without class during my teacher’s annual trip home to Argentina, I rented a bench at a nearby studio. These days, I try to spend two to three days of the week at the studio. Working with materials formed deep in the earth, silver, gold, ancient intaglios, and other unusual stones, alongside the messiness and courage it takes to learn new and unfamiliar skills, has been profoundly grounding.
Sam Gilliam Foundation Appoints Dr. Steven Nelson as Inaugural Executive Director
Press Release :: June 9
The Sam Gilliam Foundation’s Board of Directors today announced the appointment of Dr. Steven Nelson as its inaugural Executive Director. Nelson’s appointment ushers in the next chapter for the organization in advancing its mission of advocating the values and vision of pioneering artist Sam Gilliam through exhibitions, scholarship, and programs that elevate emerging artists and inspire the civic activism that was central to his practice and teaching. Nelson joins the Foundation following his tenure as Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (the Center) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where he spearheaded one of the world’s leading research institutes dedicated to the history of art. In his new role, Nelson will oversee and expand the Foundation’s work in stewarding Gilliam’s legacy through institutional partnerships, research, and publications. He will also be responsible for developing programs that support artists, education, and social advocacy. Nelson will assume his new role immediately.
KCA Announces Change in Leadership
Press Release :: June 4
The Board of the Kent Cultural Alliance announces that after nine years as Executive Director, John Schratwieser will be stepping down from his role and “turning over the reins” to artist, curator, and community organizer Robert Blackson.
Schratwieser took over the Kent County Arts Council in July 2017. He rebranded the organization as the Kent Cultural Alliance in 2020, directed and completed, debt free, a major capital campaign to restore an endangered historic building in the heart of Chestertown and launched a unique and inspired new visiting artist residency program.
In addition he directed KCA’s regular programming as Kent’s designated county arts council including making grants of more than $100,000 a year to artists, arts organizations, and community groups across Kent. Schratwieser also created KCA’s first Endowment, the Patricia Clark Waring Fund for Arts Education, thanks to a bequest from his friend Patricia Waring. In his time he’s more than doubled KCA’s operating budget and he’s created supportive and lasting relationships with Kent County Public Schools and many other county based nonprofits.
Folger Shakespeare Library to Present Major Exhibition Surveying 450 Years of Black Women and Shakespeare
Press Release :: June 4
On October 16, 2026, the Folger Shakespeare Library will open To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare. Curated by Dr. Patricia Akhimie, Director of the Folger Institute, the exhibition explores the presence of Black women in the early modern world and how Black women have engaged Shakespeare both on and off the stage through the centuries. The exhibition brings together the work of writers, scholars, actors, and artists like Maya Angelou, Phillis Wheatley, Ida B. Wells, Toni Morrison, Lorraine Hansberry, Adjoa Andoh, Esther Rolle, and Mae Turner, and is supported by new scholarship, including the provenance of one of the Folger’s First Folios.
Nearly 100 objects ranging from photographs, playbills, posters, books, diaries, illustrations, and costumes document the stories of renowned scholars, popular actors, and little-known historic figures—as well as how they all can be linked together. The show, which will be on view in the Folger’s Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall, draws from the Folger’s wide-ranging holdings as well as key loans. It will be the Folger’s largest and most ambitious temporary exhibition since opening its new galleries in 2024.
“We are applying a wide lens to Shakespeare’s depictions of Black women,” said Akhimie. “The exhibition will show how Black women are represented—and misrepresented—through the eyes of early modern European artists and writers. Visitors will also be able to learn from the voices of Black women in a variety of forms of expression from across the more than four centuries that the exhibition will cover.”
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