This week’s news includes: Nia Hampton’s “The Labor/The Luxury” documentary, Bisa Butler exhibition opening at SAAM March 2027, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Maryland, the DC arts exodus benefits Baltimore, artist Jason Patterson’s portraits documenting the Eastern Shore, MoCA Arlington announces Assembly 2026, Tephra ICA announces Mary B. Howard Invitational artists, Fall/Winter programming for Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh, sculptor Peter Machen wins 11th-annual Metal My Way contest, and deadline for ‘Design Baltimore: Gateways’ extended to September.
‘The Labor/The Luxury’ feels like the beginning of something new
by Dominic Griffin
Published August 26 in Baltimore Beat
At a backyard gathering, a group of Black women and girls lay out newspapers along a table in preparation for a crab feast. (This publication’s recognizable headline font sticks out among the other pages repurposed as mats.) As everyone digs in, the camera captures a discussion about the last lynching on Maryland soil in 1933 and the 1938 Crisfield crab pickers’ strike.
This scene in “The Labor/The Luxury,” the short-form documentary by West Baltimore-born multimedia cultural worker Nia Hampton, immersed me into the many ideas — the intersection of attachment theory and family connections around the dinner table, the politics of seafood production — stewing around the piece, eager to grub on all the ways it looks at crabs, what they mean on our plates, and what it takes for them to get there.
image: Nia Hampton photographed at her home in West Baltimore. Credit: Shae McCoy
Expansive Survey of Bisa Butler’s Celebrated Quilts To Open at Smithsonian American Art Museum March 2027
Press Release :: August 25
Bisa Butler is a singular voice among a cadre of contemporary artists who engage figural representation to examine the beauty and complexity of Black experience. Marking the largest survey to date of the artist’s large-scale quilts, “Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” explores Butler’s distinctive, multifaceted practice. Her body of work draws largely on historical research into archival photographs of Black Americans and other African diasporic people, which she transforms into her own brightly colored interpretations, using carefully selected and shaped textiles with vibrant colors, lush textures and symbolic patterns. Through culturally significant fabric choices and technical prowess, Butler creates deeply empathetic portrayals of both unnamed subjects and well-known figures such as Harriet Tubman, Octavia Butler and Salt-N-Pepa.
“Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Friday, March 19, 2027, through Sunday, Aug. 22, 2027. This mid-career survey, the result of five years of planning and research into Butler’s practice, brings together three decades of Butler’s work, from a 1995 self-portrait made while studying painting at Howard University to her most recent work, a self-portrait completed in 2026. Organized thematically, the exhibition features nearly 40 quilts by Butler, presented alongside works by her artistic influences and predecessors such as Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and others, drawn from Smithsonian collections.
image: Bisa Butler, Coco with Morning Glories, 2024, After Coco, 1993 by Dana Lixenberg, 2024, cotton, silk, lace, netting, tulle, sequins, glitter, beads, glass gems, metal beads, silk and polyester woven fabric, and velvet, quilted and appliquéd, Melody Ehsani, Photo by Zachary Balber, Courtesy of the artist and Jeffrey Deitch, New York and Los Angeles
‘Dolly Parton wants to give you a gift’: How the country music icon helped Marylanders learn to read
by Hannah Yasharoff
Published August 25 in The Baltimore Banner
Sammy Vides, 1, recently received a book in the mail for the first time. It was from Dolly Parton.
His mother, Jisselle Vides, a staff member with Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, signed him up for their local Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library affiliate, which sends free books to children under the age of 5 every month.
Sammy’s 5-year-old brother, Caspian, received the free books before aging out of the program and understood that starting with this book, his little brother’s turn had come. He let their mom know he was eager to read it with Sammy right away.
Sammy and Caspian, of Glenarden, are two of thousands of Maryland children who can thank the country music icon for their first books.
image: Carol Da Silva, program director of Imagination Library of Montgomery County, poses with a life-size cardboard cutout of Dolly Parton in Wheaton. (Imagination Library of Montgomery County, Maryland)
With the Arts Under Fire, D.C.’s Loss Has Been Baltimore’s Gain. How Do We Sustain the Growth?
by Christianna McCausland
Published August 24 in Baltimore Magazine
In January, famed composer Philip Glass announced he would no longer debut his new symphony, Lincoln, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, noting that the institution’s leadership was misaligned with the premise of a work about Lincoln’s views on American democracy.
The decision was one of protest, even before President Donald Trump’s February announcement that he would close the center (a move later blocked by a federal court order). But already the ill wind of a culture war was blowing through Washington, D.C., a battle that started within weeks of Trump’s return to the White House after he fired the board of the Kennedy Center and appointed himself chairman.
In Baltimore, the town of Glass’ birth, the news hit a decidedly more pleasant chord.
illustration: Andrea DeSantis
Jason Patterson’s historical portraits ask us to reframe how we view the past
by Rhea Ramakrishnan
Published August 26 in Baltimore Beat
Driving through any of the remarkably preserved colonial-era port towns of the Eastern Shore is like stepping into a time machine. Georgian brick townhouses stand alongside Federal and early 20th century Victorian styles. The streets aren’t built on a traditional cardinal grid, so it feels as though you’re always driving along the sea’s curve, even when the sea isn’t within direct view. If you had the inclination, you could stand on a wharf in Cambridge that served as a major regional center for both the transatlantic and domestic slave trades. Or you could visit The Hill in Easton — one of America’s oldest free Black communities in existence. Records indicate that free Black people worked as merchants, sailors, midwives, and carpenters at the Hill long before the start of the Civil War.
image: Jason Patterson, an Illinois-born artist, has spent the last seven years working on the Eastern Shore, drawing and painting portraits based on photos from Washington College’s digital archive documenting the Black experience on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Credit: Shae McCoy
MoCA Arlington presents Assembly 2026, the fourth edition of the museum’s national biennial exhibition
Press Release :: August 19
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington announces Assembly 2026, the fourth edition of its national biennial, which will take place from October 3, 2026 to January 24, 2027. With an eye towards the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, MoCA Arlington’s 2026 biennial comprises four separate, concurrent exhibitions. Each exhibition is curated by an independent curator and is grounded in a specific geography within the regions that made up the original thirteen colonies.
This curatorial framework provides a new lens for exploring current material and conceptual trends within contemporary art while highlighting artists and curatorial voices from across the United States. The four exhibitions that comprise Assembly 2026 together feature sixteen artists and explore four distinct regional concerns, all with national and global implications.
image: Kamari Carter, Patriot Act, 2024, Three megaphones, three-channel live audio broadcast,
Artist Announcement | Mary B. Howard Invitational
Newsletter :: August 20
Every two years, Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) presents the Mary B. Howard Invitational, a group exhibition featuring new work by four contemporary artists selected through a competitive application process.
The 2027 Mary B. Howard Invitational, organized by Tariq Allana and Tephra ICA, will foster an international conversation, featuring two regional artists and two Indian artists. They will work over the course of the next year towards the development of a group exhibition, for which each artist creates and presents work exploring and negotiating complexities surrounding “assimilation.” The Mary B. Howard Invitational will be on view August 14–December 18, 2027.
Tephra ICA is pleased to announce the selected artists for the 2027 Mary. B Howard Invitational:
• Michelle Shengyu Li
• Sunanda Khajuria
• Mathilde Kabuka Mujanayi
• Avijit Dutta
image: Mathilde Kabuka Mujanayi, Dripping
Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh Celebrates Third Year With New Season of Community Programming
Press Release :: August 20
Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh has announced its Fall/Winter 2026 programming, featuring family-friendly, educational, cultural and community-centered events designed to bring people together through learning, conversation and shared experiences. The season lineup includes musical performances, arts and crafts, comedy, thought-provoking discussions and community gatherings that celebrate Baltimore’s diversity and create opportunities for people to connect, learn and build relationships.
“We’re excited to share this season’s Happenings Guide and invite the community to experience all that Third Space has to offer,” said Rabbi Jessy Dressin, Third Space’s founding executive director. “A third space is a place beyond home and work where people can gather, connect and build community, and that spirit is at the heart of everything we do. Now in our third year, we’re continuing to build on the connections we’ve created by offering programs that inspire learning, meaningful conversation and a deeper sense of belonging. We look forward to welcoming both familiar faces and first-time guests throughout the season.”
As part of its ongoing commitment to making Third Space a “third place” for all, the organization will host a series of recurring events, including co-working opportunities on the first Wednesday of each month, offering remote workers and professionals a free space to work and connect; a book club meeting on the first Sunday of each month, beginning with The Calamity Club in September; and a Dungeons & Dragons Club, also meeting on the first Sunday of each month.
Local Metal Sculptor’s Flaming Bull Sculpture Wins International Metal Competition
Metal Supermarkets, the world’s largest supplier of small-quantity metals, has announced Baltimore-based metal sculptor and fabricator Peter Machen as a winner of its 11th-annual Metal My Way contest.
The Metal My Way: Everyday competition invites metal professionals and artists from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to submit photos and videos of their innovative metal projects all year round for the chance to win amazing prizes.
The founder of Machen Art, Peter creates functional artwork and custom metal creations out of steel, including furniture, sculptures, and home and office decor. For Metal My Way, he submitted photos of his winning creation ‘El Toro Inferno’, a forged and fabricated stainless steel bull with propane-powered flaming horns.
Constructed over 200 hours over the course of 10 months, Peter used high-temperature engine enamel to create the intricate red detailing on the skull. To create the flaming horns, Peter crafted a recessed channel across the top of each horn, which holds the two copper lines for the propane. The two copper lines are connected via a T-valve placed behind the skull, which is removable for ease of transport and for access to the hidden plumbing, lighting and mounting systems behind the skull.
For his winning creation, Peter has won a 7 inch x 14 inch Mini Metal Lathe Precision Bench Top, which will allow him to continue crafting his functional artwork and custom metal designs.
Deadline for the ‘Design Baltimore: Gateways’ competition has been extended to Sept. 25
by Ed Gunts
Published August 20 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Architects and artists have been given an extra month to propose ways to make three key gateways into downtown Baltimore more welcoming.
The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), which is administering an international competition called “Design Baltimore: Gateways” on behalf of the city, has changed the deadline for entries from Aug. 23 at 11:59 p.m. EST to Sept. 25 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
The change is a response to comments from prospective competitors that the Aug. 23 deadline didn’t give them enough time to prepare an entry.
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