This week’s news includes: Remembering Claudia Bismark, architect David Adjaye, Submersive Productions’ Pansy Hour, Laure Drogoul wants you to smell her art, Chad Williams fired after confrontation with artist Chin-Yer Wright, MAP’s 45th anniversary fundraising campaign, Signs of People installation will be unveiled Saturday in Catonsville, Robert Kittle and Paige Orpin open exhibitions at The Lord Baltimore, Sarah Hall departs role as Executive Director at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, and Leslie Gray Streeter weighs in on the cornrow controversy.
Beloved Baltimore artist and organizer succumbs to injuries after Fells Point assault
by Sara Ruberg and Darreonna Davis
Published October 1 in The Baltimore Banner
A well-known champion of the Baltimore arts scene died Thursday, two days after she and her husband were attacked in the Fells Point community after enjoying breakfast together.
Claudia Bismark, 76, had lived in Fells Point for more than 35 years, neighbors said. She was attacked after having breakfast with her husband at Broadway Market, according to Fells Point residents. Bismark was an artist and helped organize events in the city, such as the Artscape festival and Art to Dine For.
Hours before Bismark died, the Baltimore Police Department said in a news release it arrested and charged a 32-year-old man in the attack. The suspect, Montray McCray, has been charged with homicide, assault, robbery and reckless endangerment, police said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
Man accused of killing Fells Point artist followed couple before attack, police say
by Sara Ruberg
Published October 2 in The Baltimore Banner
The Overlooked Black Architect Who Shaped a Landmark Smithsonian Museum
by Brian Goldstein
Published October 1 in Hyperallergic
On the concourse level of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is a small exhibition, easily missed if you are focused on the elevator that takes you down to begin this site’s profound historical journey. Titled A Century in the Making, the display details the long development of a building that at last made a permanent home for Black history on the National Mall in Washington, DC. One panel, headlined “An Architectural Marvel,” describes the competition that culminated in this bronze-colored icon. A photograph shows the winning team: architects Philip Freelon, J. Max Bond Jr., and David Adjaye.
As Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, they shaped this building together. Yet in the decade since the museum opened in September 2016, the spotlight has shone most brightly on the Ghanaian-British Adjaye. With a growing reputation as a globetrotting starchitect, his fame quickly eclipsed that of his teammates. The museum was “Adjaye’s stunning building,” a Guardian review explained; “Adjaye’s radically inventive design” (Vogue); and “Adjaye’s structure” (the New Yorker). When the full team name was invoked, it was often only in passing.
Step into a forbidden 1930s drag show in ‘Pansy Hour’ immersive play
by Julie Scharper
Published October 2 in The Baltimore Banner
Pull open a heavy Hampden door and step back in time. It’s 1932 and you are in a secret speakeasy, where the performers are as illicit as the booze they’re slamming back.
Miss Mad Haddie shimmers across the stage, tall feathered headdress swaying upon her bearded face. A bartender slides a cocktail to a lanky person in a seashell pink robe. The owner, jaunty in top hat and tails, twirls her cane.
Then someone calls, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Everyone freezes. Are the police about to raid?
What Does Maryland Smell Like? New Installation Explores the Scents of the State
by Ron Cassie
Published October 7 in Baltimore Magazine
Laure Drogoul was already an accomplished sculptor and performance artist when she moved her studio to Fells Point in the late ’90s—a relocation that unexpectedly changed the course of her career. In short, she discovered a fresh medium wafting in the air around her new neighborhood, compelling her to add “olfactory spelunker” to her interdisciplinary repertoire.
“My smell project started when I moved to Fleet Street because I was directly across from H&S Bakery,” she says with a smile. “Are you familiar with that bakery? Have you smelled it? It’s a very cozy, warm smell. There’s a lot of low notes to the smell of the bread, and it’s dense, the way it lingers. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Baltimore development authority leader fired after confrontation with artist captured in social video
by John-John Williams IV and Jasmine Vaughn-Hall
Published October 2 in The Baltimore Banner
The executive director of a Baltimore development authority whose verbal brawl with a local artist was captured on video has been fired, the organization confirmed Friday.
Chad Williams led the West North Avenue Development Authority, an entity created by Maryland law to manage funds appropriated by the city and state to revitalize part of West Baltimore.
An Instagram post that circulated this week showed Williams, who is a state government official, in a heated exchange with an artist about Williams’ behavior toward women. Several times, Williams curses at the artist. At one point, an associate of Williams tries to pull him away.
MAP Announces 45k for 45 Anniversary Campaign
Press Release :: October 6
Maryland Art Place (MAP) has launched 45 FOR 45, a fundraising campaign marking the organization’s 45th anniversary and inviting individual donors to help shape what comes next. The campaign arrives at a pivotal moment. Institutional and government arts funding grows less certain each year, and peer contemporary art spaces have closed their doors. In response, MAP is turning to the people who have always powered its work to carry it forward.
Since opening its doors, MAP has occupied a distinct place in Maryland’s cultural landscape. It is neither museum nor commercial gallery, but the accessible middle ground where new collectors can engage with contemporary art without intimidation. Working artists across the state find a foothold here too, through exhibitions, affordable studio space, art sales, mentorship, fiscal sponsorship, and fair pay for their labor. That role depends on staying exactly where it is: a downtown Baltimore home base that anchors a statewide reach.
Points of interest: ‘Signs of People’ art installation to be unveiled Saturday in Catonsville
by Aliza Worthington
Published October 7 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Imagine you have been chosen by your hometown of 44,000 to be immortalized in a public art project created by internationally-celebrated artists to illustrate the town’s historical sites. Ten Catonsville residents now have that honor.
“Signs of People,” by Spanish artists Eva Salmerón and Ciro Márquez and fabricated by Kyle Miller, will be revealed to the public in the Catonsville Arts District on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 1–4 p.m. Each sign features a bright yellow silhouette of one of the 10 chosen locals pointing towards a historic site in the town.
Lord Baltimore Hotel Welcomes Two New Fall Art Exhibitions Featuring Baltimore Artists Robert Kittle and Paige Orpin
Press Release :: October 1
Lord Baltimore Hotel will welcome two new art exhibitions this fall, featuring the work of Baltimore-based artists Robert Kittle and Paige Orpin. The exhibitions bring distinct approaches to abstraction, texture, color and place to two of the hotel’s dining spaces.
Kittle will exhibit in LB Bistro & Bakery as part of the hotel’s ongoing Good Taste art exhibition series. A Baltimore painter and musician who has been active in the city’s art and music scene for more than 20 years, Kittle creates vibrant, textured paintings that have been described as “abstract expressionist landscapes” and reminiscent of aerial photography.
Using traditional paint and brushwork as a starting point, Kittle builds his compositions through scraping, scratching, flinging and throwing paint, often incorporating unconventional materials such as sand, coffee, beads and sawdust to create a raised topography. His work has been exhibited in numerous group shows and is held in private collections.
In LB Tavern, The Curation Department will present “Between Walls,” featuring the work of Baltimore muralist, designer and multidisciplinary artist Paige Orpin. The exhibition explores layered abstract compositions and the relationship between space and structure, extending themes that have long been central to Orpin’s public art and studio practices.
Orpin has been creating vibrant, large-scale artwork since 2014, with work rooted in community, diversity, connection and the visual language of place. Known for her use of color, movement and organic forms, she creates work designed to engage with and respond to the environments it inhabits. Her multidisciplinary studio practice spans painting, sculpture, product design and mixed media, allowing her to experiment with color, texture and tactile processes while exploring the relationship between fine art, design and functional objects.
Together, the exhibitions build on Lord Baltimore Hotel’s longstanding commitment to incorporating art throughout the historic property and creating opportunities for guests and the public to experience the work of Baltimore-area artists.
WCMFA Announces Executive Director Sarah J. Hall’s Departure
Press Release :: October 5
The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts (WCMFA) announces that Executive Director Sarah J. Hall will be stepping down from her position, effective December 18, 2026, to become Director of Galleries at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Hall has led WCMFA since July 2020, bringing nearly 30 years of experience in museums, exhibitions, collections, and public programming to the role. During her six-year tenure, she guided the Museum through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, expanded online programming, strengthened and diversified the exhibition program, helping to build the reputation of the Museum as a Mid-Atlantic destination and raise regional awareness of its high-quality collection and programs.
Streeter: When it comes to cornrows, where’s the line between appropriation and appreciation?
by Leslie Gray Streeter
Published October 2 in The Baltimore Banner
There is a fine line between cultural appropriation and appreciation. The former seeks to claim, co-opt or even rename a hallmark of a culture by someone outside it. The latter pays homage to, say, a hairstyle or a piece of clothing, while firmly acknowledging its ties to that original culture.
Which brings us to a bit of local drama from last month, when Kelly Carnes, the white female executive director of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, wore cornrows, a traditional Black braided hairstyle with roots in Africa, at an official event. She told The Banner her hair had been temporarily braided for Nevada’s Burning Man festival after she asked those with her, including people of color, their opinion. That sounds like a careful, conscious act of appreciation to me.
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