This week’s news includes: Art of Design interviews Michael Haskins of Currency Studios; a review of UMBC’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow of Rowhomes, We Fly exhibition; a profile of Thea Canlas, Anna Divinagracia, and Mark Kent Navarro–three Filipino American artists working in Baltimore; Galerie Myrtis exhibition Stars and Stripes: Pride, Protest & Promise featured on CNN, St. John’s College announces the Summer Visual Arts program, Pat Karzai at the helm of The Helmand, and saving Kennedy Center art.
“You are Your Most Valuable Currency” Michael Haskins, Jr. Building Currency Studios
by Umi Patterson, Photography by Brandon Battle
Published in Art of Design Magazine 004
For nearly two decades, Michael Haskins Jr. has built more than a brand. He has cultivated a philosophy, a creative practice, and a space that has evolved with intention while remaining rooted in its core values. In a culture that often celebrates speed and constant reinvention,
Currency Studio represents something different: the discipline to stay aligned with one’s identity while allowing the work to grow.
“Your greatest asset isn’t what you own. It’s who you become.”
Umi: “You Are Your Most Valuable Currency” has become more than a statement; it’s almost a philosophy. What does that phrase mean to you today, and how has its meaning
evolved alongside Currency Studio?
Michael Haskins Jr.: Before “You Are Your Most Valuable Currency,” there was another phrase: Respect Your Wealth. That was the first T-shirt I ever made, black, purple, and gray, with those three words across the front. That idea came directly from my parents. My mother worked at a bank and was incredibly frugal.
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow of Rowhomes, We Fly” is a feast of colors and forms
by Rhea Ramakrishnan
Published October 27 in Baltimore Beat
At the beginning of the film “The Unveiling of God / a love letter to my forefathers,” the camera zooms in on a lone trumpeter — Brandon Woody — playing on a Baltimore street corner before cutting to two young men in a pool. One of them wears a silver chain with a pendant of Africa on it. Thematically and sonically, the film, which was produced by the collective of NIA JUNE, Kirby Griffin, and APoetNamedNate, is reflective and elegiac — JUNE created it as a tribute to the Black men prematurely taken from her life. Throughout the film, Black boys and men gaze inquisitively into the camera, sometimes bathed in golden light, sometimes neon, while the music of Baltimore-based artists or JUNE’s own spoken word compositions play in the background.
The film is one of the works on view in the group exhibition “Somewhere Over the Rainbow of Row Homes, We Fly” at UMBC’s Center for Art Design and Visual Culture, on through November 24. Like each of the works in the exhibition, “The Unveiling of God / a love letter to my forefathers” approaches Baltimore’s past and imagines its future with a keen and nuanced lens. It refuses to settle on a single narrative. While mainstream media appraisals of Baltimore tend to villainize this city for its crime rates or romanticize its “grittiness,” the artists in the exhibition interpret and envision the city from a more personal and expansive perspective.
In Baltimore, Filipino American artists are finally taking the spotlight
by Wesley Case
Published October 26 in The Baltimore Banner
Sitting in her Greenmount West art studio, Thea Canlas can’t help but smile when asked about the moment Filipino American artists in Baltimore are having right now.
“I love it,” Canlas said last week from Area 405, the studios on East Oliver Street.
“I mean, I don’t want to be the only one, right?”
For a group that’s often felt collectively overlooked, that’s not a concern in Charm City today.
Canlas made headlines this summer by winning the Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize, along with $30,000, for her thoroughly researched textile installations.
Dr. Myrtis Bedolla, Tawny Chatmon, & Kim Rice featured on CNN’s ‘Art is Life’ Segment
Aired on CNN October 24
Galerie Myrtis is honored to share that our 20th Anniversary exhibition ‘Stars and Stripes: Pride, Protest & Promise’ was featured on the CNN segment Art is Life, hosted by Victor Blackwell. During the segment, Dr. Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director and Chief Curator of Galerie Myrtis, was interviewed alongside featured artists Tawny Chatmon and Kim Rice. They discussed Galerie Myrtis reaching a significant milestone and the importance of national introspection in light of the United States 250th Anniversary.
The esteemed artists featured in ‘Stars and Stripes’ include Devin Allen, Lavett Ballard, Wesley Clark, Connor Czora, Tawny Chatmon, Morel Doucet, Ya La’Ford, Jerrell Gibbs, Susan Goldman, Monica Ikegwu, Ronald Jackson, Fabiola Jean-Louis, M. Scott Johnson, Megan Lewis, Lex Marie, Kim Rice, James Seward, Felandus Thames, and Bria Sterling-Wilson.
St. John’s College Graduate Institute Announces 2027 Summer Visual Arts Program in Santa Fe
Press Release :: September 26
The Graduate Institute at St. John’s College Santa Fe has announced the launch of a new Summer Visual Arts Program, a comprehensive eight-week program including seminars, tutorials, a preceptorial, and a lab component. In Santa Fe, which researchers recently dubbed “the most creative city in the United States” thanks to its art openings, galleries, and museums, students will have opportunities to learn about great works of visual art and explore profound questions about the artworks they study together on and off campus.
“The Summer Visual Arts Program extends the distinctive approach to learning of St. John’s College to a broader community of learners. By bringing together great works of art, classics, and thoughtful conversations, the program invites students to experience how the St. John’s way of learning can open new ways of seeing, questioning, and understanding the world,” says St. John’s College President J. Walter Sterling. “We are delighted to offer an opportunity in which the arts become not simply objects of appreciation, but invitations to the kind of inquiry and conversation at the heart of the St. John’s education.”
The Dish: Pat Karzai hung on to The Helmand — and helped it thrive
by Christina Tkacik
Published October 28 in The Baltimore Banner
Two hours before the start of weekend dinner service at The Helmand, the tables are set with white cloths and two glasses at each plate. Bouquets of fresh red roses sit on the bar. Everything is in its place, just how Qayum Karzai liked things to be, said his widow, Pat, a scarf around her neck held in place with a silver loop.
After Qayum’s death in 2024, many in Baltimore wondered what would happen to The Helmand, the Mount Vernon restaurant that was synonymous with his legacy. Qayum’s elegant presence loomed large over the restaurant, which was a love letter to his home country of Afghanistan and a reminder of its better days. For months, Pat dreaded setting foot inside the dining room, facing customers and their condolences.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pat Karzai may seem an unlikely figure to lead Baltimore’s esteemed Afghan restaurant and one of its most enduring culinary landmarks. But 37 years in, she’s determined to carry on her husband’s work.
Donors Are Secretly Trying to Save the Kennedy Center’s Artworks from ‘Destruction’ or Disposal Amid Trump Takeover
by Brian Boucher
Published October 20 in ARTnews
It has been widely reported that the Kennedy Center is at the center of a power struggle between the Trump administration and preservationists, as the president wants to rename it in his own honor and insists that the decaying building must close for renovations. He has threatened that it will be razed if he does not get his way.
Now, CNN reports that donors who have given artwork to the institution are trying to reclaim their gifts, fearing for their safety amid a renovation and in the wake of layoffs. They are not convinced that the leadership, largely appointed by Trump, values the artworks as part of the institution’s holdings.
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