This week’s news includes: David Byrne visits Clavel, the Lewis Museum hosts the Sondheim Semifinalists exhibition, everything you need to know about Artscape, Maryland theaters and the Helen Hayes Awards, The Peale Museum profiled, Lia J. Latty publishes first issue of “Black Is” magazine, a remembrance of Roy Crosse, Lusmerlin Lantigua awarded FAC public art project, Galerie Myrtis recognized at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the BSA after the flood, and the BSO’s season finale.
Taco killer: David Byrne makes pit stop at Clavel
by Matti Gellman
Published March 20 in The Baltimore Banner
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
It’s David Byrne and his “Who Is the Sky?” tour crew grabbing a family-style meal at Clavel in Remington. The celebrated musician treated his 33-person team of artists to a meal Tuesday at the Mexican eatery in what restaurateur Lane Harlan described as a “bucket-list moment.”
The former Talking Heads front man and respected solo artist was in town for a two-night stand at the Hippodrome to promote his latest album. The Scottish American singer, guitarist and visual artist is no stranger to Charm City. Byrne grew up in Arbutus, graduated from Lansdowne High School in Baltimore County and briefly attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1971.
2026 Sondheim Art Prize semifinalists to exhibit work at Reginald F. Lewis Museum
by Marcus Dieterle
Published May 19 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Semifinalists for the 2026 Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize will display their work in an exhibition at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture.
On view from May 21 through June 21, the exhibition will feature pieces from 16 of the 18 semifinalists. The show will span a variety of artistic mediums, including oil on canvas, archival prints, video narratives, 3D sculptures, and multimedia installations. The Lewis Museum is located at 830 E. Pratt St.
“For the first time, Artscape and Create Baltimore are officially partnering with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum,” said Tia Goodson, Chief Marketing and Programs Officer at Create Baltimore, in a statement. “This collaboration expands the festival’s footprint while situating the semifinalists’ work within one of the region’s most respected cultural institutions. Together, this shift reinforces Artscape’s commitment to access, discovery, and elevating a broad spectrum of artistic voices.”
Artscape 2026: Everything you need to know, including traffic and weather info
by Wesley Case
Published May 20 in The Baltimore Banner
Can Artscape go 2 for 2?
After last year’s controversial but largely successful relocation to downtown, Baltimore’s crown jewel of festivals looks to build on 2025’s success. The weather, for its part, doesn’t look nearly as promising, which has played havoc with the country’s largest free arts festival before.
But with all-day concerts, loads of local food options and the Scout Art Fair, an instant hit in its inaugural 2025 debut, there’s still a ton to see this weekend.
Here’s everything you need to know about Artscape as it takes over parts of downtown on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (with some after-hours programming to keep the party going).
‘Make a Scene’: Maryland theaters celebrate art as political resistance at 2026 Helen Hayes Awards
by Hannah Yasharoff
Published May 19 in The Baltimore Banner
In politically tumultuous times, the capital region’s theater scene spent its biggest night of the year celebrating the arts as acts of resistance.
The Helen Hayes Awards Monday night also highlighted the strengths of Montgomery County theater. Local theaters and a Chevy Chase philanthropist took home trophies honoring the best in the Washington metropolitan area.
The evening, at The Anthem, repeatedly referenced current political turmoil, from this year’s theme and original opening number — “Make a Scene” — to speeches from award recipients, including Adrienne Arsht, who received the inaugural Transformative Cultural Impact Award for her decades-spanning contributions to the arts in the area and around the country.
In Baltimore, every brick has a story to tell. The Peale Museum wants to be where they’re told.
by Amari-Grey Johnson
Published May 19 in Baltimore Beat
When I stepped into The Peale this May for the Charm City Fringe Festival, I entered a building that, for many years, I had only seen out of the corner of my eye when I walked down Holliday Street. Now, amid the throng of people gathered for the annual festival of new theater and performance, there is an energetic buzz in the air as we squeeze around each other, making our way through the lobby. Visitors wearing headphones move their bodies around me to the rhythm of the silent disco, and the wave of others heading towards the next show carries me up the stairs. Artists and their collaborators weave through the crowd, rushing to change set pieces in the few minutes between performances. I shuffle from one gallery-turned-stage to another and stumble upon a line of folks dressed in their Sunday best. They tell me they came right from church and, like me, are here for the first time to see “A Solo of Strength,” a new theatrical piece written by a member of their congregation, artist Isaiah Robinson.
‘Black Is’ Magazine Launches Its First Print Issue
by Abdu Mongo Ali
Published May 19 in Baltimore Magazine
Born and raised in Miami, Lia J. Latty found her way to Baltimore through the Maryland Institute College of Art’s BFA photography program. She graduated in 2022, but long before that, she began doing the work to give Black artists the time and space to shine.
Her own photography echoes the historical profoundness of Black portraiture. Using lighting to affirm Black skin, her work underscores the importance of reclaiming Black bodies as a means to humanize Black people.
In her series Oreo, for example, she pushes the boundaries of traditional portraiture by sharing photos of Black subjects holding a personal object. Each image is parallel to a handwritten note, in which the subjects confess how they have felt like outcasts in their respective communities because their interests and desires fall outside of the traditional expectations of Blackness. By pairing the visuals with the micro memoirs, Latty not only interrogates conventional aesthetics of Black portraiture, but also challenges the sociocultural limitations that have constrained Black identity.
Roy Crosse was epically inspired by his connection to creative communities in Baltimore
by Angela N. Carroll
Published May 19 in Baltimore Beat
I’m standing in the foyer of the home of artist Roy Crosse (alias roycrosse) and his wife, Anelda Peters, 12 years after his passing. Big windows beam light in every direction. I’m surrounded by thousands of spirited works that Crosse created during his prolific career. Towering sculptures made out of tin ceiling tiles, found objects, and braided jute; lushly colored abstract oil and acrylic paintings; and meditative graphite drawings are installed lovingly on every wall, in every room, nook, and cranny of their beautiful four-story brownstone in Station North. Each work harkens back to Crosse’s Caribbean roots and celebrates his abstract expressionist influences.
The space once hosted an architect’s office, and its high ceilings, winding staircase, and unconventional rooms provide an ideal space for dreamers to cultivate new ideas. Viewing the results of Crosse’s prolific compulsion to create and his innovative approach with found materials, I witnessed bright evidence of Crosse’s genius, which Peters has been quietly stewarding the legacy of since his passing in 2014.
Frederick Arts Council Announces Artist Lusmerlin Lantigua Selected for Black-eyed Susan Public Art Project
Press Release :: May 15
The Frederick Arts Council held a public art competition to choose a public art installation to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Frederick Arts Council. The FAC selected Lusmerlin Lantigua to design the Black-Eyed Susans that will be displayed across various locations in Frederick County, with the inaugural site positioned prominently in front of the YMCA Ausherman Art Center at 115 E Church St, Frederick.
Submissions for the temporary large-scale art installation were reviewed by the FAC Public Art Committee. Artists were encouraged to interpret the Black-Eyed Susan form expansively—literal, abstracted, symbolic, or conceptual—while maintaining a cohesive field-like visual experience from the individual flowers that read powerfully from both a distance and up close.
Lantigua’s winning submission includes 500 individual, metal-stamped Black-Eyed Susans. The number holds deep symbolic weight: 10 flowers for every year the Council has fostered creativity and cultural stewardship in Frederick.
“This project is part of our 50th Anniversary Celebration. The Black Eyed Susan is our state flower and symbolizes justice. We wanted to find a design that celebrated our 50th anniversary and our Maryland roots. Lantigua’s proposal did just that ,” said Louise Kennelly, Executive Director of the Frederick Arts Council.
5 Booths to See at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair New York 2026
by Victoria Pokovba
Published May 16 in Whitewall Art
Baltimore-based Galerie Myrtis brings together works by Lavett Ballard, Damilare Jamiu Kanyinsola, and Megan Lewis, at 1-54 New York 2026, all drawing inspiration from African textiles, patterns, and philosophy. Across painting and mixed-media practices, the artists engage with African aesthetics not simply as decoration, but as vehicles for identity, history, spirituality, and the contemporary Black experience. Throughout the booth, pattern becomes both structure and language, creating a layered exploration of memory and cultural continuity.
Lavett Ballard’s richly layered portraits fuse decorative abstraction with historical references, often incorporating wallpaper-like motifs into the compositions. Nigerian artist Damilare Jamiu Kanyinsola approaches painting through lived experience and philosophical reflection, informed by his apprenticeship under Muyiwa Williams. His works center authentic African narratives through an African Realist lens. Meanwhile, Megan Lewis introduces a more painterly and expressive counterpoint with figurative works pulsing with color and movement, adorned with textile-inspired geometric forms influenced by Ankara fabrics encountered during her travels to South Africa.
Baltimore School for the Arts is still picking up the pieces after winter flood
by Maya Lora
Published May 20 in The Baltimore Banner
Rosiland “Roz” Cauthen tried not to panic when she rushed to the Baltimore School for the Arts that disastrous February morning.
The executive director of the famed Mount Vernon high school sloshed through 3 feet of standing water on the main floor to find a “river” gushing down to the basement, where the nightmare inside the 100-year-old building multiplied.
“I’m seeing very expensive film equipment sitting in water. One room, the ceiling had just busted open and it looked like just an open rain shower,” Cauthen said. “The costume classroom, where there’s 14 sewing machines, was getting soaking wet.”
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Closes Subscription Season with Rigoletto as part of Jonathon Heyward’s Verdi Opera Initiative
Press Release :: May 21
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) brings its 2025–26 season to a powerful close with concert performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto, led by Music Director Jonathon Heyward. Performances take place Friday, June 12, at 7 PM at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Sunday, June 14, at 3 PM at The Music Center at Strathmore.
A cornerstone of the operatic repertoire, Rigoletto is a dramatic tale of love, betrayal, and vengeance. It marks the second installment of Heyward’s multi-year Verdi Initiative, following last June’s sold-out performances of Aida. As a central component of Heyward’s artistic vision, each performance is approached as a shared stage presentation, performed in Italian with English supertitles, bringing the Orchestra onstage alongside an internationally acclaimed cast and chorus with lighting effects and movement. Audiences can expect a powerful musical experience equally exciting for longstanding and new opera attendees.
Leading the Rigoletto cast is renowned baritone Quinn Kelsey in the title role. He is joined by soprano Raven McMillon as Gilda, tenor Andrew Owens as the Duke of Mantua, bass Peixin Chen as Sparafucile, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges as Maddalena, and bass-baritone Christian Pursell as Count Monterone. The performances feature The Washington Chorus under the direction of Artistic Director Dr. Eugene Rogers. Director Ruth Knight makes her U.S. debut, bringing a keen eye and vision for production staging in two unique venues within the span of a single weekend.
“Closing the season with Rigoletto is both a celebration and a culmination,” said BSO Music Director Jonathon Heyward. “Verdi’s music captures the intricacies of human emotion with extraordinary power. This cast brings a level of unparalleled artistry, and our production approach is designed to amplify emotions onstage and in the audience. I can think of no better way to end a truly incredible 2025-26 season.”
“Opera occupies a unique place in the storytelling arts and in the BSO’s own 110-year history,” said BSO President and CEO Mark C. Hanson. “Our multi-year exploration of Verdi’s masterworks under Jonathon’s artistic leadership is creating new opportunities for both longtime patrons and new audiences to experience opera at the BSO in a way that feels welcoming, music-forward, and relevant.”
Premiered in 1851, Rigoletto remains one of opera’s most enduring works, exploring timeless themes of innocence, corruption, revenge, and sacrifice.
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