This week’s news includes: Lonnie G. Bunch III retires from The Smithsonian, D. Watkins’ The Engagement to air on WYPR, Create Baltimore contract extended another year, Baltimore’s community literary magazine, Arena Players renovating, Everyman Theatre wins Library of Congress award, Rabkin Prize winners announced, Create Baltimore Announces Grant Recipients, Joel Shapiro sculpture removed from The Kennedy Center, Baltimore Children & Youth Fund (BCYF) announces 2026 grants, the Tuliptree supremacy, update on ex-Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert’s legal battle, and an op ed on Project Runway’s Liris Crosse.
NMAAHC | Statement on the Retirement of Lonnie G. Bunch III
Press Release :: September 9
Yesterday, the Smithsonian Institution announced the retirement of Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) 2005–2019 and the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian 2019–2026.
At the start of his tenure at NMAAHC, Bunch secured $250 million from Congress and raised $500 million more from staunch supporters. He assembled a staff of historians and curators to successfully advocate for a construction site on the National Mall. He launched and directed an international design competition and played a crucial role in overseeing the design and construction of the museum’s iconic building.
His was an unprecedented commitment: to create a national museum that would document, through exhibitions, publications and public programs, a people’s journey and a nation’s story through the African American lens. That vision became reality Sept. 24, 2016, when NMAAHC opened its doors in the nation’s capital. As Bunch often said, “It would be a place that made America better.” It would be a museum for everyone that demonstrated how the African American experience helped shape history and culture in America and around the world. Since opening, the museum has received visitors from every country and will celebrate a major milestone this week with its 14 millionth visitor.
Head of Smithsonian will step down amid President Trump’s fights to transform institution
by Hau Chu
Published September 8 in The Baltimore Banner
Lonnie G. Bunch III announced Tuesday that after more than seven years as secretary of the Smithsonian, he will depart by the end of the year, according to a news release.
Bunch, 73, took the top post in 2019 and was the institution’s first Black secretary. He was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in D.C. in 2016. He started his decades-long career as a historian on the faculty of the University of Maryland.
In a statement, Bunch said, “It is with very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude that I announce my retirement from the Smithsonian. I have spent nearly half of my life working at and being part of the Smithsonian family, and what a privilege it has been.
WYPR Announces The Engagement, New Weekday Program Hosted by D. Watkins
Press Release :: September 9
Baltimore Public Media, home of WYPR and WTMD, today announced The Engagement, a new locally produced, news-driven public affairs program hosted by New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist D. Watkins. The program premieres Monday, October 19, and will air Monday through Thursday at 11 a.m. on WYPR 88.1 FM.
From the news of the day to politics, community, arts and culture, The Engagement will explore the stories and conversations shaping Baltimore, Maryland and the broader region. Built around the idea that engagement means listening as much as talking, the program will bring different voices and perspectives into the conversation, ask tough questions and challenge assumptions, with an eye toward what comes next. Conversations will extend beyond the broadcast, creating opportunities for ongoing engagement with the people and communities WYPR serves.
Create Baltimore gets a one-year extension to work with the city on arts-related events and programs
by Ed Gunts
Published September 3
Create Baltimore, formerly known as the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA), has been authorized to work with the city on arts-related events and programs for another year.
Baltimore’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday approved a request from Mayor Brandon Scott’s office to amend Create Baltimore’s previous contract with the city to cover the period from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
The previous contract, approved by the spending panel on June 18, 2025, called for Create Baltimore to serve as the “City Arts agency” and to provide certain services to Baltimore’s “creative community” from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
Excerpt from ‘Baltimore’s Black Arts Then & Now: Behind the Scenes of a Collaborative Public Humanities Project’
by Mary Rizzo
Published September 9 in Baltimore Beat
From 1966 to 1983, the community literary magazine Chicory was published in Baltimore by the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Called “the most authentic microphone of black folks talking ever devised,” by the Afro-American newspaper in 1969, Chicory developed both out of the liberalism of the War on Poverty, which helped fund it, and the militance of the Black Arts Movement, the cultural wing of Black Power. Centered around working-class Black communities in East and West Baltimore, community members—from children to elders, social workers to incarcerated men—expressed themselves in its pages…mostly unedited or as dictated to an editor…making the magazine a remarkable resource for hearing the voices of those often marginalized in archives and traditional historical sources. In 1983, the library stopped publishing it. Librarians boxed up the issues and stored them for unknown users in the future.
In 2014, while conducting research about Baltimore for Come and Be Shocked: Baltimore Beyond John Waters and The Wire, I came across a reference to Chicory…The next time I went to Baltimore, I made an appointment at Pratt library to take a look…
After more than 70 years, Arena Players begins major renovation
by Ericka Alston Buck
Published September 5 in The AFRO
For more than seven decades, generations of Baltimore actors, directors, playwrights and audiences have passed through Arena Players, a theater born at a time when Black performers had few places where they could fully tell their own stories.
Now, one of Baltimore’s most enduring cultural institutions is preparing for perhaps its biggest transformation yet.
On Aug. 24, contractors officially entered Arena Players’ longtime home at 801 McCulloh St. to begin the first phase of a multimillion-dollar renovation designed to modernize the historic theater while positioning it to serve another generation of artists and audiences.
Everyman Theatre High School Matinee Named 2026 Library of Congress Literacy Awards Honoree
Press Release :: September 9
Everyman Theatre is proud to announce that its long-standing High School Matinee Program has been named a Successful Practices Honoree in the 2026 Library of Congress Literacy Awards. The recognition honors the program’s nearly 30-year commitment to strengthening student literacy through the study and performance of dramatic texts. Announced in conjunction with International Literacy Day on September 8, the distinction places Everyman among 21 organizations selected from a national and international field for their innovative, measurable contributions to literacy education.
Sponsored by David M. Rubenstein since 2013 and the Kislak Family Foundation since 2023, the Literacy Awards program recognizes promising initiatives that advance literacy through exemplary, innovative, and replicable strategies.
Launched in 1997, the High School Matinee Program invites over 500 students into Everyman’s productions not as passive audiences but as active readers—analyzing dramatic texts with Everyman Teaching Artists before experiencing them as live performance and building the bridge between written and spoken language that sits at the heart of literacy itself. The program is grounded in state and national educational standards and shaped continually by teacher feedback, allowing it to integrate seamlessly with in-school learning rather than compete with it. The program is also designed such that the same students attend at least four productions during their school year, supporting deeper engagement rather than singular experiences.
The program also emphasizes context: through custom-designed learning materials and artist discussions, students examine how history, culture, and an author’s lived experience shape a text, learning to read a play not only for its story but also for what it reveals about its world. This approach builds the critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and literacy skills that dramatic literature uniquely develops—on the page and in performance.
Twelve organizations internationally, including Everyman, were named Successful Practices Honorees, each receiving $10,000 in recognition of their work; five additional organizations were recognized as Emerging Strategies Honorees. The High School Matinee Program is a cornerstone of Everyman’s education initiatives, extending the theatre’s mission of transformative, accessible storytelling into classrooms across the region.
More information on the 2026 Library of Congress Literacy Awards, including the full list of honorees and an interactive program map, is available at www.loc.gov/literacy.
2026 Rabkin Prize winners announced
Press Release :: September 10
Marking a decade of support for arts writers, the Rabkin Foundation has named its 2026 recipients of the Rabkin Prize, awarding eight visual arts journalists $50,000 each in recognition of their creative and intellectual contributions to the field.
The 2026 Rabkin Prize winners are:
• Damien Davis – an artist, educator, and writer whose work explores how power, race, and cultural narratives are constructed and circulated.
• Melaine Ferdinand-King – a cultural strategist, poet, and writer focused on historical and community narratives, and the inaugural curator of the African American Museum of Rhode Island.
• Tyler Green – a critic, author, and longtime host of The Modern Art Notes Podcast.
• Alicia Inez Guzmán – a critic and award-winning investigative journalist focused on culture and land use.
• Julia Halperin – a critic, editor, investigative data journalist, and co-founder of the Burns Halperin Report, which tracks equity and representation in the art world.
• Sarah Lewis – an award-winning author, associate professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and founder of Vision & Justice, an initiative that reveals the role of culture in representational democracy.
• Jan Tumlir – an author, editor, educator, and founding editor of the Los Angeles-based contemporary art journal X-TRA.
• Kaelen Wilson-Goldie – a journalist and critic with decades of international reporting experience who writes often about the relationship between art and politics.
Create Baltimore Announces Grant Recipients for Baltimore City
Press Release :: September 10
Create Baltimore is proud to present the 2026 Municipal Art Society of Baltimore (MASB) Artist Travel Prize winner and the 2026 Free Fall Baltimore grantees to Baltimore City individual artists and small arts organizations.
2026 MASB ARTIST TRAVEL PRIZE
The 2026 Municipal Art Society of Baltimore (MASB) Artist Travel Prize winner is: Chukwudumebi “Chuks” Amadi-Emina, a Nigerian (Igbo and Yoruba) American multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. The annual Artist Travel Prize is sponsored by the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City (MASB). The prize is designed to fund travel that is critical to an artist’s studio practice but may otherwise be financially out of their reach. With a focus on emerging artists this year, the Artist Travel Prize amount has been increased to $8,000 and the artist must present, within one year of return from his funded travel, a public-facing presentation to showcase new work created during the travel or because of his travel experience. Chukwudumebi’s proposal selected by MASB Board of Directors clearly articulated the artist’s reason for travel to a specific destination and how it is essential to his studio practice.
“Crossroads” is a research-based art project that focuses on the history and relationship of his parents, who come from two different Nigerian ethnic groups: his mother, who is Yoruba from Ogun State, and his father, who is Igbo from Delta State. His father was born in Ekpecho Village, Ebu Town, Oshimili South Local Government Area in Delta State, Nigeria, and his mother was born in Ago-Oba, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He has never been to either his father’s or his mother’s homeland. Crossroads digs deep into how both histories have built the foundation of who he is as a Nigerian American.
“Through this travel research project, I will deepen my understanding of my parents’ histories and cultures by tracing their lineages, visiting their birthplaces, and engaging with the people and landscapes of my ancestors for the first time in my life. This opportunity comes at a pivotal moment in my artistic development, as I prepare to begin my Master of Fine Arts in Lens-Based Media at the Willem de Kooning Academy in the fall of 2027. Receiving this travel grant would allow me to enter the program with a foundation of firsthand research and lived experience, equipping me to develop Crossroads with greater historical depth, cultural understanding, and artistic rigor. Photography and text are the storytelling mediums through which Crossroads will unfold, as I believe they are uniquely capable of capturing both the contemporary and historical nuances that define this project,” said the 2026 Municipal Art Society of Baltimore (MASB) Artist Travel Prize winner, Chukwudumebi “Chuks” Amadi-Emina.
“I’m excited to see how Chukwudemebi Amadi-Emini’s travel to Nigeria will inspire his research project and deepen his practice as a whole,” said Barbara Hauck, Director of Arts Council Programming at Create Baltimore, adding, “It’s always a good day when we get to put money in artists’ hands. Baltimore’s creative community deserves that support and we’re happy to deliver it through partnerships with organizations like the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore and grant programs like Free Fall Baltimore.”
FREE FALL BALTIMORE
Create Baltimore’s Free Fall Baltimore program showcases the importance of accessible arts programming with free concerts, dance and theater performances, festivals, lectures, workshops, art exhibitions, and special events throughout the month of October. Create Baltimore provides $1,500 grants to individual artists and small arts organizations to produce these events so that they can be offered to the public completely free of charge.
The individual artists who will receive 2026 Free Fall Baltimore grants include:
Chabria Cannaday, Maria Celleri, Kelly Jo Chartier, Lynne Streeter Childress, Andrea Conte, Amber Daniels, Tesha Davilmar, Roscoe Davis III, Akio Evans, Alana Guzman, Rae Hample, Ayana Harris, Dr. Dajaneil McCree, Albert Phillips, Jr., Rhonda Robinson, Gianna Rodriguez, Kristyn Rohrer, Wayman A. Scott, Wasaba Sidibay, Shelby Switzer, Christen Taylor, Susan Tuberville, Nasia Turner, Marissa Vazhappilly, Angel Wilson, and Olufunmike Woods.
The small arts organizations who will receive 2026 Free Fall grants include:
CityLit Project, Creative Nomads, DC Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Keur Khaleyi African Dance & Cultural Institute, Highwire Improv, Make Studio, and Muse 360.
Many of Baltimore’s larger arts and cultural organizations and anchor institutions, while not eligible for grant funding, also participate in Free Fall, offering free arts and cultural events that are included on the Free Fall calendar.
Free Fall Baltimore is an annual program made possible by the generous funding support of the Maryland State Arts Council. This citywide celebration is held in conjunction with National Arts and Humanities Month each October.
Critics Slam “Petty” Removal of Joel Shapiro Sculpture From Kennedy Center
by Emma Cieslik
Published September 2
The National Park Service (NPS) deinstalled an iconic 24-foot-tall sculpture by late artist Joel Shapiro from the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today, September 2.
Before dawn, crews began wrapping, disassembling, and moving “Blue” (2019), one of 10 inaugural works of visual art on display when the Kennedy Center’s 4.6-acre REACH campus opened in September 2019.
The Kennedy Center did not provide a reason or advance notice of the work’s deinstallation, but the NPS issued a street-closure notice earlier this week indicating that the removal would be complete by Wednesday afternoon. The teardown project has caused major delays on Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, a major thoroughfare into the city. According to the Washington Post, the Joel Shapiro and Ellen Phelan Foundation will decide where it is next installed.
Baltimore Children & Youth Fund Announces 2026 Grant Slate, Awarding Nearly $4.76 Million in Grants Serving Youth Across the City
Press Release :: September 2
The Baltimore Children & Youth Fund (BCYF) is excited to announce its fiscal year 2026 grant slate, awarding 30 grants through the Grassroots Fund, Community Accountable Fund, and President’s Fund to Baltimore-based organizations serving children and youth. The awards represent a total investment of nearly $4.76 million, comprising only one piece of BCYF’s more than $8 million investment in direct grants during fiscal year 2026 alone, which is part of over $50 million invested in Baltimore youth since 2020.
The 2026 grantees provide programming spanning mentorship, cultural enrichment, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), arts, workforce development, and community leadership. All recipients are Baltimore-based, youth-serving organizations with majority of Baltimore-resident staff.
“Baltimore residents made a powerful commitment when they voted to create BCYF, and every year their tax dollars continue to open doors for young people across our city,” said Alysia Lee, President and CEO of the Baltimore Children & Youth Fund. “These grants put that commitment into action by supporting organizations that know their communities, build trusted relationships with young people and create opportunities for them to learn, lead and thrive. We are proud to thank Baltimore for making this work possible and to show residents where their investment is going.”
Baltimore names a new, better smelling, official city tree
by Marcus Dieterle
Published September 4 in Baltimore Fishbowl
After competing in a mock race against the other five finalist trees, the Tuliptree holds up a proclamation declaring it Baltimore’s new official city tree. Photo courtesy Mayor Brandon Scott’s Office.
Invasive to the region, costly to maintain, and with flowers bearing an unpleasant odor some liken to rotting fish, the Chanticleer pear tree has been a less-than-ideal representative of Baltimore.
Yet, for more than 50 years, the species – also known as the Callery or Bradford pear – has served as the city’s official tree.
Its tenure came to an end Thursday evening as Baltimore unveiled its new official city tree, as selected through public voting.
Ex-Turnstile guitarist faces competency evaluation in attempted murder case
by Dylan Segelbaum
Published September 3
Brady Ebert, a former guitarist of the Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile who’s accused of hitting the singer’s father with a car, repeatedly professed his innocence Thursday after his attorney raised questions about his ability to understand the charges against him and assist in his own defense.
Ebert’s attorney, Mark Sobel, said during a hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court he had “significant concerns regarding competency.”
But Ebert stated he was “perfectly competent” and declared “every part of the police report is a lie.”
Streeter: Randallstown’s ‘Project Runway’ model on that dress controversy and what Baltimore gave her
by Leslie Gray Streeter
Published September 3 in The Baltimore Banner
There is something exhilarating about succeeding in spaces you are not expected to be in. But it means you have to kick back extra hard when you frustratingly feel like someone’s trying to close the door on you again.
“This is bigger than me,” said Liris Crosse, a Randallstown native, standout “Project Runway” plus-sized model and unintentional center of one of reality television’s latest controversies. “It’s about women who see a piece of themselves when they see me.”
On Episode 7 of the fashion competition’s current season, Crosse, who has been with the show for nearly a decade, had to walk in a dangerously heavy outfit made of dangling wires, taped down and fitted over a used trash bag by designer Bryan Barrientos.
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