Most of the time, we meet an artist’s work after it has entered public discourse. Once it is framed, lit, and hung on a gallery wall, the questions and the labor have been carefully edited out. However, there is a lot you can learn from unanswered questions, and unfinished work. The annual Baltimore Open Studio Tour, hosted October 10 and 11, 2026, is an opportunity for artists across Baltimore to let the public into the place where the work actually gets made. Visitors this year got to see the paint-crusted furniture, works in progress, the tools, the notes, the coffee mugs, and the particular space and light each artist has organized a life around. Each studio offers an introduction to a unique artist’s practice, and the opportunity to learn more, collect the work, and start a relationship with the artist.
Produced by Create Baltimore, the Open Studio Tour is a citywide invitation to collectors, students, curious neighbors, and longtime art lovers to meet working artists on their own turf, ask questions, and buy directly from the people who made the work. It is also a powerful argument about Baltimore itself. The studios on the map aren’t clustered in a single arts district. They’re spread across rowhouses, converted mills, warehouses, and backyard sheds in neighborhoods all over the city, a reminder that serious artists are living and working on nearly every block.
That spread is what makes the weekend special, and what makes it hard to take in all at once. Few people can visit every studio, so we asked photographer Stuart Ruston to share some of what he saw while traveling the tour for Create Baltimore. The images that follow offer a glimpse of the rooms behind the work and the artists who animate them, and of a creative city that is most fully visible when you’re invited inside.
This year, a new addition to the tour was the Open Studio Cocktail Tour. According to Create Baltimore, “If touring studios make you thirsty for an artist-inspired cocktail, you can indulge in a signature OSTini at participating restaurants and bars. We’re excited to create a fun, neighborhood-driven experience that celebrates both Baltimore’s arts community and its vibrant hospitality scene.” Participating locations included Alma Cocina Latina, Cosima, and good neighbor.
For more information, head to the online map with a list of participating artists and links to their websites.
