Baltimore Museum of Art Celebrates 110th Anniversary
Culture Type
by Victoria Valintine
Paying tribute to the vast talents of artists John Akomfrah and LaToya Ruby Frazier and civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill with inaugural awards was the highlight of the evening.
The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Ball and Party honored artist LaToya Ruby Frazier; artist John Akomfrah; and BMA Trustee, civil rights lawyer, and scholar Sherrilyn Ifill. | Photo by Maximilian Frazier
THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART (BMA) hosted a gala celebration on Nov. 23. The BMA Ball and Afterparty marked the institution’s 110th anniversary and launched new awards of recognition. The state’s political elite showed their support. Maryland Governor Wes Moore and First Lady Dawn Moore served as honorary co-chairs, along with former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Patricia Schmoke, M.D. Former Governor Martin O’Malley and Katie O’Malley were also among the guests.
More than 400 people attended the ball and an additional 200 came out for the after party, according to the museum. Among them were many Baltimore-connected artists, including Jerrell Gibbs, Devin N. Morris, Amy Sherald, SHAN Wallace, and Derrick Adams and John Waters, who are both BMA trustees.
Paying tribute to the vast talents of two artists and a civil rights icon was the highlight of the evening, which included remarks, dinner, dancing, and dessert. British Ghanian artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah and artist, photographer, and advocate LaToya Ruby Frazier received the first-ever Artists Who Inspire Awards.
From left, Board of Trustees Chair James D. Thornton, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, Baltimore Museum of Art Director Asma Naeem, and artist John Akomfrah. | Photo by Maximilian Frazier
Akomfrah’s films are studies in contrast, aesthetic masterpieces that beautify challenging histories with mesmerizing images and evocative soundtracks. A co-founder of Smoking Dogs Films, he generally makes single-and multi-channel films exploring memory, migration, post-colonialism, climate change and the African diaspora. Akomfrah represented Great Britain this year at the 60th Venice Biennale.
Inspired by her own experience growing up in a steel town, Frazier’s work focuses on communities in crisis struggling for basic human rights. BMA is currently presenting an exhibition of Frazier, a MacArthur Fellow (2015) who was born in Braddock, Pa., and lives and works in Chicago. “LaToya Ruby Frazier: More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022” is on view through March 23, 2025.
The inaugural Changemaker Who Inspires Award was bestowed upon the venerated civil rights lawyer, scholar, and BMA Trustee Sherrilyn Ifill. After serving as president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, from 2013 to 2022, Ifill returned to academia. She taught at Harvard Law School, was a scholor-in-residence at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2023-24), and joined Howard University. Ifill is the inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University Law School, where she established the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy.
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Courtesy of: Culture Type
