BMA SALON AND BMA SCREENING ROOM
New Digital Platforms Provide Direct Support to Baltimore-Based Artists, Galleries, and Collectives at tomorrows.artbma.org
The BMA Salon launches with 11 online exhibitions developed by Baltimore-based galleries and artist collectives. The presentations include images and details about the featured artworks available for purchase, background on the presenting organization, and contact details to access further information. Each gallery and collective will handle their own transactions and keep the proceeds in full. The BMA Salon was established with the vision to cultivate new audiences for participants and enhance their networks. The BMA has provided each participant with $2,500 as an organizing fee to support their work in creating the presentations. Nine other organizations will be added to the website in mid July.
The BMA Screening Room debuts with 48 video works created by 21 Baltimore-based and Baltimore-born artists. The works will live as part of an evolving online repository, providing increased exposure for the artists during a moment when there are few exhibition opportunities and offering the museum’s audiences new dynamic content with which to engage. The BMA has also paid each participating artist a licensing fee, ranging from $500 to $750, to feature their work as part of the new platform. The BMA Screening Room is slated to feature 50 artists, adding artists and videos through time.
PARTICIPANTS:
The first group of exhibitions are organized by Galerie Myrtis, as they lay, Creative Alliance, Current Space, Goya Contemporary Gallery, St. Charles Projects, springsteen, C. Grimaldis Gallery, ICA Baltimore, I ’sindikit I, and Resort. The BMA Salon will highlight one presentation each week, while also including content from the other galleries and collectives.The second group of organizations to be featured in mid-July are Catalyst Contemporary, Black Arts District, Connect + Collect, Mono Practice, Press Press, Gallery About Nothing, Eubie Blake Cultural Center Gallery, Waller Gallery, and The Parlour.
Artists selected for the launch of the BMA Screening Room are Rahne Alexander, Abdu Ali and Karryl Eugene of as they lay, Stephanie Barber, Mollye Bendell, Erick Antonio Benitez, Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown, Emily Eaglin, Tanya Garcia + Juan Ortiz, Nia Hampton, Chung-Wei Huang, Nia June, Jaimes Mayhew, Meredith Moore, Devin N. Morris, Clifford Owens, Margaret Rorison, Jules Rosskam, Lendl Tellington, Stephanie J. Williams, Caroline Xia + Kim Enubi + Joseph Lee, and Monsieur Zohore. Among the many works presented are Rito del sol by Erick Antonio Benitez; Dance, Dance, Evolution by Jules Rosskam, Momma’s Cat by Lendl Tellington; Imagining As A Praxis by as they lay; and Midnight Carnival by Chung-Wei Huang.
WHEN:
Launched June 10, 2020 and is ongoing.
WHERE:
All of the content is available on the BMA’s The Necessity of Tomorrow(s) website at tomorrows.artbma.org.
ABOUT THE INITIATIVES:
On May 27, The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced that it was launching three new initiatives to provide direct support to Baltimore-based artists, galleries, and communities: BMA Salon, BMA Screening Room, and BMA Studio. The initiatives provide some immediate financial relief to local artists and businesses, develop new platforms of visibility to ensure the longer-term success of Baltimore’s arts ecology, and extend participatory opportunities to populations that do not have ready access to digital content. The development of these programs grows out of the BMA’s popular, ongoing speaker series, The Necessity of Tomorrow(s), which was established to imagine futures that embrace issues of social justice, equity, and creative practice. The BMA’s new initiatives actualize the series’ core principles and respond to the needs of the current moment through creative endeavor, furthering the museum’s role as a cultural collaborator and civic leader. A link to the announcement release is available here.
THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
Founded in 1914, The Baltimore Museum of Art is a major cultural destination recognized for engaging diverse audiences through dynamic exhibitions and innovative educational and community outreach programs. The BMA’s internationally renowned collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the famed Cone Collection of modern art, as well as one of the nation’s finest holdings of prints, drawings, and photographs. The galleries showcase an exceptional collection of art from Africa; important works by established and emerging contemporary artists; outstanding European and American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts; significant artworks from China; ancient Antioch mosaics; and exquisite textiles from around the world. The 210,000-square-foot museum is also distinguished by a grand historic building designed in the 1920s by renowned American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of 20th-century sculpture. The BMA is located in Charles Village, three miles north of the Inner Harbor, and is adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University. General admission to the BMA is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.