BMA Stories
BMA Stories is much more than what's on view, though we cover that too! BMA Stories explores the questions art raises, the conversations it sparks, and the stories that surround it.
Amy Sherald’s American Sublime
On November 2, 2025, the Baltimore Museum of Art opened Amy Sherald: American Sublime. The acclaimed exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of Sherald’s work to date, illuminating the arc of her career from 2007 to 2024 through approximately 40 paintings.
Shinah Solomon Etting: Jewish Matriarch of Early Baltimore
In the wake of the Great Fire that destroyed much of Baltimore in 1904, the city’s civic leaders rallied around the belief that a great city needed a great museum. From this beginning, the Baltimore Museum of Art has grown into a major cultural destination that cares for an internationally celebrated collection of more than 97,000 artworks and embodies a commitment to artistic excellence and social equity for the benefit of all communities throughout Baltimore and beyond. What follows is a selection of notable events that offers a look at the celebrated history of the BMA and its continued work to connect art to Baltimore and Baltimore to the world.
Home Wherever I Go
For the fall 2024 semester, the BMA welcomed a graduate cohort in curatorial practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art to center a seminar class on a careful examination of the Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum initiative. To learn about the diverse contributions needed to realize this expansive project, students convened weekly with a wide range of BMA staff from many departments.
Black Earth Rising
The splendor of the natural world is explored by some of today’s most celebrated artists of color and Native identity in Black Earth Rising, named by The New York Times and ESSENCE magazine as a must-see exhibition.
Challenge Accepted!
In 2023, Governor Wes Moore announced the goal of achieving 100% clean energy in Maryland by 2035. To support this critical and ambitious target, the BMA established a citywide eco-challenge, inviting civic and cultural leaders throughout the Baltimore region to commit to making one sustainably driven operational change and developing one program to raise environmental awareness in 2025.
What Is Legacy Made Of? Found Objects and Material Culture in the Sculptures of Valerie Maynard
Multidisciplinary artist, archivist, and culture worker MacKenzie River Foy served as Valerie J. Maynard Legacy Intern in 2023–24, in the inaugural cohort of the collaborative internship program created by the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation and the Baltimore Museum of Art.