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.
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.
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.
John Legend, another honorary co-chair, joined the event via video offering congratulations to Ifill and singing Happy Birthday in honor of the museum’s century-plus milestone. The Twilighters Marching Band, a nonprofit community youth band from Baltimore’s Upton/Penn North neighborhood, and the Morganettes Dance Team, representing Morgan State University in Baltimore, greeted guests as they entered the museum. DJ Tanz and Baltimore’s Lethal Ladies step team fueled the after party.
The museum said $1 million was raised, a record for the event. “We are enormously grateful to the many people who contributed to the success of the evening…” BMA Board Chair James D. Thornton and BMA Director Asma Naeem said in a joint statement. “The funds raised will go a long way toward realizing the BMA’s goals to elevate artists, connect the local and global, expand our educational programs, and provide more meaningful art experiences for students, families, and adults in our community.” CT
FIND MORE about John Akomfrah and LaToya Ruby Frazier on Culture Type
FIND MORE about LaToya Ruby Frazer on her website and John Akomfrah on his Smoking Dogs Films website and Instagram
FIND MORE about Sherrilyn Ifill on Instagram and the websites of Howard University Law School and the Legal Defense Fund. She recently discussed the 14th Amendment with Errin Haines of The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on gender, politics, and policy
Maryland Governor Wes Moore served as an honorary co-chair of the BMA Ball and Afterparty. | Photo by Maximilian Frazier
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
From left, Collector and Co-Chair Michael Sherman and artists Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle, SHAN Wallace, Monsieur Zahore, Teri Henderson, Devin N. Morris, and Kennedy Yanko. | Photo by Maximilian Frazier
From left, Artist and BMA Trustee John Waters and Maryland First Lady Dawn Moore, an honorary co-chair of the BMA Ball and Afterparty. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
Twilighters Marching Band greeted guests as they enter the Baltimore Museum of Art for the BMA Ball and Afterparty. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
From left, David Warnock, founder and chair of the Baltimore-based Warnock Family Foundation; Michele Speakes, co-chairman of the Warnock Family Foundation; philanthropist Alice Rogoff; and David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, chairman of the National Gallery of Art, and owner of the Baltimore Orioles. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
From left, Artists SHAN Wallace and Devin N. Morris. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
The Lethal Ladies take the lead on the dance floor at the BMA Ball and Afterparty. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
From left, Thelma Crawford, Raini Butler, Blake Butler, Eddie Brown, and Sharon Butler. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
From left, Derek Dangerfield, M. Alexander Barrett, Darien Nolin, and Darius Graham. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
Guests enjoy the BMA Ball and Afterparty celebrating the Baltimore Museum of Art’s 110th anniversary. Above, “Moon Dust (Apollo 17),” a lighting installation by Spencer Finch, illuminates the evening. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
Nupur and Guy Flynn. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
From left, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, artist Amy Sherald, Maryland First Lady Dawn Moore, and Baltimore Museum of Art Director Asma Naeem. | Photo by Maximilian Franz
BOOKSHELF
Published earlier this year, “City of Artists: Baltimore” explores the work of an array of artists, including and Derrick Adams, Jerrell Gibbs, and Joyce J. Scott. “John Akomfrah” is the first monograph to survey the work of the artist. With contributors including Tina Campt, Okwui Enwezor, Diana Nawi, Zoé Whitley, and Massimiliano Gioni, the volume was published in 2018 to accompany a New Museum exhibition. Also consider, “Co-existence of Times: A Conversation with John Akomfrah” and “John Akomfrah: A Space of Empathy,” documents his exhibition at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2023-24). “LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Notion of Family” is the artist’s first publication. More recent volumes documenting the work of LaToya Ruby Frazier, include “LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity” and “LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint Is Family In Three Acts.” Sherrilyn Ifill authored “On the Courthouse Lawn” in 2007 and a revised edition with a foreword by Bryan Stevenson was reissued in 2018. Among her other publications, she also co-authored “A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law” with Stevenson, Loretta Lynch, and Anthony C. Thompson. “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” was published to accompany the artist’s first career-spanning museum exhibition, now on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
