BMA Appoints Five New Members to its Board of Trustees

BALTIMORE, MD (August 3, 2021)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced today the addition of five new trustees to its board: Michael Ealy, Nupur Parekh Flynn, Lori N. Johnson, Anne L. Stone, and John Waters. These new trustees join Clair Zamoiski Segal, the BMA’s Board Chair, Christopher Bedford, the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, and 36 other active trustees in leading the BMA and ensuring its long-term success. The board is responsible for the governance and oversight of the museum and fostering ongoing support for the BMA’s ambitious mission and vision.

“I am very excited to welcome the five new trustees, whose variety of skills and experiences across the fields of art, education, entertainment, marketing, and management will assist us as we continue to find ways to better serve our community and fulfill the Baltimore Museum of Art’s mission,” said Zamoiski Segal. “I have no doubt that this new cohort of trustees will enhance the museum’s governance and leadership, and I look forward to sharing their commitment and passion for the BMA’s vision with the rest of the board.”

“As we continue to expand our efforts to make the BMA a more equitable and inclusive institution, it is imperative that our Board reflect this endeavor,” said Bedford. “Our five new trustees reflect a diversity of backgrounds and skills whose experiences and knowledge will be invaluable in ensuring the BMA continues to tell an expansive story of art, embracing new voices and better serving the Baltimore community. I am very thankful to them and all of our trustees for dedicating their time and sharing their passion to strengthen our museum.”

Michael Ealy
Michael Ealy is an actor who grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ealy attended the University of Maryland College Park and began his acting career in New York City soon thereafter. Michael’s work can be seen in such films as Barbershop, Think Like a Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Perfect Guy, and Fatale. Ealy and his wife, Khatira Rafiqzada, are avid art collectors.

Nupur Parekh Flynn
Nupur Parekh Flynn is the founding owner and CEO of NUPUR LLC. Prior to this, she was managing director of marketing and public relations at Brown Capital Management and had worked as a political appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development and as a marketing executive at the global law firm DLA Piper. Flynn is actively involved with LifeBridge Health, where she serves as a Trustee, Secretary of the Board, and a member of the health system’s Governance, Nominating, and Compensation Committees; the Open Society Institute – Baltimore, where she serves as an advisory board member and on its Grants Committee; and a member of the United Way Worldwide U.S. Council Tocqueville Society and Million Dollar Roundtable. She earned an MA in European Studies with a specialization in policy from l’Institut d’Etudes Européennes de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles and a BA in international studies from McDaniel College. Flynn has previously served as a BMA Trustee for five years and participated in the Executive, Governance, and Public Engagement Committees.

Lori N. Johnson
Lori N. Johnson is an associate professor of art history in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Morgan State University in Baltimore. Her research focuses on the relationship between discourse and cultural practice with an emphasis on how art normalizes the operations of power through the representation of class, race, gender, and sexuality. Before coming to Morgan, Dr. Johnson taught at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Colgate University, where she was a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow. Dr. Johnson has presented at conferences and symposia around the world, including the annual conferences for the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association, Association of Art Historians, and the Modernist Studies Association, as well as at the Edinburgh Art Festival and Documenta XII. She earned a PhD specializing in 19th-century French art from Princeton University and has an MA from American University and a BA from George Washington University. Dr. Johnson has served on the BMA’s Contemporary Accessions Committee for five years.

Anne L. Stone
Anne Stone is a Baltimore native and a longtime supporter of local education and arts organizations. She has a passionate interest in the arts and collects fine art, craft furniture, and fine American antiques. Stone has been very supportive of the BMA as an active Council Member and generous contributor of works of art. Her early education in Baltimore was at Calvert and Bryn Mawr schools, along with piano training at the Peabody Institute. After earning her master’s degree in Library Science, Stone worked in Manhattan at a publishing company before returning to Baltimore and working at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. She has previously served on the boards of the Choral Arts Society and Maryland SPCA and also volunteered extensively at the Forbush School at Shepard Pratt.

John Waters
John Waters is a film director, artist, writer, actor, and journalist who was born, raised, and still lives in Baltimore. Waters has directed 16 movies, including Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, Cry Baby, Serial Mom, and A Dirty Shame. Major retrospectives of Waters’s films have been presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center (2014) and the British Film Institute (2015). Waters’s visual art has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries around the world. Retrospectives of his artwork organized by the New Museum in New York (2004) and Baltimore Museum of Art (2018-19) traveled to the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, Orange County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Waters is the author of 10 books, most recently Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder (2019). He is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and also serves on the Board of Directors for the Maryland Film Festival. He has received Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design (2015), the Maryland Institute College of Art (2016), and School of Visual Arts (2020). Waters has previously served on a BMA Accession Committee and recently promised a bequest of more than 375 works from his fine art collection to the museum.

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.