New BMA Violet Hour Series Launches June 24 Featuring Virtual Artist Talk with Zackary Drucker

Bi-Weekly Live Events Connect Social Media Audiences with Creative Communities

 BALTIMORE, MD (June 23, 2020)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) today announced a new series of online programs designed to give visitors an opportunity to relax and connect with artists, makers, and the community. The bi-weekly BMA Violet Hour program will feature artist talks, meditations, and other interactive experiences. The first event on Wednesday, June 24, pairs artist and cultural influencer Zackary Drucker with her personal muse and mentor Rosalyne Blumenstein, LCSW, a legendary trans rights activist, for a conversation moderated by renowned photographer, curator, and educator Allen Frame.

BMA Violet Hour joins a suite of online programs launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Art Break Live, a bi-weekly art-making program on Facebook and YouTube; Virtual Gallery Walks of 2020 Vision exhibitions celebrating the achievements of female-identifying artists such as Valerie Maynard, Jo Smail, and SHAN Wallace; and Free Family Sundays at Home, a do-at-home craft project emailed every week. The BMA also recently initiated BMA Salon, BMA Screening Room, and BMA Studio to support artists, galleries, and local communities using its Necessity of Tomorrow(s) platform.

BMA Violet Hour: Artist Talk with Zackary Drucker
BMA Facebook Live
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
6‒7:30 p.m. EST

Artist and cultural influencer Zackary Drucker talks with her personal muse and mentor Rosalyne Blumenstein, LCSW, a legendary trans rights activist whose portraits and archival photographs comprise an important part of the BMA’s exhibition Zackary Drucker: Icons. They discuss their approach to concepts of photographic beauty and their personal involvement in trans activism. Renowned photographer, curator, and educator Allen Frame moderates the conversation and BMA Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Leslie Cozzi hosts a live Q&A following the discussion.

 

Drucker (born 1983, New York) is an independent artist, cultural producer, and trans woman who has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMA PS1, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Drucker is also an Emmy-nominated producer for the docu-series This Is Me, as well as a producer on the Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning TV show Transparent.

BMA Violet Hour: Studio Time Takeover with James Williams
Instagram Takeover
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
6‒9 p.m. EST

Join artist, professor, and curator James Williams for a “Studio Time” takeover on the BMA’s Instagram. “Studio Time” is a project developed by Williams in which he invites artists around the country to meet up and make art together. The project is a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as a means to encourage the art community and motivate studio practice during the quarantine. For this episode of “Studio Time,” Williams will be in conversation with Leah Lewis, Gabriel Amadi-Emina, and Greg Brown.

James Williams II is a curator and interdisciplinary artist whose work encompasses painting, sculpture, and photography. His works center on topics of social and cultural identity in the United States tied together by self-portraiture narration. This year his work has been shown in New York, Chicago, and in the solo exhibition Color of the Day at Resort in Baltimore. Williams’ most recent curatorial project, Whatchamacallit, was an exhibition and publication focused on the growing obsession of superimposed identities. He is the recipient of an MFA Joan Mitchell Foundation award and is a member of the Book Club art collective, which recently participated in the 2020 SPRING/BREAK art fair. Williams is originally from upstate New York and currently lives and works in Baltimore. He received his master’s degree from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he also teaches.

BMA Violet Hour: Out of the Blocks
July 15, 2020
6‒7 p.m. EST

Out of the Blocks is an award-winning immersive podcast created by Aaron Henkin and Wendel Patrick that tells the stories of a city, one block at a time. This event will explore the stories of Baltimore’s own Lexington Market—a cultural staple and America’s oldest operating public market. Out of the Blocks can be heard on the WYPR 88.1 FM Radio website, Apple Podcasts, or Google Play.

 

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.