BMA Ball Awardees LaToya Ruby Frazier, Sherrilyn Ifill, and John Akomfrah. Photo by Maximilian Franz.
BMA Ball Awardees LaToya Ruby Frazier, Sherrilyn Ifill, and John Akomfrah. Photo by Maximilian Franz.
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John Akomfrah and LaToya Ruby Frazier received the Artists Who Inspire Awards and Sherrilyn Ifill received the Changemaker Who Inspires Award

BALTIMORE, MD (November 25, 2024)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) raised a record-setting $1 million during the spectacular BMA Ball and After Party held on Saturday, November 23, in celebration of the museum’s 110th anniversary. The proceeds raised from this event will help the BMA continue its outstanding artistic and educational programs—such as the Turn Again to the Earth environmental initiative—and expand upon its mission of fostering artistic excellence and social equity for the benefit of communities throughout Baltimore and beyond.

More than 400 guests attended the BMA Ball and another 200 attended the After Party. Guests were greeted by the Twilighters Marching Band on the historic front steps of the museum in the early evening and the Morganettes Dance Team later. Among those who attended were Maryland Governor Wes Moore and First Lady Dawn Moore (honorary co-chairs); former Governor Martin O’Malley and Katie O’Malley; former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Dr. Patricia Schmoke (honorary co-chairs); artists Derrick Adams (BMA Trustee), John Akomfrah, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jerrell Gibbs, Mark Thomas Gibson, Devin N. Morris, Amy Sherald, SHAN Wallace, John Waters (BMA Trustee), Kennedy Yanko, and Monsieur Zohore; venture capitalist George Petrocheilos (BMA Trustee) and Diamantis Xylas (co-chairs); Amy Elias (BMA Trustee and co-chair) and Richard Pearlstone; and philanthropists Michael Sherman (co-chair), and Betsy Sherman.

Highlights of the evening included the presentation of the inaugural Artists Who Inspire Awards to acclaimed artists John Akomfrah and LaToya Ruby Frazier and the first Changemaker Who Inspires Award to renowned civil rights lawyer and BMA Trustee Sherrilyn Ifill. R&B GRAMMY® winner John Legend (honorary co-chair) participated with a surprise video congratulations to Sherrilyn Ifill and sang Happy Birthday to the BMA. Governor Wes Moore’s lively remarks recounted some of the museum’s significant milestones and recognized the importance of the arts for the state and Baltimore to thrive. After a sumptuous dinner catered by Linwoods, DJ Tanz and the Lethal Ladies kept the energy high and the dance floor full during the After Party, co-chaired by BMA Trustee Darius Graham and Tonya Miller Hall, Senior Advisor of Arts & Culture, Mayor’s Office.

“We are enormously grateful to the many people who contributed to the success of the evening—our hard-working staff, our superb vendors, and especially our guests whose enthusiasm for the BMA gave a palpable energy to the event,” said James D. Thornton, Chair, BMA Board of Trustees, and Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “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.”

The BMA Ball was generously supported by Patricia and Mark Joseph, The Shelter Foundation, George Petrocheilos and Diamantis Xylas, the Sherman Family Foundation, Toni and Dwight Bush, Janice and Richard Roberts, and Ann Dibble Jordan.

Corporate sponsors included The Baltimore Sun, Whiting-Turner, American Trading and Production Corporation, Brown Capital Management, BGE, Continental Realty, Hull Street Energy, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and CareFirst.

Other sponsors included Louise and Nick Cortezi, Ellen and Linwood Dame, Amy Elias and Richard Pearlstone, Judi and Steven B. Fader Family Foundation, Genine Macks Fidler and Josh Fidler, Lorin Gu, Agnes Gund, Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis, Traci and Mark Lerner, Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, The Alicia and Yaya Foundation, and Whiting-Turner.

John Akomfrah

John Akomfrah (b. 1957, lives and works in London, United Kingdom) is an artist and filmmaker whose works are characterized by their investigations into memory, post-colonialism, temporality, and aesthetics, and often explore the experiences of migrant diasporas globally. Akomfrah was a founding member of the influential Black Audio Film Collective and currently collaborates with Smoking Dogs Films. His works have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at The Box, Plymouth, UK (2023); Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany (2023); Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (2023); and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2022). He represented Great Britain in the 60th Venice Biennale this year and participated in the Sharjah Biennale in 2023. He has also been featured in many international film festivals, including Sundance Film Festival, Utah (2013 and 2011) and Toronto International Film Festival, Canada (2012). He was awarded the Artes Mundi Prize in 2017 and a Knighthood for services to the Arts in the 2023 New Year Honours.

LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s (b. 1982, Braddock, PA) practice engages with social justice movements, cultural change, and the American experience through a wide range of media, including photography, video, performance, installation, and books. She often uses collaborative storytelling that captures the voices and stories of individuals represented in her artworks. Her prior projects have addressed topics of industrialism, rust belt revitalization, environmental justice, access to healthcare, access to clean water, workers’ rights, the nature of family, and communal history. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at institutions across the U.S. and Europe. In May 2024, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened the first museum survey dedicated to her work, titled LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity. In 2024, TIME named her among the 100 most influential people of the year. Other recent accolades include the 2020–21 National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship and a commission for the Carnegie Museum 58th Carnegie International—More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022—which is on view at the BMA from November 3, 2024 through March 23, 2025.

Sherrilyn Ifill

Sherrilyn Ifill is the inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University School of Law and a leading voice in the nation’s ongoing conversation about civil rights. Prior to this appointment, she served as the seventh president & director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. Ifill is a recipient of the Radcliffe Medal, the Brandeis Medal, the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, and the Gold Medal from the New York State Bar Association. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2019. In 2021, TIME magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is also the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates. Ifill received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. Following law school, she served as a Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union in New York and served for five years as an Assistant Counsel litigating voting rights cases at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She taught at the University of Maryland School of Law for several years beginning in 1993, and served as Distinguished Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School in fall 2023. Ifill is also a scholar in residence at the Museum of Modern Art. Her new book about race and the current democratic crisis in the United States entitled “Is This America?” will be released by Penguin Press in 2024.

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.

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For media in Baltimore:

Anne Brown
Baltimore Museum of Art
Senior Director of Communications
abrown@artbma.org
410-274-9907

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Baltimore Museum of Art
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410-428-4668

For media outside Baltimore:

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PAVE Communications

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