The catalogue* ($22.95) may be sold out, but the show of artworks selected by museum guards is still available through July 10 at the free Baltimore Museum of Art.
Art enthusiasts, young and old, will find this a delightful and fascinating exhibition with its enormous versatility, outstanding color, and just plain intrigue.
From BMA's vast collection of 95,000 works of traditional and modern paintings, sculptures, and much more, the museum's security guards chose the works they wanted to display in this special exhibition.
Security members helped produce the whole show, from curating to marketing, research, the catalogue, public programs and more.
Why was this one included? The guards explain their choices.
Consider the difficulty of choosing just one, two or three pieces of art to show! A hard task, indeed!
The museum says all members of the security guard staff were invited to participate and 17 decided to go the the full mile, all whose biographies are included in the catalogue and here.
The guards have varied occupations: They are artists, chefs, musicians, philosophers, singers, poets, composers, scholars (including a college art instructor), writers, and much more.
BMA says the idea grew from discussions by the museum's professional staff and a trustee seeking "ways to fulfill the Museum’s commitment to be more diverse, more inclusive, and more representative of the community it serves."
For time off from their jobs for this endeavor, each guard was compensated by funds from a lead grant from the Pearlstone Family Foundation.
Guard curators are Traci Archable-Frederick, Jess Bither, Ben Bjork, Ricardo Castro, Melissa Clasing, Bret Click, Alex Dicken, Kellen Johnson, Michael Jones, Rob Kempton, Chris Koo, Alex Lei, Dominic Mallari, Dereck Mangus, Sara Ruark, Joan Smith, and Elise Tensley.
The exhibition has drawn phenomenal press coverage and will, no doubt, serve as inspiration to other museums. BMA: Leading the Way!
*Reprints likely
TDD: (410) 396-4930 and/or visit artbma.org.
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