Introducing Voices of our Ancestors
Our ancestors have passed down to us much more than our physical traits and personalities. Their stories of hardship and prosperity, failure and success, servitude and freedom, relocation and settlement, and other aspects of the human experience have helped to shape who we are today. The traditions and ancestral knowledge passed down to us influence our worldviews and the values that we will pass on to future generations. Maryland Federation of Art (MFA) and the Black Art Today Foundation ask artists to share works that give voice to the enduring values and experiences passed down to them through community and family. Any original 2D and 3D artwork in any media will be considered. Works selected by the juror will be exhibited in MFA’s Circle Gallery from June 26 – July 25, 2024.
Click this icon to view and print the downloadable prospectus.
Juror: Myrtis Bedolla, Owner and founding director of Galerie Myrtis
Myrtis Bedolla is the owner and founding director of Galerie Myrtis, an emerging blue-chip gallery and art advisory specializing in twentieth and twenty-first-century American art with a focus on work created by African American artists. Bedolla possesses over 30 years of experience as a curator, gallerist, and art consultant. Established in 2006, the mission of the gallery is to utilize the visual arts to raise awareness for artists who deserve recognition for their contributions in artistically portraying our cultural, social, historical, and political landscapes; and to recognize art movements that paved the way for freedom of artistic expression. Bedolla has recently gained national press in the New York Times article “Black Gallerists Press Forward Despite a Market That Holds Them Back” in June 2020 and authored “Why My Blackness is Not a Threat to your Whiteness” in Cultured Magazine in July 2020. Past coverage also includes being voted Best Gallery by the Baltimore Sun in 2017; “Black Art in the Spotlight,” Baltimore Magazine, September 2018; “Living with Art: Myrtis Bedolla Builds a Home and Gallery in Old Goucher,” BMORE Art, Issue 3; “Women in the Arts,” which honored women at the helm of the Baltimore art scene, Baltimore Style Magazine, October 2013. Bedolla holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, University College, received her curatorial training at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned online certificates in Cultural Theory for Curators and Curatorial Procedures from the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, Germany.
*coming soon. *coming soon.
*Award contributors and recipients will also be listed in the exhibition catalog.
Juror’s Statement
Awards
Information for Accepted Artists
All artists will receive notification by email. Artists who have unsubscribed from MFA’s emails will not receive notification. Accepted artists and artwork will also be posted on MFA’s website.
Exhibition Schedule
Notification
The notice to accepted artists will include specific details and may vary from the prospectus.
Please set your email account to recognize info@mdfedart.org.
Coco Hue, oil on canvas, Qrcky Art, from Black Art Matters 2020