Or, this could alternatively be titled ‘What I did over my summer vacation’ by Cara Ober.
While all of you were out frolicking at the beach, swimming at the pool, and maybe even making art in your studio, this is what I was doing: attempting to summarize the accomplishments of Baltimore’s ruling arts females into short blurbs for Style Magazine. It wasn’t easy, but I will admit there is nothing I’d rather be doing. I am that much a nerd. There were numerous re-writes and I am still not satisfied with the ratio of factual nuts-and-bolts reasons for success (the reason they are on this list) vs ‘personality’ (stories to entertain Styles readers), but in the end I am happy to have been a part of this project. At very least, it brings awareness to the hard work and brilliant strategizing these arts professionals bring to our community every day.
I know that this list of ten individuals is not a complete one. Here’s a shocking secret: Top Ten Lists in popular magazines seldom are. The spread features: Doreen Bolger (BMA), Amy Cavanaugh-Royce (MAP), Alex Ebstein (Nudashank), Laura Amussen (Silber Gallery), Deana Haggag (The Contemporary), Amy Raehse (Goya Contemporary), Rebecca Hoffberger (AVAM), Julia Marciari-Alexander (The Walters), Myrtis Bedolla (Galerie Myrtis), and Jordan Faye Block (JF Contemporary).
You are probably wondering: Where’s Kristen Hileman? Megan Hamilton? Kim Domanski? Stewart Watson? Ginevera Shay? Susan Isaacs? Julie Cavnor? Jeanie Howe? Kay Hwang? Melissa Warlowe? Ann Shafer? I can go on and on and I know you can, too. There are so many amazing female directors of galleries and arts organizations in Baltimore, way too many to fit into even a lengthy magazine story. Please know: I didn’t create this list and I had nothing to do with the photos, which, incidentally, are gorgeous and fill up the central ten pages of this month’s Style.
There’s an amazing introduction by Bret McCabe detailing an impressive history of women running arts institutions in Baltimore and we split the ten essays between the two of us, so that each featured participant has their own short article. If you want to read and see more, go get yourself a copy of Baltimore Style Magazine. They put this story front and center, and turned The Contemporary’s Deana Haggag into a cover girl. You can read the whole article at the Style website.
