WENDEL PATRICK: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, the Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, the E.T.

and Robert B. Rockland Fund, the Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.

CONNIE IMBODEN: I think that art is, is invaluable in our, in our culture, in our world, in our life and in our history.

The, the, the history of art has given us so, so many rich, um, experiences.

And I think that the importance of art today is that it keeps us connected in some way.

You know, we look at, uh, we look at some of the wonderful artwork on the wall here, and we can experience things and we can share that experience with one another.

So I think it's a way of keeping connected in a time where we really need to be connected.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ WENDEL: Hello, I'm Wendell Patrick.

Welcome to the "2024 Baker Artists Award Special," where we are celebrating this year's awardees.

I'll be having a conversation with Connie Imboden, president of the William G. Baker Junior Memorial Fund Board of Governors, and we'll be seeing some of the amazing work of this year's artists who work across various disciplines and fields.

Kelley Bell, interdisciplinary.

Judah Adashi, music.

Nguyen Nguyen, literary arts.

Matt Reeves, performance.

Albert Birney, film and video.

Stephen Towns, visual arts.

And those are your Baker Artist Awardees for 2024.

KELLEY BELL: Okay, well, you know what those are, right?

So it's the, the Natty Boh dude, and then it's the Washington Monument.

So it's Baltimore and DC, I chose both of my hometowns there.

I've been here for 27 years.

I was a DC transplant, growing up in DC, I didn't really know a lot about Baltimore, and then I literally ran into somebody who said, "Go check out Baltimore, they're doing stuff up there that they're not doing here in DC, that they're not doing in New York."

And I did, I came up here and I was like, these people are crazy.

Getting the Baker, I mean, I think really shows me that after, you know, 27 odd years I belong here.

I come from a design background, um, so creating experiences, uh, that people might enjoy is something that's really essential to my work.

You know, if, if, if you look at anything that is made like in the world, a designer's had some sort of hand in that, uh, even if it's just, you know, like a beer can, designers, you know, very much kind of make a world that surrounds you.

I mean, if you look at this here, I mean, yeah, I, I am very much in the business of sort of creating my own world and curating my own world.

Projection mapping's probably been around, I mean, at least probably for about 30 years now.

Starting out sort of with controlled light shows, um, you know, that were essentially slide projectors and things like that, that were pointed at buildings going up to now, where you have these very high powered projectors, you know, you're sort of given a structure, you're said, okay, you know, let's see what you can do with this.

Um, and then I use a program called Adobe After Effects, that's how I create the animations.

I spend time with a lot of animators, I teach animation at UMBC where I'm a professor, I deal with texture, I deal with colors.

I deal with very, very simple movements.

You know, I think the simpler the units are, the easier it is to sort of put them together as a whole.

You know, color is sometimes seen as garish, uh, color is seen as sometimes excessively passionate.

Um, and that's what I'm all about.

I mean, again, you know, uh, if what I'm trying to do is evoke an emotional response in an audience, then using color is one of the most visceral and quickest ways to get to that.

Having opportunities for collective emotional experiences, I think it's something that we have to remember is important.

That, that's kind of, to me, what makes the world work is these collective experiences.

WENDEL: Albert Bernie utilizes animation and cinematography to tell evocative and surreal stories.

Let's check it out.

ALBERT BERNIE: The, the first things we ever had were stories, you know, it's like people sitting around a fire sharing stories and, and myths, and it's so important just to, part of the human experience is to have stories and to share them and, um, I think it's how we process the world and, and we learn and we, um, elevate our, our life to something bigger, I guess.

And, and all art, I feel like, does this, not just filmmaking, but, you know, all the other Baker winners we're all doing the same thing basically.

I grew up in front of the TV watching cartoons and movies and things, and then, uh, I had a grandmother who about once a week would take me to a movie, and she was wonderful, 'cause she didn't care what we saw.

I got to pick what we were going to see.

So I definitely, you know, gravitated towards kinda like more surreal filmmakers or, you know, filmmakers who just would create their own little world.

You know, I love that when you're making a film, you can, you can invent anything or just kind of like, you're not beholden to the, the laws or of, of natural world, you know?

I love works of art that just like show a little stranger part of the world, you know, or like peel back the layer that of like, reality and just show you what's lurking underneath.

For many years I lived in upstate New York, actually, in Rochester, New York, and then I moved to New York City, and I was getting ready to make one of my first feature films, and it was just gonna be too expensive and too hard.

And I realized, "Oh, if I move back to Baltimore, I can, I can kind of make films a lot easier."

In New York it was, it was like a struggle, you know, it's like they're, they want you to have permits and to like, pay this much to film in this place.

And if you're filming in a grocery store, we're gonna need like $3,000 from you, whereas it came back to Baltimore and we were filming in like, Eddie, the Old Eddie's in Charles Village, and they were like, yeah, just come on by, you know?

You know, I feel like this city inside of me, I feel this, this Maryland inside of me.

I love making films here.

So just to be acknowledged as a filmmaker here, and, um, you know, I'm gonna keep making films no matter what, but it kind of is just like a nice little, like, like pat on the back, like, we, like you we're, you know, like this city, this place likes you and wants you to keep doing it, uh, I just got like goosebumps thinking about it.

I mean, it's huge.

WENDEL: As a choreographer and a filmmaker, Matt Reeves creates visually athletic experiences through dance, film, and design.

Let's check it out.

MATT REEVES: Dance operates very closely to how our dream psychology operates, how our subconscious mind operates.

We make a lot of instinctive decisions, uh, without maybe always knowing what's happening there in our subconscious and when you watch a, a dance performance, you get these really visceral images and they're composed from things that you know, in your life or maybe a place you've never been before, but you feel like you've been before.

I guess it feels surreal, but it oftentimes feels like a beach, maybe that place where these ideas have washed up in your mind, and then we can start to unpack them together as an audience.

My roots growing up in Florida and much of my family being blue collar, working class, I never wanted to make high art in the sense that, uh, art is accessible to everybody, and I always wanted to find the way that we all could see ourselves, see value, see meaning in what we're trying to, uh, communicate together.

We could all walk outside and go for a walk, and you might see the construction workers down the street and the crane moving, and you could imagine it to music, and you see, you know, someone crossing the street here and just missing another person there.

And this is the, the dance that's always going on in our world.

And if we're willing to see it, and as an artist, I'm always hoping that we can open up that way for our audiences to see, to see the, the extraordinary moments that are happening all the time in their everyday life.

Orange Grove Dance is a, a, it started as a duet collaboration between me and my partner, Colette Krogol.

We started as a, a duet company, which would really be the, the foundation of everything we would do many years later when the company expanded, but this idea of what are the relationships that we're, uh, constantly navigating or experiencing as a dancer, that could be my relationship to gravity, uh, it's my relationship to my, my partner, my other dancers on stage, it's my relationship to the audience, it's my relationship to the, the space that I'm inhabiting, to the community that I sit inside of.

And more and more recently, it's been our relationship to technology.

We often call ourselves dance design and film artists working at this intersection of where these relationships come together and every day we get to bring our dancers in, but we bring all of these design elements in at the same time.

Uh, you're only as good as the people that you work with, and it's so important that we uplift and take care of each other.

And when you start doing that, it's amazing to see how your work really grows.

And it is important for that kind of just community validation and I, I really appreciate what an organization like Baker Artist does to build a portfolio style way of applying that honors your work in its totality.

I love this city a lot, and I, it, it is, it's with deep gratitude that I, I'm very honored to be recognized by the Bakers.

WENDEL: Let's take a look at the work of Nguyen Nguyen whose comics writing, and animations tell intimate stories of his world.

NGUYEN NGUYEN: I feel very humbled that I'm the first comics artist to be recognized for the literary award from the Baker.

24 years ago when I was in art school, writing comics, drawing comics was not something that you could even think that, uh, your professors would take seriously.

But many, many years later now, I am, um, an MFA student at Towson, and a lot of my work in this show is comics based.

I started this, this comic called "The Gulf" about 10 over 10 years ago, uh, just, just, just having fun and, and, um, writing about my own experience.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and so the, the, the name of the comic, "The Gulf" connects to that, but it also connects to this idea of, um, being in two places at once, not necessarily feeling comfortable as a Vietnamese person, not necessarily feeling too comfortable with my American identity either, and, and trying to bridge that gap.

A lot of my work has to do with culture and language and identity.

A lot of the work in the show is basically as a result of being a father and, um, having, my son is three years old now, but, um, the, the experience before we had him of, of, um, we did IVF, so our fertility journey that resulted in a graphic novel.

And then having him, he, he was born in America, both his parents are Vietnamese, but we are very Americanized.

So his, his, the way he grew up is not the way I grew up, but I do wanna somehow continue certain traditions with him.

All of this work, it, it sort of tells our immigrant story and all the struggles that my parents went through, and, um, looking back and imparting all these little lessons, uh, to him as well.

WENDEL: Now, let's hear from some of the awardees from the last year's Baker Artist Awards as they reflect on how the Baker has impacted their lives.

ELIZABETH EVITTS DICKINSON: The book that I just wrote would not have happened if not for the Baker Artist Awards.

But more than that, you know, getting that recognition and earning what is effectively one of the largest arts awards in the country, in the Mid-Atlantic and it's right here in Maryland, and it's named in honor of a woman who dedicated her life to supporting and funding artists.

And it just means the world to me.

COLETTE KROGOL: Winning The Baker has been fueled to my artistic fire.

It has allowed me to push the boundaries of my practice and the ways that I wanna make work.

OLETHA DEVANE: It was an incredible opportunity for me to extend my body of work and when I got the call from Connie Imboden, I was so shocked and surprised.

I always think that artists need money.

MARGARET RORISON: Receiving the Baker was a real honor for me, uh, the funding allowed me to take a few trips, uh, places that I had never been before and allowed me to shoot and create footage for some new upcoming projects.

JORDAN TIERNEY: The monetary award and the show at the BMA made me dream bigger.

But on a day to day basis, I'm a shy person, so it gave me confidence and courage to go out there and be with my fellow creatives in this city.

ABDU MONGO ALI: The Baker Artist Award has helped me elevate my artist practice to take my artist practice to higher height.

WENDEL: Judah Adashi strives to create work that bears witness to injustice, create space for empathy and catalyzes action within the community.

Let's check it out.

JUDAH ADASHI: I actually grew up here.

I've spent most of my life in Baltimore, and I started taking lessons, piano lessons, right here at the Peabody Preparatory.

And music for me is an encapsulation of, of the human experience.

ARTIST: Dear Baltimore, let's talk about your strength.

JUDAH: I enjoyed being a pianist, being a performer, but I always kind of wanted to get more on the creative side of things and I kind of made my way through college and grad school into composition.

And as far as like listening, as far as the music, I love, I, I played classical music starting out but I would say the music that's closest to my heart, um, is pop music and soul music, um, my, my sort of, uh, holy grail are like Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder composers that I think kind of transcend genre.

This is my home.

The piano is home base and home instrument, and I feel like there's a very physical, tactile act of composing for me.

I'm usually thinking about a poem, a story, my city.

Yes, I'm here to teach composition, like how do you write a piece of music?

How do you make it hold interest?

But over the last 10 years, and especially now, I'm leaning 100% into music as a way to encourage social change, music as a way to engage with other arts, music as a way to build and heal your community.

And I've mentioned my friend Erricka Bridgeford.

Um, you know, one of my pieces, um, that's in my portfolio is called "Love Into Concrete."

It's a piano piece, and it was written in honor of the work she does.

She does these, what she calls sacred space rituals, they're part of what we do in the Baltimore Peace Movement, we go to the site where anybody, anybody, no matter what the circumstances was killed by violence in Baltimore, however they lost their lives, doesn't matter.

Um, we go there, and we bless the space and Erricka usually is kind of the leading voice in that.

And what she does, I mean, she gets on her knees and puts her hands on the ground, and she says, "I'm pouring love and light into the concrete."

I went to, to see a sacred space ritual, which while I was so moved by her, by that idea, that's a great example of something like when I heard that phrase, "pouring light and love into concrete," oh, that's a piece of music.

Probably the highest compliment I've, I've ever gotten is Erricka has said, she says two things, she says, "It actually sounds like someone pouring love into concrete.

I felt seen by when, when I heard that piece, I felt seen in what I do."

You know, to kind of feel the, the warmth and embrace of the communities that mean so much to you, um, and I would include the Baker Award community as part of that, that's like, that's the biggest honor you can have.

WENDEL: I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen from this year's awardees so far.

And now join me for a conversation with the president of the William G. Baker Junior Memorial Fund Board, Connie Imboden.

Connie, it's good to see you, how are you?

CONNIE: Hello, good to see you.

I'm doing great.

Very well, thank you.

WENDEL: So we're sitting here in The Peale Museum, uh, in the Baker Artist portfolio "off the web" exhibition.

And this is the second iteration, I believe.

CONNIE: Yes and we have over 150 artists represented here.

We've taken over the whole museum.

Um, opening night was fantastic, we had over 600 people here.

It was a wonderful party.

WENDEL: Wow.

CONNIE: For artists about artists.

WENDEL: So the Baker Artist Portfolios and associated awards were established by the Baker Memorial Fund and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

CONNIE: Correct, yes.

WENDEL: Um, can you talk a little bit about the mission, uh, of the board and how that aligns with the greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance?

CONNIE: Yes, it's been 17 years now that we've been doing this, and, uh, I think it gets better every year, I don't know how that's possible, but I think that it does.

WENDEL: So the Baker Artists Awards are open to all disciplines, correct?

CONNIE: Yes.

WENDEL: And it's, uh, open to Baltimore City residents and the five surrounding counties, yes?

CONNIE: Correct, yes.

WENDEL: Okay, and so how then, um, does one move from, uh, presenting their portfolio online, uh, to then applying for and hopefully receiving one of the awards?

CONNIE: Very easy, the only, only thing you have to do to be, uh, qualified for the awards is to have a portfolio up, because the judges go through all of the artists, all of the portfolios that are up there, the portfolios are designed so that they, an artist can use it as their personal website without any charge, um, and without having to maintain it.

WENDEL: And how much assistance shall we say, has been handed out over those 17 years at this point in terms of awards?

CONNIE: Um, next year we're gonna top 1.5 million.

WENDEL: Wow, 1.5 million... CONNIE: Which is directly into the artist's hands.

WENDEL: That's phenomenal.

CONNIE: Yeah, and over 150, um, artists have been awarded a prize of some kind from us.

WENDEL: Mm-hmm.

CONNIE: But what's exciting is that we have seen so many of our artists really develop phenomenal careers and, um, such success, and I'm speaking to one right now, one of our early winners.

It's very exciting and, and so rewarding to see how we have had an impact not just on the city, but on individual artists, which in turn impacts the city.

WENDEL: I understand this year there were upwards of 700, um, portfolios that were either updated or, um, or created.

CONNIE: Yeah, that's right.

WENDEL: That is a lot of artists.

CONNIE: It's a lot of artists, yes, yes, and, um, what's exciting to me is how every year, um, we see new art coming out and you know, that's thanks to Peabody, it's thanks to MICA and so many of the other colleges that we have here, so part of our goal is to keep those up and coming artists to keep them here in Baltimore.

WENDEL: That's very important, yeah.

CONNIE: Mm-hmm, it is important.

WENDEL: This is a very vibrant city and, uh, I, I think that does a lot to contribute to that.

And the, the Baker Artist portfolio family ultimately grows every year.

And you do a wonderful job of continuing to keep in touch with and support, um, past winners.

CONNIE: I'm excited for the future of the Baker Fund.

WENDEL: Yeah.

CONNIE: Yeah.

WENDEL: Well, I can tell and so am I. CONNIE: Good.

WENDEL: Yeah.

Well, it's been wonderful to speak with you again, um, and, uh, I always look forward to this time of year and of course, any other time that I get to see you or speak with you during the course of the year.

But thank you so much, Connie, for this conversation.

CONNIE: My pleasure, my pleasure, Wendell, always good to see you.

WENDEL: Yeah, and I'll see you next year.

CONNIE: Yes.

WENDEL: Next we have Stephen Towns, the awardee of the Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize, whose work reflects the history, lineage and experience of African Americans.

STEPHEN TOWNS: So I often use sparkly objects and materials in my work.

And for me, the sparkles represent the reflection of God and spirit sort of everywhere.

And so when people look at my work and they're enthralled, um, with these materials, I feel like I've done my work.

I think that growing up as Black in the South in the '80s, there were certain things that I didn't pay attention to, going to field trips at plantations or just the history of slavery.

It was sort of taught tangentially, but I didn't realize as a child how much it affected who I was and who my family was and how it affects society and it wasn't until I came here to Baltimore and saw sort of the clear division of wealth and poverty or being poor, Black and White, that I sort of questioned like, what's going on?

And that's when I felt like I spent a lot more time delving into history and why things are the way they are, and I hope to bring that into my work and to educate audiences on the things that I'm continuing to learn as I make new work.

I love going and visiting old churches and looking at Renaissance architecture, Byzantine sculptures and Byzantine paintings, sort of a lot of the beautiful religious buildings that were built in reverence to, to the gods.

And I take those concepts and those works and those ideas and that idea of the sparkly image, just, um, creating a spiritual, sort of sacred environment, um, for one to be in into my work.

Um, and so when I'm looking at the colors, the blues, the golds, the reds, sort of the, the burnt siennas, the browns, like, I'm thinking about all of those things when I'm making my work, I'm inspired by that and by nature and just the beauty around me.

This book is "Remembering Paradise Park," and Paradise Park was actually a segregated park in Florida and what I did not realize is just the amount of recreational facilities and amusement parks that existed around the United States.

The caveat to many of these places is that they were all segregated.

And I'm excited to have some of these works being shown at the BMA as a part of this exhibition with the Baker Awards.

My main inspiration and motivation is just being Black in America and showing the goodness and the beauty of Black people and how much endurance that we have, um, and how things, how we make things flourish out of sort of the things that are given to us.

Um, and so I aim to inspire and put that in my own work.

I grew up Jehovah's Witness and sort of one of the things that I, um, sort of felt being in that religion is that there was this sort of reverence of God, but not of the human.

In my work, I want to show the reverence of the human that we all do matter, that we all are spiritual beings, and that we can work together to create sort of a beautiful world and a place to be.

WENDEL: I hope you've all enjoyed this special edition of "Artworks" where we celebrate the 2024 Baker Awardees.

I'm Wendel Patrick, host of "Artworks," and we'll see you again next year.

♪ ♪ WENDEL: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, the Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, the E.T.

and Robert B. Rockland Fund, the Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.