BMA Celebrates MICA’s Bicentennial with Special Presentation of Affiliated Artists in its Collection
BALTIMORE, MD (April 28, 2026)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents BMA Celebrates MICA200, a focus exhibition recognizing the 200-year legacy of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and the enduring influence of its artists, faculty, and alumni on Baltimore and the contemporary art world at large. Drawing entirely from the BMA’s collection, the presentation features 17 works that span nearly 150 years with examples of painting, sculpture, photography, film, textiles, jewelry, and works on paper. This diversity of media reflects MICA’s longstanding commitment to material experimentation, critical inquiry, and interdisciplinary practice. BMA Celebrates MICA200 is on view in the Contemporary Wing from May 17 through January 3, 2027.
Featured artists include both alumni and professors: Timothy App, Betty Cooke, Grace Hartigan, Maren Hassinger, Connie Imboden, Hugh Bolton Jones, Tom Miller, Elle Pérez, Amalie Rothschild, Joyce J. Scott, Jo Smail, Shinique Smith, Aaron Sopher, Grace Turnbulland Charles H. Walther, as well as the collective MICA Pandemic Quilters. The quilt project includes contributions by Susie Brandt, Kibibi Ajanku, Dr. Denise Bailey-Jones, Sarah Zenobia Barnes, Erika Carruth, Rosa Chang, Katherine Cowan, Joann Dixon, Rae Drotleff, Patty Gallivan, Dr. Leslie King Hammond, Rodette Jones, Joseph E. Malson, Christine Manganaro, Kenya Miles, Audrey Lee Naiva, Marla Parker, Ursula Populoh, Julia Racicot, Glenda Richardson, Rosalind Ford Robinson, Lowery Stokes Sims, Tobyanne Suyemoto, and Lowell Zelenka. Together these works illustrate the depth and breadth of MICA’s program while underscoring the BMA’s role as a steward of Baltimore’s artistic history.
“As we celebrate MICA’s bicentennial, this presentation tells a story about Baltimore itself,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “The artists featured here demonstrate how MICA and the city have served as a catalyst for innovation, critical dialogue, and creative freedom—locally rooted yet globally influential, as seen recently in the extraordinary public response to the exhibition of MICA alum Amy Sherald. BMA Celebrates MICA200 affirms the enduring relationship between our institutions, this city, and the artists who define both.”
MICA is also represented at the BMA with Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again,an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Louis Fratino, a 2015 MICA graduate, presented alongside works by Henri Matisse. These concurrent exhibitions situate MICA’s legacy within a broader continuum of modern and contemporary art and demonstrate the BMA’s strength in connecting historical holdings with living artists.
“Since its founding, MICA has been guided by a simple yet powerful conviction: that creativity matters. That belief has sustained the college across two centuries of change and has shaped generations of artists deeply connected to Baltimore,” said Cecilia M. McCormick, president of MICA. “Together, MICA and the BMA form a vital creative ecosystem—one that fuels cultural life, sparks innovation, and contributes meaningfully to the city’s economic and civic vitality.”
BMA Celebrates MICA 200 is curated by Dr. Leslie Cozzi, Curator and Department Head of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; Antoinette Roberts, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; Oscar Flores Montero, Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art; and Dylan Kaleikaumaka Hill, Meyerhoff-Becker Curatorial Fellow.
The installation is supported by MICA’s Board of Trustees Bicentennial Sponsors, the Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund at MICA, and the Winifred Gordon Foundation.
Words by the Baltimore Musuem of Art