Overview
The Baker Artist Awards recognize artists who demonstrate excellence in three areas: Mastery of Craft, Depth of Artistic Exploration, and Unique Vision.
In 2025, one artist in each of the six artistic disciplines-- Visual Arts, Film/ Video, Interdisciplinary, Literary Arts, Performance, and Music-- will be awarded the $10,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize. One of these six artists will be selected to receive the additional $30,000 Mary Sawyers Imboden prize, for a total of $40,000.
Along with cash awards, selected awardees in the Visual Arts and Interdisciplinary Arts categories are invited to participate in a bi-annual exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
All artists who have an active portfolio on the Baker website on Friday, January 17, 2025 at 5:00PM will be considered for one of this years six awards.
Eligibility
To create a portfolio on the Baker Artist Portfolio site, you must be at least 21 years old and have been a legal resident of the Baltimore region since September 20, 2023 (one year prior to the opening of the current open portfolio season). The Baltimore region is defined as: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, and Howard County.
The Baker Artist Portfolios and associated awards are intended for individual artists and groups of artists working as a collective. Artists whose work is created in collaboration with another artist and who have no significant body of solo work or work created through other collaborations, should apply as a collective. Artists working in any discipline or multiple disciplines are eligible to be awarded the Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize and the Mary Sawyers Baker prize.
Previous awardees receiving $10,000 or less remain eligible to receive an additional award after the completion of one additional awards cycle.
Staff and board members of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, and the Baltimore Community Foundation, as well as their immediate family, are not eligible to receive and award, though are welcome to create a portfolio.
Awardees will be required to provide additional proof of age and residency.
The Baker Artist Portfolios and awards are managed by The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. All inquiries regarding eligibility should be directed to [email protected]
How to submit
Your portfolio on the Baker Artist Portfolios website serves as your submission for the Baker Artist Awards.
Artist's have until Friday, January 17, 2025 at 5:00PM to create or update their portfolio. At that time, the website will automatically create a cloned copy of each artist's portfolio to be used for adjudication. After 5:00PM, artists may still update their public portfolio, but these updates will not be judged until the following year.
There is no "submit" button. All artists with an active portfolio on Friday, January 17, 2025 at 5:00PM will have their worked reviewed by this year's jury.
Artists may choose to keep their portfolio private, but will still be considered for an award. To keep your portfolio hidden from public view, once you are logged in as an artist, click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the website. Select Edit Account Info, and then click on the "Artist Profile" button. At the bottom of that screen, there is a button which reads "Keep my artwork private." Select this box, and click "Save". Your portfolio will now be hidden, but will still be viewed by jurors. Artist’s also now have the option of keeping their portfolio public, while designating specific projects as private. Details on how to do this can be found in the instruction manual.
Adjudication
The Baker Artist Awards enlists a two-tier adjudication process. In Tier One, portfolios in each discipline are reviewed by 2-3 local experts in that discipline. Tier One Jurors review a minimum of the 4 work samples in each portfolio. Each juror submits a scoring and ranking of their top selected artists. From these numbers, Baker Artist Award Finalists are determined. Tier One Jurors are anonymous to each other and the public.
In Tier Two, one national expert in each discipline thoroughly reviews the portfolios of each of the 36 finalists. Each juror submits a scoring and ranking of their top selected artists. Awardees are determined from the scores and rankings across both tiers of adjudication. In 2025, the names of Tier Two Jurors will be announced with the names of the Awardees.
Mary Sawyers Baker Prize
One exemplary artist from each discipline who has created a portfolio on the Baker site will be awarded a $10,000 Mary Sawyers Baker prize.
Mary Sawyers Baker was one of Baltimore's early philanthropists, studied voice as a young girl in Paris and embraced the arts throughout her life. She established the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund in 1964 to honor her husband, a well-known Baltimore civic leader.
Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize
Established to be truly transformational to the life and career of one artist, the Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize will be awarded to one exemplary artist who has create a portfolio in the Baker Artist Portfolios website. One of the six artists selected to receive the one of the six annual Mary Sawyers Baker prizes, will be selected to receive an additional $30,000, for a total of $40,000.
Mary Sawyers Imboden was the beloved niece of Mary Sawyers Baker and throughout her childhood traveled extensively with her aunt throughout Europe. Mary Sawyers Baker established The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund in 1964 and upon her death in 1976, was succeeded by Mary S. Imboden on its Board of Governors on which she served until 1999. During her tenure on the board, she was instrumental in forming the Fund’s guidelines and procedures to better reflect her aunt’s wishes. In addition to making sure each dollar was granted wisely, Mary Imboden wanted to make sure the fund was innovative and specifically met the needs of the city of Baltimore.
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