Tamara's profile

Native to Baltimore City Tamara Payne is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, professor, community activist, painter, designer, curator, and performance artist whose work shows a wide range of skillfulness. Tamara's most recent accession of work was featured in Voyage Baltimore’s most inspiring stories of 2023 and her current work, Dear Black Girl was also featured in BmoreArt's Print Journal Issue 16, Collaboration. She is an alumnus of the Baltimore School for the Arts where she began her artist’s practices at an early age in drawing, painting, design, and sculpture. Tamara continued her studies in Fashion at Parsons School of Design, in New York City where she began her love for textiles and fashion. She returned to Baltimore to earn her BFA in painting with a minor in ceramic studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Having an innate passion for humanity Tamara's work has taken her to poverty-stricken communities in South Africa, The Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico where she participated in health aid and beautification projects while painting murals in poverty-stricken communities. Tamara has been pursuing her own community-based art making in Baltimore City since 2008. She earned her Masters of Community Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art and would go straight into her community arts practices while also winning The PNC Bank Transformative Art Prize for her public installation work in Baltimore City that same year.  

Having witnessed echoes of mental health issues in others and throughout her residencies over the years, her work focuses on self-exploration, collaborations with others, healing, communal practices, celebration of life, empowerment and relationship building. Her current work explores the construction of brown and black women’s narratives through performance art, and public installations. As a community centered artist, Tamara has engaged 100's of community members annually in the making of large 2-D and 3D public art pieces. She coordinates with community leaders to offer workshops specifically tailored to the ages and abilities within each community for various projects. Through various multi-media Tamara's work explores portraiture, community and collaborations among people in search of her most grounded and potent self. 

As an artist and activist Tamara's continuous contributions in the past few decades for her public art installations, grant writing, and exhibition work have gained her numerous awards and recognitions. Tamara received several community awards along with an “Individual Artist Award” in 2014 for her community mosaic installation funded by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. She was recognized for her community mural work for The Butterfly Effect in Baltimore City by City Council President Nick Mosby in the fall of 2021. In the fall of 2022, she was honored with a second Individual Artist Award on behalf of the City of Baltimore and Mayor Brandon Scott for her exhibition work for Dear Black Girl. Tamara is also a two-time honoree of the Black Wall Street Awards, being recognized for her continuous contributions in Baltimore City for her community initiatives, mural and exhibition work. 

Tamara continues to explore many ideas of the world to empower and honor all people. Her personal work and collaborations with others in the community through multimedia, fashion, performance, and music are intended to serve as a safe space of healing for all people while honoring her own process. Her work affords diverse viewers the opportunity to become a witness in a journey of healing, and celebration while honoring one another. She welcomes others to join this ordained journey.  

 

 

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