2023 Baker Artist Awards winners to be highlightedduring January 19 MPT Artworks special
Six Maryland artists earn prestigious award as part of annual program
Maryland Public Television (MPT) will profile the six winners of the 2023 Baker Artist Awards competition during a special Artworks episode airing on Friday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m. on MPT-HD and online at mpt.org/livestream. The program will also be available to watch on the free PBS App and MPT’s online video player.
A preview of Artwork’s 2023 Baker Artist Awards special and individual artist profiles can be found at mpt.org/programs/baker-artist-awards.
Now in its 15th year, the Baker Artist Awards celebrates the Baltimore region’s creative vitality and recognizes individuals with outstanding talent. Artists who create an online Baker Artist Portfolio and reside in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, or Howard County are eligible for awards. The 2023 winners were announced by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund in June, 2023.
Prizes are awarded to artists who exemplify a mastery of craft, commitment to excellence, and a unique and compelling vision across six creative disciplines: visual arts, inter- and multi-disciplinary work, music, performance, film/video, and literary arts.
The Baker Artist Awards has distributed $1.3 million in annual prize money since its launch in 2009. In 2023, one artist from each of the six artistic disciplines received a $10,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize. One of the six selected artists was also honored with the additional $30,000 Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize, taking home a total of $40,000.
2023 Baker Artist Award winners:
Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson (literary arts; Baltimore City – Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize winner) – Dickinson’s writings span multiple genres, including narrative nonfiction, journalism, short fiction, and memoir. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Washington Post Magazine, and The Southern Review, among other publications. Dickinson has earned numerous awards and accolades for her work, and was named a 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.
Jordan Tierney (visual arts; Baltimore City) – Tierney’s experiential found-objects art is made mostly from trash collected from Maryland’s natural spaces. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, Baltimore Museum of Art, and American Visionary Art Museum.
Abdu Ali (music; Baltimore City) – Ali is a musician, producer, poet, and multidisciplinary artist who works in sound, video, and live performance. Ali has performed at MoMa Ps1, The Andy Warhol Museum, The Carnegie Museum of Art, and The Kennedy Center, and has had work featured in The New York Times, The Fader, and Elephant Magazine.
Oletha DeVane (inter- and multi-disciplinary work; Howard County) – DeVane’s multi-disciplinary work includes sculpture, mixed-media visual art, and video installations. Her work is on display in permanent collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of the Bible, and Museum of the Americas, and has been featured in publications including B’more Art Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, and The Washington Post.
Colette Krogol (performing arts; Baltimore City) – Krogol is a choreographer, director, performer, and filmmaker. She is co-artistic director and co-founder of Orange Grove Dance, whose dance and film works have been produced and presented by The Finlandia Foundation, The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Lönnström Taidemuseo, Museum of Zhang Zhidong, Raumars AIR, Officina Creativa, CerCCa, and Klaustrid at Skriduklaustir.
Margaret Rorison (film/video; Baltimore City) – Rorison’s work has shown at festivals including The Ann Arbor Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Images Festival, SF CROSSROADS, Open City Documentary Film Festival, and Mono No Aware Cinema Arts Festival. Her experimental short films have earned her the ORWO Award for Best Cinematography at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and a special jury prize at the New Orleans Film Festival.
