Arts and Culture
American Visionary Art Museum, www.avam.org, (410) 244-1900
800 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD
Hours: 10:00am–6:00pm, Tuesday-Sunday
Question:
What is visionary art?
Answer:
"Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art
produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate
personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself."
Baltimore Museum of Art, www.artbma.org , (443) 573-1700
10 Art Museum Drive
Baltimore, MD
Hours: Wed-Friday, 10-5; Saturday 11-6; Sunday 11-6
From a single object in 1914, The Baltimore Museum of Art’s outstanding collection today encompasses
90,000 works of art, including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world, as well as
masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh.
The BMA is recognized for an impressive collection of contemporary art that includes important examples of
Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist sculpture, and Pop Art with many late works by Andy Warhol, as well as
major acquisitions of more recent work by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker.The Museum also
boasts an internationally renowned collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15th century to the
present; European masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Sir Anthony van Dyck;
distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; one of the most important African collections in
the country; and notable examples of art from the Ancient Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
The BMA’s Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern and contemporary sculpture on nearly
three landscaped acres in the heart of the city.
Baltimore Museum of Industry, www.thebmi.org , (410) 727-4808
1415 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD
Unlike many museums, the Baltimore Museum of Industry’s collections do not document the lifestyle of the
elite. Instead, BMI depicts people who are often over-looked: the workers, small business owners, and others
who built our history.
Baltimore has long been recognized as a major industrial center and is home to the nation’s first passenger
railway, oldest gas company, first traffic light, and many other inventions and innovations. The BMI’s
collections are evocative reminders of Baltimore’s great history and explain, more effectively than any
textbook, how the city developed from a small trading post to a thriving industrial center. The collections also
explain how Baltimore’s residents—no matter their station in life, race, ethnicity, or occupation—contributed to
this development.
Baltimore has long taken pride in its identity as a “working man’s town” and this industrial heritage, central to
Baltimore’s image of itself, is preserved at BMI in one of the nation’s best and broadest collections of industrial
items.
B&O Railroad Museum, www.borail.org, (410) 752-2490
901 W. Pratt St.
Baltimore, MD 21223
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum possesses the oldest, most historic and most comprehensive American
railroad collections in the world. Dating from the beginning of American railroading, the collection contains locomotives
and rolling stock, historic buildings, and small objects that document the impact of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
(B&O) on the growth and development of early railroading and cover almost every aspect of an industry that left a
permanent mark on the folklore and culture of America.
The Museum’s locomotive and rolling stock collection contains many unique examples of historically significant pieces
from the B&O and other Maryland railroads and includes the finest collection of 19th century steam locomotives. The
Museum’s roster of locomotives and rolling stock represent the first, last, best or only of their kind in existence today.
The small object collection covers almost every facet of railroading and includes clocks, pocket watches, textiles,
lanterns, dining car china, silver, fine art, communication devices, signals, shop equipment, and an assortment tools
and artifacts used on historic occasions such as the laying of the B&O’s ceremonial First Stone on July 4, 1828, which
marked the beginning of construction of America’s first railroad.
Jewish Museum of Maryland, www.jhsm.org , (410) 732-6400
15 Lloyd Street
Baltimore, MD
www.jhsm.org
The Jewish Museum of Maryland has the largest single collection of regional Jewish Americana in the U.S. Our
collections include works of art, historical photographs, clothing, ceremonial items, rare books, everyday
objects, documents, oral histories, and memorabilia. The collections embody the story of Jewish life in
Maryland - immigration, family history, business, congregational and organizational life, leisure, consumption,
and contemporary culture. The Museum collections and scholarly research inform our exhibitions, programs,
and publications
Maryland Historical Society, www.mdhs.org, ( 410) 685-3750
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD
Maryland Historical Society collections include more than 350,000 objects and 7 million books and documents,
ranging from pre-settlement to the present day and representing virtually every aspect of Maryland history and
life.
The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum, www.greatblacksinwax.org, (410)563-3404
1601-03 East North Ave.
Baltimore, MD
The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum is among the nations most dynamic cultural and educational
institutions. Because it is a wax museum committed solely to the study and preservation of African American
history, it is also among the most unique. Primarily, the presentation of life-size, life-like wax figures
highlighting historical and contemporary personalities of African ancestry defines its uniqueness. This unique
museum, the first one of wax in Baltimore, Maryland and the first wax museum of African American history in
the nation.
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture,
www.africanamericanculture.org , (443) 263-1800
830 E. Pratt St.
Baltimore, MD
(443) 263-1800
The largest African American museum on the east coast, it includes a 2,000-seat theater, an oral history
studio, classrooms and exhibition space. The Inaugural Exhibition of the museum explores three areas: Family
and Community, Labor that Built a Nation, and Arts and Enlightenment.
The Walters Art Museum, www.thewalters.org , (410) 547- 9000
600 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is internationally renowned for its collection of art. The
collection presents an overview of world art from pre-dynastic Egypt to 20th-century Europe, and counts
among its many treasures Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi; medieval ivories and Old Master paintings;
Art Nouveau jewelry and 19th-century European and American masterpieces.
The museum's collection, encompassing 55 centuries of art from around the world,
includes more than 30,000 objects. Beautiful works by Monet, Faberge, Delacroix, and
Raphael. General admission is free.
Note: The primary source of information for each of the museums above was obtained from their respective website.