Baltimore Museum Of Art Will Only Buy Works By Women Next Year

Step into one of the nation’s top art museums, and most of the works you’ll see were made by men.

The Baltimore Museum of Art has decided to make a bold step to correct that imbalance: next year, the museum will only purchase works made by female-identifying artists.

“This how you raise awareness and shift the identity of an institution,” museum director Christopher Bedford told The Baltimore Sun. “You don’t just purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko. To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.”

The policy will only apply to works purchased by the museum, not gifts. The number of works purchased by the museum each year varies, and works are bought on a rolling basis.

The move is part of a larger initiative launched in October called 2020 Vision, a series of 22 exhibits at the museum celebrating female-identifying artists. The initiative includes 13 solo exhibitions and seven thematic shows, with more being planned. Next year marks a century since women were guaranteed the right to vote in the United States, with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

The Baltimore Museum of Art has 95,000 works, including the world’s largest collection of works by Henri Matisse.

Its collections include 3,800 works by women artists and designers – just 4% of its holdings.

Baltimore Museum Of Art Will Only Buy Works By Women Next Year

Image: The Baltimore Museum of Art Caption: The Baltimore Museum of Art will only buy works by women next year, as part of a yearlong series exhibiting art by women. Amy Sherald’s Planes, rockets, and the spaces in between (2018) is among the 3,800 works by women in the museum’s collection