Where's Marty? At City Hall learning about the history of the mayor's portraits
Hi Everyone!
We gave you quite an interesting "WM?" today. It involves mayors and their official portraits.
Above is the Board of Estimates room on the second floor of City Hall.
In this room, every cent spent by Baltimore City is approved.
And looking down on the proceedings are the official portraits of Baltimore's past leaders. Not all 52 Mayors, as 52 paintings would not fit it in here. (Many are scattered about City Hall.)
But "not all" mayors because counting Mayor Brandon Scott. five are missing. Not since Mayor Martin O'Malley has an official portrait been commissioned.
Through no fault of anyone, or slight to anyone, it just has not happened. Mayors Jack Young, Sheila Dixon, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Catherine Pugh, and Brandon Scott do not have portraits.
This is about to be corrected.
The Mayor's Senior Advisor on Arts & Culture Tonya Miller Hall, and Jackson Gilman-Forllini, the City's Historic Preservation Officer, joined us today to discuss the issue.
If you go to this page on the City's website, https://www.baltimorecity.gov/moac/rfq-portrait, you can find out how you can apply to be one of five painters paired up with the five mayors to create their work of art.
There will be a heavy vetting process of resumes, and each mayor will be interviewed to find their preference on an artist and how they would like the painting to happen. (Either sitting for sketches, or having pictures taken for the artist to work from.)
And this work will be done over the next year.
There will be no waiting to correct this overlooked part of Baltimore's history.
Jackson GIlman-Forlini pointed out that these portraits are a visual representation of Baltimore's history to remind all of our past. And that the Mayors pose, in the painting, says as much about the personality of the men, and woman, as their terms.
We are going to keep up with this story once the artist are chosen, and maybe even talk to a mayor, or two, about the work being done. I find this oversight hard to believe, but in the hustle and bustle of our modern world I CAN see how it happened.
Marty B!