Messina and The Road Runners will be performing music associated with their latest live album, “Here, There and Everywhere,” at 8 p.m. Nov. 25, according to a news release. Messina has described the album as an eclectic mix of folk, country, rock and Latin from different phases of his career.

He is perhaps best known for playing the bass guitar for the seminal 1960s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band Buffalo Springfield. After Springfield disbanded in 1968, Messina co-founded the pioneering country rock band Poco. In 1971, he joined forces with the then-unknown Kenny Loggins to form one of rock’s most successful recording duos.

Over the next eight years, Loggins & Messina released eight albums, selling more than 16 million recordings of such hit tunes as “Danny’s Song” and “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” the release says.

Tickets to the Annapolis concert cost $71 to $96, including fees.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

The band is up for Best Alternative Music Performance for “Seein’ Stars”; Best Rock Album for “Never Enough”; Best Metal Performance for “Birds”; Best Rock Performance for “Never Enough” and Best Rock Song for “Never Enough,” according to the awards ceremony’s website. Nominations for the 68th annual awards were announced Friday.

What’s more, those five nods are history-making, according to a social media post by the band’s label, Roadrunner Records, which said that Turnstile is the first band ever nominated across the rock, alternative and metal categories in a single year.

“Never Enough,” which was released Jun 6, is the band’s sixth album.

Turnstile was formed in 2010 after some of the band members have said they met through Towson University.

The band’s current iteration consists of front man and producer Brendan Yates, guitarist Pat McCrory, bassist Franz Lyons, drummer Daniel Fang and its newest member, guitarist Meg Mills. The group is in the midst of a European tour, according to its website.

The recent haul brings Turnstile’s Grammy nomination total to nine, including three nominations in 2022 and one the following year.

However, the band has yet to pick up one of the coveted statuettes. Turnstile fans can tune in Feb. 1, when the award ceremony will be held in Los Angeles, to find out whether this year is the charm.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

At first glance, Murphy’s painting resembles a conventional still life of a cantaloupe and four apples on a napkin. But as viewers lean closer, slightly raised words begin emerging almost ghostlike from the canvas: “abortion,” “DEI,” “victim,” “intersectional” and “equality.”

These terms, taken from a list of words that whistleblowers from the National Science Foundation said were flagged as unacceptable by the Trump administration on grant applications for research projects, recede into the background of Murphy’s painting and nearly fade from view — an effect that operates almost subliminally.

“These paintings were a way for me to process my feelings,” said Murphy, who directs the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Visual Arts and voted for Kamala Harris. “If you use the words ‘women’ or ‘breastfeeding’ in an application for a research grant, you’re likely not going to get it. This is more than just rhetoric; it is having a real impact on women’s lives.”

She’s among the artists and cultural groups who individually and collectively are using paintbrushes, musical instruments and publications to push back against what they view as the Trump administration’s attempt to curtail free speech.

Those efforts include Fall of Freedom, a series of live and online concerts, readings, comedy acts and exhibits that will take place coast to coast, including in Maryland, on Nov. 21 and 22. The initiative is being described as the first coordinated, nationwide “creative resistance” to the president’s efforts to reframe American cultural life.

However, talk of censorship makes many conservatives roll their eyes. It is liberals, they say, who have been functioning as the nation’s thought police.

David F. Tufaro, a real estate developer who was the Republican candidate for mayor of Baltimore in 1999, is disturbed by the removal of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument from his former neighborhood of Bolton Hill. it was among four Confederate monuments taken down by former Mayor Catherine Pugh under cover of darkness in 2017, days after a “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia turned violent, claiming three lives.

Tufaro pointed out that removing monuments because they espouse an unpopular political viewpoint is an act of censorship in and of itself.

“I was shocked when this beautiful monument to Confederate soldiers who died in battle was removed without public discussion or debate,” he said. “It should be restored to its rightful place.”

(Trump later ordered that many of the monuments removed nationwide in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd be reinstalled, though his directive didn’t apply to Baltimore because the monuments weren’t on federal land.)

Although censorship is an especially hot-button topic right now, this isn’t the first time in American history that tensions between opposing political factions have spilled over into efforts to muzzle dissenting points of view. Charges of censorship were lobbed during the Sedition Act of 1798, during 1950s-era McCarthyism and during the culture wars of the 1990s.

“Censorship can be imposed by the political left or the political right,” said Janet Marstine, a former museum studies professor and author of an book about censorship called “Curating Under Pressure.”

“The problem is that censors erase complex areas of history. In order to create an anachronistic, nostalgic view of America, you have to reduce the gray areas to all black or white. When you take away opportunities for audiences to engage in critical thinking about history and culture and science, we become a citizenry that can’t think critically about other things, including voting. And that’s scary.”

Of course, not all reasons for withholding artworks from public view are politically motivated. For instance, the American Visionary Art Museum decided this fall to include Koreloy Wildrekinde-McWhirter’s sequence on child rape in its yearlong mega-exhibition, “Fantastic Realities.” But curators left out one etching that served as the crux of the series because they feared it was so graphic it would distress visitors.

But most headline-grabbing anti-censorship protests are political.

Fall of Freedom, which is being organized out of New York, has already begun generating buzz. That’s partly because it has attracted such influential supporters as the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, filmmaker Michael Moore, musician John Legend and author Jennifer Egan.

Kennedy Center fans, artists weigh boycotts under Trump: ‘I won’t pay money to be disgusted’

Organizers are encouraging artists nationwide to mount a series of simultaneous public events that take aim at such Trump administration initiatives as the January takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the abrupt dismissal of former Librarian of Congress (and Baltimore resident) Carla Hayden and the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“Fascism isn’t going to wait,” Brooklyn-based artist Dread Scott said during an October planning session for Fall of Freedom. “If artists wait for a year and a half to speak up, the world won’t look the same as it does today.”

People from opposite ends of the political spectrum often use the same words and phrases — “censorship” and “partisan ideology” and “rewriting history” — to talk about the actions to which they object, whether that’s liberals toppling the statue of Christopher Columbus into the Inner Harbor in 2020, or the Trump administration ordering a comprehensive review of Smithsonian exhibitions to ensure that museum administrators are not “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” according to the president’s March 27 executive order.

Fall of Freedom participants are not unaware of the irony. Some say that any event aimed at combatting censorship is morally obligated to make room for opposing points of view.

“Democracy does not look like silencing the voice of your opponents or pulling funding from your opponents,” said Stevie Walker-Webb, artistic director of Baltimore Center stage, which will participate in Fall of Freedom by reopening and expanding the theater’s Indigenous Art Gallery.

“When fascist regimes take over, two things tend to happen,” he said. “Some people fall into line, and some people resist. We at Center Stage have a third response, which is to create something so joyful that maybe it makes people in the other line rethink their politics.”

For Walker-Webb, that means everyone is welcome at Center Stage — including the commander in chief.

“I would honestly love it,” he said, “if the president wanted to come and experience the work we’re doing.”

As of noon Friday, six Maryland groups had registered to participate in Fall of Freedom, according to an interactive map on its website.

Those events include a screening of the 1993 David Grubin film “Degenerative Art” in Hyattsville, a pro-Democracy dance party at Baltimore’s Penn Station and artist talks at Bmore Art by local creators whose work deals with issues ranging from immigration to global warming to the plight of Baltimore’s squeegee workers.

“This is a moment when it’s really important for every voice to be heard,” said Inés Sanchez de Lozada, Bmore Art’s gallery coordinator.

“Artists are very resilient and strong and they know how to fight for their freedoms. No matter what this administration does, artists are not going anywhere and art is going to continue to happen.”

Some cultural workers are mounting independent protests against censorship that align with Fall of Freedom ideals but that aren’t necessarily part of its of public events.

For example, earlier this fall, Sherald cited censorship concerns after her painting of a transgender woman posed as the Statue of Liberty drew Trump administration backlash. Although Smithsonian officials attributed the brouhaha to a misunderstanding, “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” is running instead at the BMA through April 5.

“At a time when transgender people are being legislated against, silenced, and endangered across our nation, silence is not an option,” Sherald wrote in a statement explaining her reasons for canceling the Washington show. “I cannot in good conscience comply with a culture of censorship, especially when it targets vulnerable communities.”

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

“Downtown Frederick, MD was devastated by two floods 50 years ago,” a trailer for the hourlong documentary begins. “It looked like something right out of a disaster movie.”

Historical, black-and-white footage of a sleepy rural community morphs into an airborne shot of a thriving metropolis.

“How did they go from this,” the narrator asks, “to this?”

“InSpired” — a pun on Frederick’s trademark clustered church spires — is the latest documentary produced by the same filmmaking team who created “The House on Jonathon Street,” a documentary chronicling the former “Black Wall Street of Maryland” in Hagerstown.

Both movies are produced by Russ Hodge; narrated by his wife, Cynthia Scott; directed by the producer’s son, Patrick Hodge; and released by their 3 Roads Communications video company.

According to the website, “InSpired” follows the city from its precolonial days to the present.

Viewers nationwide who study Frederick’s renaissance will “have a complete context for understanding how their city or town can make some of the positive changes that Frederick has,” the website reads.

More than 60 screenings of “InSpired” have been scheduled on PBS stations, according to a news release. The film will broadcast in Baltimore and Washington at the same times: 3 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 9 p.m. on Nov. 21.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

The victim has been taken to a hospital for treatment and is expected to survive, according to department spokesperson Joy Stewart.

The injured man was not identified, and it was not immediately clear whether he would be arrested or what charges he would face once treated.

At approximately 8:05 a.m., police began receiving “multiple” calls about an armed person near Putty Hill Avenue and Avondale Road, according to Stewart. When officers arrived, some community members waved them down and pointed them toward the man.

The officer was the only person to fire a gun. Police later determined that the perceived weapon was a BB rifle.

Baltimore County District 5 Councilman David Marks posted an image Monday afternoon of the message his office received from the department’s Parkville precinct on the shooting.

According to that message, which was not attributed to a specific officer, the man who was shot was carrying “what appeared to be a long gun” and refused commands to put down the weapon.

After the shooting, “medical aid was immediately rendered,” the message stated.

The shooting took place on White Marsh Boulevard, and as a result, Maryland Route 43 was closed between Interstate 695 and Walther Boulevard. As of 12:15 p.m., the road had reopened.

When asked whether police had encountered the man before, Stewart said, “We’ll be looking into everything about this person’s background.

Stewart told The Baltimore Sun that the officer’s body-worn camera was equipped and functioning at the time of the shooting.

Anyone who was in the area with information is asked to call police at 410-887-4636.

On Sunday, another police shooting in Salisbury followed a fatal double shooting. The IID is investigating that case, according to a news release from state police.

Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at lparker@baltsun.com, 410-725-6214, on X as @lparkernews or on Signal as @parkerluke.34. Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com, 410-332-6704, and x.com/@mcmccauley.

Originating in 1999, the festival runs Wednesday to Nov. 9 and is described in an October news release as an intersection “where film, music, food, art, gaming, parties, and creative technology converge.”

This year’s program features a slate of 25 full-length feature films from local and international voices, including several that feature Baltimore stories. There will be an opening night program of shorts, retrospectives of favorite films from previous decades, panel discussions and celebrity guests.

“This year’s lineup embodies everything we love about independent film, from risk-taking to a fierce commitment to truth,” festival director KJ Mohr said in the release. “We’re especially proud to highlight stories that emerge from Baltimore and connect to the global creative community.”

Highlights of the 2025 festival include:

• A rare screening of cult filmmaker John Waters’ 1970 black comedy “Multiple Maniacs” about a group of traveling sideshow freaks who rob their audiences. The film, Waters’ second, featuring such beloved Dreamlanders (Waters’ regular cast and crew) as Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey and Mary Vivian Pearce. (9:30 p.m. Nov. 7)
• David Simon, the former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of the iconic television series “The Wire,” will introduce “Paths of Glory,” the classic 1957 film. It stars actor Kirk Douglas portraying a French commander who refuses to continue a suicidal attack and later defends his soldiers in a military trial. (12 p.m. Nov. 8)
• “Sun Ra: Do the Impossible,” a biography of the late jazz musician, composer and poet who either was born in Alabama or on Saturn. The film will be presented by the renowned Baltimore artist and activist Elissa Blount Moorhead and will be followed by a conversation with editor Steven Golliday and Sun Ra scholar Thomas Stanley. (5 p.m. Nov. 8)
• “All That’s Left of You” is the nation of Jordan’s Academy Award entry for Best International Film. The movie, which explores Palestine’s conflict with Israel over three generations of the same family, already has scooped up several film festival awards. (7:45 p.m. Thursday and 10:15 a.m. Nov. 9)

Tickets for the festival range from $20 for individual shows to an all-access pass for $350 and can be purchased online.

“The films in our 2025 program remind us why this festival continues to be a cornerstone of Maryland’s cultural landscape,” Mohr said in the release, “bringing together filmmakers, artists, and audiences in celebration of cinema’s power to challenge, inspire, and unite.”

Film fans unlucky enough to be out of town for the 2025 festival need not despair; the 2026 festival is returning to its traditional spring slot and will unspool from April 8 to 12.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

Sherald, 52, lives now in New Jersey. But she’s back this weekend in the city she called home for 17 years to celebrate the opening of her solo show, “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Sunday.

Like many artists, Sherald worked in relative obscurity for decades before being selected by former first lady Michelle Obama to paint her official portrait. During the unveiling ceremony in 2018, former President Barack Obama thanked Sherald “for so spectacularly capturing the grace, beauty, intelligence, charm and hotness of the woman I love.”

But it’s fair to say that President Donald Trump is not a fan. An article published by the White House on Aug. 21 titled “President Trump is Right About the Smithsonian” includes an image of Sherald’s painting of a transgender woman posed as the Statue of Liberty, entitled “Trans Forming Liberty,” on a list of objectionable artworks.

Still, political turmoil pales in comparison to the other challenges that Sherald has overcome, including a heart transplant at age 39 after she collapsed on the floor of a Baltimore pharmacy. Thirteen years later, she still honors her organ donor, Kristin Lin Smith, publicly whenever possible. For instance, in the exhibit catalog she thanks Smith again, writing “without our paths crossing, none of this would have been possible.”

The artist stepped away from the installation process before Sunday’s public opening to talk about her years in Charm City, her shift toward creating more political artwork — and her controversial decision over the summer to cancel the planned exhibition of “American Sublime” at the National Portrait Gallery because she feared censorship.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did your 17 years in Maryland help to shape the artist you are today?

My years here were really formative. Graduate school for me wasn’t easy. I was waiting tables to support myself, and I felt intimidated. I felt like all these other kids knew so much more than me.

But Leslie King-Hammond [then MICA’s dean of graduate studies] never made me feel I didn’t belong. I called her “Mama Smurf.” When I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, she was the first person I told.

I was offered the opportunity to go to Norway to study with [the acclaimed figurative painter] Odd Nerdrum, but there was no money for me to make the trip. Grace was able to get me a $3,000 emergency artist grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation that didn’t really exist. She called in a favor — for me.

AVAM pulls artwork depicting molestation from new Baltimore exhibit

You went from living the life of the stereotypical artist starving in a garret to becoming more or less a household name. Is fame and fortune all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, I’m not J. Lo famous. But yes. People recognize me on the street. It was an interesting transition. I like to say that I’m a private person, but I’m really not. I’m an open book, and I say what is on my mind. But I’m also not exactly a people person.

If you’re at a dinner party with me, I’ll listen, and every 30 minutes, I’ll make a comment.

One thing surprised me: I got a lot of hateful DMs. For some people, your success shines a light on their deficits and reflects back the dissatisfaction they feel with their own lives.

Does being so well-known put additional pressure on you?

I’m grateful for my success. What is most important to me about “American Sublime” is that a lot of people who will look at this show probably won’t visit any other museums this year. Because of that ability to cross over, I do feel a certain amount of self-ordained pressure.

Also, because of my association with Michelle Obama, my life and legacy has become attached to hers. I feel as though I need to exist in the world in a certain way that honors her. I would never want to do anything that jeopardizes her legacy.

A few years ago, your work started becoming more political. Was there an instigating event?

The first time was the portrait I did of Breonna Taylor [the emergency room technician killed in 2020 in her apartment by St. Louis police during a botched raid] I’ve only done two portraits of specific people: Breonna and Michelle. But it became an opportunity to make a painting that codified the moment. It felt like the right time, the appropriate time, given the platform that I have.

I started with that monochromatic blue background, and I made her dress a bit lighter. It tapped into the emotion I want the painting to have. It felt heavenly. It felt airy and spacious around her. I didn’t want her body to have any pressure on it, even if it was just color. I think it creates a deeper sense of freedom.

The Smithsonian said it wasn’t trying to censor your exhibit or pull “Trans Forming Liberty,” merely contextualize it by adding a video of visitor reactions. But you told Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” that any kind of framing was unacceptable.

“Trans Forming Liberty” is more of a statement than any words could be. Another painting in the show, “For Love, and for Country,” makes a similar statement. [The painting updates Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic 1945 photograph, “V-J Day in Times Square” by depicting the embracing sailors as a gay couple.] I felt like my only choice was to pull the whole show.

People are moving cautiously, like they have a lot to lose. They’re afraid.

Was that painful?

I wouldn’t call it painful because I was very eager to do the right thing. It would have been a lot more painful to compromise.

But did I feel that in a way the Trump administration won? Yeah, a little bit.

But now that the government has shut down, the National Portrait Gallery has been closed for nearly a month. No one would have been able to see the show, and now, it’s at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

So I think I did the right thing. Absolutely.

If you go

“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” runs Sunday through April 5 at the Baltimore Museum of Art., 10 Art Museum Drive. Tickets cost $10 to $18, with children aged 17 and younger admitted free. The exhibit also is free on opening day, on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and all day on Jan. 15 and Feb. 19.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

“For the first time in more than 50 years, WETA is now operating without any federal funds,” Jeff Regen, the organization’s vice president of membership, marketing and development, wrote in a news release. “This is the biggest crisis WETA has faced in our six-decade history.”

Congress voted in mid-July to claw back $1.1 billion in previously authorized awards for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, throwing more than 1,350 public radio and television stations nationwide into a financial tailspin. The Corporation was created to disburse money to individual broadcasters in 50 states.

Mary Stewart, the station’s vice president of external affairs, told The Baltimore Sun that the loss to the Washington-based WETA amounts to $9 million annually, or between 7 to 10% of the station’s annual budget. In addition to mounting such popular programs as “PBS NewsHour” and the Ken Burns’ documentary films that air nationwide, Stewart estimated that the station’s 1.3 billion regular listeners include more than 400,000 Maryland residents.

The cost-cutting measures that WETA is implementing include:

* Delaying new seasons for three local programs until sufficient funds can be raised. (The release did not state which programs will go without new seasons.)

* Reducing the circulation of the station’s monthly print guide.

* Instituting a hiring freeze and eliminating some previously-approved positions, and

* Renegotiating contracts with vendors.

But Regen said that other initiatives will go proceed as planned, including preserving core PBS and classical music programming, and launching a new free WETA streaming service.

In addition, the station is appealing to its listeners to donate to its Sustainability and Innovation Fund and has launched a campaign to replace the $9 million annually that it has lost.

“The truth is that the road ahead will not be easy,” Regen wrote. “But WETA will carry on, no matter what. We will not let the loss of federal funding undermine our mission of serving you…with the programming and services that matter so deeply to our community.”

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

To get you in the proper mood, here are 10 artworks on view in Baltimore museums that just might frighten the bejesus out of you.

American Visionary Art Museum

“Thanatos Wave” by Promethea (aka Maura Holden)

The artist kept trying to get her vision of utopia down onto paint and canvas. Instead, what came out was … this.

As Holden describes her work in the former online art website Visionary Review: “Figures in the foreground bulged toward the viewer as if through a fisheye lens. Behind them a seismic wave crashed into a city of screaming, carnivorous buildings.”

In Greek mythology, Thanatos is the god of death.

“Tomorrow, the Dogs (Demain les Chiens)” by Stephanie Lucas

This painting was inspired by Clifford D. Simak’s 1952 dystopian novel, “City,” in which people have disappeared and dogs rule the earth. From a distance, Lucas’ painting doesn’t look fearsome. But come close, and viewers see human beings with monsters’ heads and a donkey with its innards exposed. In fact, monsters are everywhere, cradling a human skeleton or with giant, snapping jaws. Up in the trees — are those eyes?

Baltimore Museum of Art

“Fantasy” by Jacob Lawrence

A spectral white, wounded hand materializes out of the darkness and reaches down toward the figure of a sleeping woman in this work. The menacing effect is heightened by the knife-like forms that are repeated over and over in her coverlet and draperies. Many of Lawrence’s artworks take place in the shifting borderlands between dreams and reality.

“The Snow Woman (Yuki Onna)” by Uemura Shōen

The woman in this painting might look ethereal and almost delicate, but you wouldn’t want to cross her path in a dark alley. She’s a “yokai” or supernatural being, who, in this case, is the ghost of a woman murdered in a forest, according to BMA Chief Curator Kevin Tervala. Holding a sword and blanketed in snow, she appears to seeks revenge.

“Covered Vase” by Louis-Robert Carrier-Belleuse

Two ominous winged figures hovering at the top of this 19th century vase appear to be threatening the naked children below, who scramble frantically in an effort to escape. Two plaques reading “sauve qui peut” — or “save yourself if you can” — warn of chaos and impending doom.

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture

“Tombstone and Tombstone Fragments” by Sebastian “Boss” Hammond

The Lewis is primarily a historical museum these days. But these tombstone fragments carved by the master stoneworker qualify as both history and art. Hammond, an enslaved man who never learned to read, nonetheless carved more than 100 tombstones in Frederick and Carroll counties during his life. This one commemorating the brief life of Hannah Cas, who died when she was just 2 years old, is especially poignant.

Walters Art Museum

“Figure of Death (Memento Mori)” attributed to Hans Leinberger

If the tattered clothing and disintegrating flesh on this 16th century German sculpture weren’t already the stuff of nightmares, the inscription on the scroll it is holding makes it so much worse: “I am what you will be,” the scroll reads. “I was what you are. For every man is this so.”

“Judith Decapitating Holofernes” by Trophime Bigot

Bigot, known as “The Master of the Candlelight,” does not skimp on the blood. It stains the Jewish widow’s hand, as well as the pillow next to the Assyrian commander’s upside-down, horrified head. The candles in this 17th century painting also emphasize the faces of Judith and her elderly maidservant, who are the picture of an almost matter-of-fact determination.

“Mummified Human Remains of a Woman Inside a Painted Cartonnage” by unknown

In 8th century Egypt, which is about when this woman was embalmed, mortal remains were preserved to house the “Ka” or life force, according to the Walters’ website. But in the U.S., mummies have long been the stuff of B horror movies. Making this one particularly petrifying, the museum’s website includes a photo of the facial reconstruction of the dead woman created by the forensic artist and police officer Michael Brassell.

“Netsuke in Form of Skull and Toad” by Ohara Mitsohiru

The 19th century Japanese artist who made this had a really dark sense of humor. A “netsuke” was a toggle used to fasten small objects to the sash of a kimono. The toad might not be scary, but it sure is ugly, with warts and bulging eyes. Although the toad symbolizes prosperity, according to Walters curator Dany Chan, the skull appears to have been just recently unearthed and has a distinct graveyard whiff.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.

The gift from philanthropists Amy and Marc Meadows and their Stoneridge Foundation will create a $10 million endowment to fund six key educational initiatives, from providing bus transportation for public school field trips to the museum to maintaining a free drop-in artmaking program for kids on Sundays.

In addition, the couple has pledged to donate $100,000 annually in immediate-impact funds for the remainder of their lives.

Amy Meadows, a professional art consultant and former museum trustee, said in a news release that the museum has been “an integral part of my life” since she attended art classes in elementary school.

“My studies and career are an outgrowth of my time at the museum,” she said. “I am so pleased that children, young adults and adults the chance to absorb the wonders of the museum as I did.”

Their donation edges out what previously was the BMA’s record-setting gift — a $10 million pledge in 2007 from philanthropist Dorothy McIlvain Scott to endow the museum’s American wing.

The new Amy and Marc Meadows Education Endowment is designed to support engagement with the arts and spur enjoyment of museums while fostering careers in the museum field and helping grow the next generation of museumgoers.

In addition to transportation and free artmaking workshops, the endowment will be used for the following initiatives, according to the release:

• Expanding a free art education and artmaking program for fourth graders attending the Baltimore City Public Schools to include free admission for ticketed exhibits.
• Developing an internship program for future museum professionals.
• Creating a speaker series for adults on the future of museums.
• Endowing future positions at the BMA for museum educators.

“Arts education has been proven many times over to have a positive effect on children and teens,” museum director Asma Naeem said in the release, “supporting critical thinking skills, emotional regulation and creating pathways to successful academic performance across disciplines.

“I look forward to what we will be able to achieve together through this transformational gift and model of civic and art generosity.”

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-294-0169.