THE BEARMAN GALLERY

Frederick Douglass-Issac Myers Museum
Baltimore, MD

WELCOME

A space where history and creativity converge, The Bearman Gallery is dedicated to honoring Black artistry, culture, and legacy. Through compelling exhibitions, we inspire dialogue, connection, and a deeper understanding across generations.

The gallery showcases rotating exhibitions of African American art, deeply reflective of the site's historical significance and sanctity. Each exhibit uplifts the past while forging a vital connection to the present, celebrating the rich and evolving artistic expressions within Baltimore’s African American communities.

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Espi Frazier_exhibition flyer (4 x 4 in) (1)

Frederic Douglass Bicentennial_exhibition flyer

Kibibi Ajanku

CURATOR

Kibibi has continued her journey as an artist through her work as a curator, by creating new and innovative ways to present the past, present, and future of the Black diaspora. She uses this same lens to curate arts-based equity, diversity, and inclusion programming through her work as an educator within universities and arts organizations throughout Baltimore. Kibibi’s work has and continues to uplift and empower Black artists and increase intercultural understanding within the city of Baltimore and around the world.

Her curatorial work is rooted in the belief that art is a powerful tool for social change. As the Curator for the Bearman Gallery, located in the Fredrick Douglass-Isaac Myers Museum in Baltimore, MD, she presents innovative exhibitions and programming that inspire and challenge audiences to think deeply about important issues. She is passionate about uncovering marginalized voices and uplifting artistic excellence typically left out of mainstream art spaces.

Her work also reflects extensive study on the impact of African world history and legacy through an African American contemporary art lens. Ajanku has traveled the African Diaspora to study, teach, perform, and exhibit with many masters, and is the Founding Mother of the Baltimore-based Sankofa Dance Theater, a group that continues to share joyous spirit by bringing movement and rhythm together in layered, interlocking rhythmic patterns.

Kibibi believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to inspire authentic dialogue in an effort to move forward into greater intercultural awareness for the global community. As a result, her curatorial projects encompass an ever-growing body of exploratory research, image-making, exhibition-making. She often uses the exhibition space to emphasize relationships between historical occurrences and lived history.

Kibibi Ajanku attended Morgan State University and received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art. She is the Curator for the Bearman Gallery, located in the Fredrick Douglass-Isaac Myers Museum in Baltimore, MD.