The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) has announced the names of the five finalists for the 20th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize.
This year’s finalists are Aliana Grace Bailey, Amanda Leigh Burnham, Lillian Jacobson, Jacob Mayberry, and Wonchul Ryu – the greatest number of Sondheim finalists since 2021, when there also were five finalists.
The finalists’ work will be exhibited at the Walters Art Museum from April to July. The winner of the Sondheim Art Prize will be announced at an award ceremony and reception at the museum and will receive $30,000.
The Sondheim Art Prize is awarded by BOPA in partnership with the Walters Art Museum and supported by the Maryland State Arts Council. Named after arts advocates Janet and Walter Sondheim, the prize is one of the most prestigious arts awards in Maryland.
Lou Joseph, the new director of the Baltimore City Arts Council, said the prize allows finalists the significant opportunity to each develop their exhibitions in collaboration with Walters staff.
“I’m really looking forward to working with our colleagues at the Walters Art Museum to help the five finalists complete their exhibitions by April,” Joseph said in a statement. “The partnership between BOPA and the Walters takes the Sondheim competition to another level. The prize is obviously very valuable, but it can only be awarded to one finalist. The added experience of working with the Walters benefits all the finalists.”
A panel of jurors, including Jaqueline Cedar, Mike Cloud, and Jennie Goldstein, selected this year’s finalists.
The jurors will interview each artist for up to 45 minutes in their exhibition space before deciding who will win this year’s prize.
According to BOPA, here are biographies of the five finalists:
Aliana Grace Bailey (she/her) is an interdisciplinary fiber artist, designer, care worker, and founder of vibrant grace studio. She was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. Aliana weaves layers of interconnection, comfort, healing, and storytelling through fiber. Aliana’s work embraces the vulnerability of artmaking to build intimacy, preserve memories, heal wounds, and create inner peace. Aliana’s work is large in scale, emotional, and vibrant in color, encompassing the body and providing viewers with a comforting hug while exploring familial connections, materials, and experiences that tug at our hearts.
Amanda Leigh Burnham (she/her) makes drawings of all kinds: artist books, comics, intimate observational drawings, dimensional collages, and large, site-specific installations which feel somewhere between a comic book and a stage set. A six-time Sondheim semifinalist, four-time MSAC Independent Artist Award winner, and Rubys Grantee, Burnham’s work has been shown internationally; selected venues include the Berman Museum, American University Art Museum, the Delaware Contemporary, and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. Since graduating from the Yale School of Art (MFA ’07) she has been a professor of art at Towson University.
Lillian Jacobson (she/her) is a Baltimore-based Latiné artist from Bogotá, Colombia, who defines “belonging” through figurative painting. Adopted into a white American family, Lillian has always been attuned to how she is seen by others, which informs her empathetic approach to portraiture. Lillian holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited in group shows across the region, including the Maryland Art Place, Chesapeake Arts Center, Bowie City Hall, Maryland Federation of Art, and the Delaplaine Arts Center, where she won the People’s Choice Award for the 2024 exhibition, Emerging Perspectives.
Jacob Mayberry (he/him) aka Black Chakra is a world traveled spoken word artist and poetry champion. In Baltimore he has cultivated his legacy by teaching youth how to find the power in their voices through poetry. He has coached eight statewide youth poetry champions and three international youth poetry finalist teams. He hopes to one day be remembered as an artist who changed the climate of Baltimore through his work.
Wonchul Ryu (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Seoul, Korea, and Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently pursuing his BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and expects to graduate in spring 2025. Ryu participated in the Yale Norfolk School of Art residency program in 2024, and has exhibited in group shows such as, Exchange (Maryland Art Place, 2024), and Beyond Borders (The Bridge Arts Foundation, LA, 2023). In 2021 Ryu had a solo show, 우린 나쁜 꿈 속에 있었지. (We Were in The Bad Dreams.) at 양천리 갤러리 (Yangcheonri Gallery) (Seoul, Korea, 2021).
For more information about the Sondheim prize and the finalists, visit promotionandarts.org or BOPA’s social media (@promoandarts).
