Baltimore’s Community Health Workers are the subject of an art installation that the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will present starting in November, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s installation entitled More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022.
Featuring a series of portraits and related narratives mounted on stainless-steel IV poles, the installation documents and celebrates the essential work performed by Baltimore’s Community Health Workers during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Frazier’s work was commissioned by the Carnegie Museum of Art for the 58th Carnegie International in 2022 in Pittsburgh, where it was installed and won the Carnegie Prize. The Carnegie International is North America’s longest-running international art show. Funded in part by a National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship, More than Conquerors was shown at the Gladstone Gallery in New York from March 2 to April 15, 2023. It is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York through September 7.
The BMA acquired the work in the spring of 2023, with support from the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland, and will show it from November 3, 2024 to March 23, 2025. The Baltimore installation marks the first time that it will be on view at the museum and in the city that inspired it.
Collaborative storytelling
Frazier was born in 1982 in Braddock, Pennsylvania. According to the BMA, “her practice engages with social justice movements, cultural change, and the American experience through a wide range of media, including photography, video, performance, installation, and books. She often uses collaborative storytelling that captures the voices and stories of individuals represented in her artworks.”
Frazier’s previous projects have addressed topics of industrialism, rust belt revitalization, environmental justice, access to healthcare, access to clean water, workers’ rights, the nature of family, and communal history. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at institutions across the U.S. and Europe and is held in many public art collections.
In May, the Museum of Modern Art opened the first museum survey dedicated to her work, entitled, LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity. The editors of Time magazine included her on their list of The 100 Most Influential People of 2024.
More Than Conquerors is an outgrowth of Frazier’s long-standing relationship with Dr. Lisa Cooper, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity.
According to the BMA, the two first connected during a 2015 conversation hosted by The Contemporary and the Baltimore School for the Arts that explored the power of art, science, and medicine to address environmental racism.
Frazier was awarded a commission for the 58th Carnegie International during the COVID-19 pandemic. When she experienced an incident of medical injustice while trying to obtain a vaccination, she became inspired to develop a project that both revealed the depth of healthcare inequity and celebrated those individuals on the frontlines working for change.
Community Health Workers
Since the 1970s, Community Health Workers (CHWs) have served as an essential resource to underserved communities, helping individuals overcome challenges to healthcare access and providing advocacy in discussions with those working in healthcare systems and state health departments. CHWs played a critical part in the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, sharing information, encouraging acceptance of the treatment, and providing access and support.
Despite their importance within communities in Baltimore and other cities, CHWs were among the unsung heroes of the pandemic and their daily efforts were necessary to ensure medical justice and healthcare equity. With the support of practitioners and educators at Johns Hopkins University as well as other healthcare advocates, Frazier connected with Tiffany Scott, co-founder and Chair of the Maryland Community Health Worker Association, and a group of CHWs actively involved in vaccination efforts between 2020 and 2021 to create an installation that tells their stories and highlights their contributions at the height of the pandemic.
In addition to Cooper and Scott, Community Health Workers featured in Frazier’s installation include La Kerry B. Dawson, Tracy Barnes-Malone, Karen Dunston, Kenya Ferguson, Griselda Funn, Erica Hamlett, Donnie Missouri, Veda Moore, Kendra N. Lindsey, Evelyn Nicholson, Helen Owhonda, Gregory Rogers, Wilfredo Torriente, and Latish Walker.
Also, Dr. Chidinma Ibe, Nico Dominguez Carrero, and Alison Trainor of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity; Dr. Anika L. Hines of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and Virginia Commonwealth University; and Reverend Debra Hickman, President and CEO of Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc. (STAR) and co-chair of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity’s Community Advisory Board.
Sustainability initiative
The installation of Frazier’s work is part of Turn Again to the Earth, a series of initiatives at the museum that are focused on sustainability and other environmental issues. In addition to 10 exhibitions, Turn Again to the Earth will include the development of the BMA’s sustainability plan and a Baltimore city-wide eco-challenge.
“We are thrilled to launch the exhibition portion of Turn Again to the Earth with the presentation of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s compelling and deeply resonant installation More Than Conquerors, said Asma Naeem the museum’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, in a statement.
“The presentation is a singular opportunity to honor some of Baltimore’s most important and under-sung heroes in our museum and to consider the complex relationships between environment, health, and social inequities. We look forward to engaging our audiences with LaToya’s incredible artistry, to celebrating the everyday stories in our community, and to spurring conversations about timely issues that impact our lives.”
