Mayor Brandon Scott’s former arts czar has a new job that will help her expand on the work she started while with city government.
The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation announced on Thursday that it has appointed Tonya Miller Hall, the mayor’s former Senior Advisor of Arts and Culture, to a one-year position as Senior Creative Fellow.
The Deutsch Foundation is a non-profit that invests in Baltimore’s creative vitality by supporting artists and cultural organizations and initiating projects that improve the quality of life in the city and beyond.
The foundation is looking to Miller Hall to advance Baltimore as a national model for creative economic growth, cultural infrastructure and artist-led innovation.
A cultural strategist and placemaking expert, Miller Hall was named the Senior Advisor of Arts and Culture on Jan. 10, 2023 — a newly-created position in the mayor’s cabinet. Her job was to oversee cultural events and improve the relationship between the Mayor’s Office and the quasi-public Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, now Create Baltimore.
Miller Hall has been recognized for her ability to transform underutilized spaces into dynamic cultural assets and to reframe the role of arts and culture as a driver of economic growth, civic identity, and urban revitalization. Her career has spanned the public, private and non-profit sectors, and her mantra has been that the future of city-building belongs to those who invest in creativity as infrastructure.
In Baltimore, she spearheaded efforts to use festivals such as Artscape to make physical improvements that last long after the event is over, including murals under the Jones Falls Expressway and along the North Charles Street corridor in the Station North arts district.
With artist Derrick Adams, she transformed the War Memorial Building near City Hall to a temporary art gallery called the Scout Art Fair and helped secure a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to support the Inviting Light arts initiative. She stepped down last spring.
Before her work in Baltimore, she spent nearly two decades in New York, leading global partnerships, brand strategy, and large-scale cultural and experiential platforms across media, fashion, and entertainment.
In her role as Senior Creative Fellow, Miller Hall will lead the development of a scalable, national framework for creative economies, using Baltimore as a living laboratory.
According to the Deutsch Foundation, her work will focus on strengthening and aligning the organization’s key grant recipients — including BmoreArt, the Baltimore Arts Realty Corporation (BARCO), and Open Works – into “a cohesive, high-performing ecosystem” designed for cultural excellence, economic growth, and replication. This work, the foundation says, directly advances its mission “to invest in artists and creative institutions as catalysts for a more vibrant, connected, and economically resilient city.”
Over the course of the 12-month fellowship, the foundation said, Miller Hall will produce a series of strategic reports and recommendations, including a Synergy Roadmap, a Global Export Framework, and a final case study that can help guide other cities — “positioning Baltimore not just as a participant, but as a blueprint for the future of creative economies.”
The impact of this work is expected to extend beyond institutions — creating new pathways for artists, expanding access to resources, and strengthening the role of creativity in neighborhood-level economic growth. The foundation says the fellowship represents “a pivotal moment…as it deepens its commitment to supporting artists and creative institutions” while expanding its influence beyond Baltimore.
“Tonya brings a visionary yet highly practical approach to this work,” said Deutsch Foundation Executive Director Jane Brown, in a statement. “Her ability to connect artists, institutions, and systems aligns deeply with our mission, and this fellowship is an opportunity to not only strengthen Baltimore’s creative ecosystem, but to demonstrate what’s possible for cities across the country.”
“What’s exciting to me,” Miller Hall said, “is the opportunity to continue pushing the conversation around arts and culture not as an accessory to city growth, but as core infrastructure tied directly to economic development, identity, and long-term investment in place.”
Baltimore is the ideal city to create a national model for creative economic growth, she said.
“Baltimore has always had the talent. This work is about building the infrastructure to match it – and making sure the rest of the country is paying attention.”
