The Maryland Center for History and Culture is celebrating Baltimore artist Tom Miller by offering free admission on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, to honor the Sixth Annual Tom Miller Week.
In 1995, Mayor Kurt Schmoke designated Feb. 18th “Tom Miller Day.” Artist, activist, and archivist Deyane Moses, however, revived and extended it into a week-long celebration. The first “Tom Miller Week” took place in 2021, with a week of programming honoring the artist with community programming and events spreading awareness of his work and raising funds to help restore his murals.
Miller (1945-2000) was the one of the first African Americans from Baltimore City to receive a solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). He is known for his self-named “Afro-Deco” style, with which he infused his colorful, whimsical murals, painted furniture, and sculptures he often made from discarded furniture he found around the city. His art centered Blackness and queerness, much of it with Baltimore as the backdrop. He died in 2000 at the age of 54 of complications due to AIDS.
Miller attended George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical High School and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). After teaching art in Baltimore City Public Schools for 20 years, he took a chance on himself by applying for a graduate scholarship at MICA to become a full-time artist. In 1995, eight years after completing his graduate degree, Miller had his historic solo exhibition at the BMA. That show brought him national acclaim.
Baltimore, however, remained his hometown and base. His painted furniture, screens, sculptures, and murals that are instantly recognizable around the city. In addition to free admission to MCHC on Sunday, Tom Miller Week organizers are amplifying a call to restore Miller’s first public mural.
On Wednesday, Feb. 18, from 6–7 p.m., Friends of Tom Miller will host a special Tom Miller Day virtual gathering to launch a phased restoration effort for “However Far the Stream Flows, It Never Forgets Its Source” (1991). The mural stands three-stories tall at North Avenue and Harford Road, and due to exposure to the elements over more than three decades, it is in a critical state of disrepair. The event is free, and registration is open now. It is co-hosted by Blackives, LLC and Black Art Today Foundation.
MCHC has a Tom Miller triptych painting, called “Summer in Baltimore”, on display in their Collecting Maryland: Art Artifacts, Community” exhibition. They also have furniture he painted on display. MCHC is located at 610 Park Ave., Baltimore, MD. To reserve your free ticket, visit their website.
*A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Tom Miller was the first African American from Baltimore City to receive a solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Photographer Roland Freeman was the first in 1981. The article has been updated.
