Artist Tony Shore is the winner of the 2025 Artist Travel Prize, sponsored by the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore (MASB) in collaboration with the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA).
Shore plans to use the $7,000 prize to travel to Rome, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, to study the works of Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio; Jusepe de Ribera; Diego Velazquez, and Francisco de Zubaran.
“We are thrilled to award the 2025 Travel Prize to Tony Shoreas he embarks on a journey to study the masters in Rome and Madrid,” said MASB Board President Antoinette Peele, in a statement. “His experience abroad will deepen his practice and bring new inspiration back to Baltimore’s artistic community.”
Shore is known for his paintings on black velvet that often depict blue-collar life in Baltimore. One of his recent works is “Aurora,” a multi-media installation that was unveiled in June on the front of the old Gatsby’s nightclub building in the 1800 block of North Charles Street as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ $1 million “Inviting Light” initiative in Station North.
Shore attended Baltimore’s School for the Arts and received his BFA degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and his MFA degree from the Yale University School of Art. He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.
After completing his master’s degree in 1997, Shore returned to Baltimore’s Morrell Park community, where he grew up, to work with at-risk youths in partnership with Shawn James. They founded Access Art in 2000 and guided young artists to complete several murals around the city.
Shore’s work has been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Delaware Art Museum; Delaware Center for Contemporary Art; Noyes Museum; Ethan Cohen Fine Arts; Kunstalle Beacon; George Adams Gallery; C. Grimaldis Gallery; Gavlak Gallery; Carlye Packer Gallery and many other locations around the country. He has shown internationally in France and China and is currently represented by Anna Zorina Gallery in New York City. He is also a faculty member at MICA.
Shore’s previous awards include the 2007 Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize; the Bethesda Painting Prize; a Rubys Artist Grant; several Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, and a Franz and Virginia Bader Grant.
“Issues of class have always been a part of what drives my work,” Shore said in a statement. “My goal to elevate and recognize both the medium and the subjects. Velvet as a surface has extraordinary, almost magical powers to depict light and a deep, rich black that cannot be attained with traditional paints.”
This is the ninth year of the partnership between BOPA and MASB to award the travel prize. Founded in 1899 as part of the City Beautiful movement, MASB still operates under its original charter, which is dedicated to enhancing Baltimore’s public spaces through art. It launched the travel prize in 2016 to support Baltimore’s creative community by funding travel that is critical to an artist’s studio practice but may otherwise be financially out of reach.
BOPA, which plans to rebrand itself as Create Baltimore, manages the prize process on behalf of MASB, from promoting the call for applications to accepting artist submissions to preparing proposals for judging. This year, 53 artists submitted proposals for consideration. The winner was selected by the MASB board of directors.
Previous winners include: Stephen Towns; Nate Larson; Erick Antonio Benitez; Erin Fostel; LaToya Hobbs; J.M. Giordano,;Hoesy Corona; Schroeder Cherry; Rosa Leff; Jackie Milad; Elena Volkova; Jill Orlov and Sherry Insley. They’ve used their awards to travel to Morocco; the Czech Republic; Japan; Peru; Mexico; Ghana; Senegal; Brazil; Germany and throughout the United States.
“The Artist Travel Prize is such a meaningful opportunity because it recognizes that for artists to grow, they need the chance to explore, learn and create beyond Baltimore — and then bring that experience back home,” said BOPA CEO Robyn Murphy, in a statement. “Partnering with the Municipal Art Society to support this prize underscores how vital it is to have viable pathways for artists to advance their careers. When we invest in artists, we are also investing in the talent, innovation and future of our city.”
