On Monday, Derrick Adams hosted a luncheon for his arts nonprofit, Charm City Cultural Cultivation, at Hav & Mar, the Chelsea seafood house by Food Network star and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson.
It was the multidisciplinary artist’s first fundraiser for the Baltimore-based organization that provides artist residencies and support for the creative community in the city. Since 2022, they’ve created three core programs: Zora’s Den, The Last Resort Artist Retreat, and the Black Baltimore Digital Database.
Attendees included Mickalene Thomas, Samuelsson, Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe, André DeShields, Larry Osei Mensah, Isolde Brielmaier, and more.
Honorees for the fundraiser included Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning Broadway actor André DeShields, actor Nicole Ari Parker, and senior creative fellow at the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Tonya Miller Hall.
Nicole Ari Parker, André De Shields, Tonya Miller Hall abd Derrick Adams
Matt Borkowski/BFA.com
Art Noir cofounder and curator Larry Ossei-Mensah spoke of his admiration for Adams’ philanthropic work.
“Derrick Adams is a quintessential example of what it means to be committed to uplifting peers, colleagues, other artists,” Ossei-Mensah said. “He’s selfless and generous and has made it about growing the ecosystem — cultivating it. And I think, specifically with Baltimore, because that’s where he’s from, I’ve had the opportunity to witness with my own eyes what Charm City has been able to do — artists that have been able to benefit from the different programs and services that they provide. At the end of the day, I’m always going to support someone who is ‘doing’, and I know that this is going to create an infrastructure for the next generation of creators not only in Baltimore but around the world,” he continued.
Throughout the event, Adams floated through the room with his fellow hosts. Before guests departed, he shared more about his vision for the organization and the kind of creative nurturance he’s cultivating. “The whole purpose of having fundraisers outside of Baltimore is really just giving more of a profile of the city and the creative community — how expansive it is on a national scale,” he said.
“Most artists don’t keep working if people don’t give them some kind of visibility,” Adams, whose midcareer survey, “Derrick Adams: View Master,” comes to the Queens Museum next year, said. “Support is not just about helping the artist. You get to see other voices outside of the bigger cities that people consider the capitals of creativity. There are other places that creativity exists beside New York, L.A., Miami.”
