Center for Learning and Creativity

The new center for learning and creativity, opening in 2015, will be an imaginative space and program designed to inspire visitors and expand their creative thinking through meaningful encounters with art. The center will use the BMA’s collection and artistic program as a catalyst for engaging museum visitors in an exploration of issues central to the human experience and relevant to Baltimoreans.

The BMA has long been a leader in museum education, and this facility will create new and exciting opportunities for serving several key audiences�school children, families, and young adults. We will engage the next generation of young people whose energy and talent will continue to make Baltimore a great place to learn, live, and grow.

Visitors to the center will find opportunities to experience the BMA’s collection in a new light within the following spaces:

• Project Space – Visitors will encounter works from across the collection, from different cultures and time periods, organized around a theme meaningful to their daily lives. In this interactive exhibition space, innovative interpretation and technology will immerse visitors in close looking, inquiry, reflection, response, and exchange.
• Community Commons – Partnering with local organizations and artists, the BMA will develop participatory programs that reflect the voices and creativity of the community. This flexible space will feature art generated in response to the project/exhibition theme and through these collaborations.
• Maker Space – This studio, with hands-on opportunities to create, socialize, and investigate ideas through making, will spark invention and expression.
• School Entrance/Lobby and Docent Study Room – Working closely with Baltimore City and County school systems as well as with the dedicated arts education community, the BMA will enliven the school visit program that already serves 15,000+ children a year free-of-charge.

Through an interpretive, collection-based exhibition and accompanying interpretation, the center will engage visitors in participatory experiences that forge connections between art and contemporary life.