Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts are proud to announce that Matthew Porterfield is the winner of the 2011 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize.

In conjunction with Artscape, Baltimore’s premier arts festival organized by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, the BMA presents a special exhibition of works by the finalists for the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. The finalists this year are Stephanie Barber, Louie Palu, Mark Parascandola, Matthew Porterfield and Rachel Rotenberg.

Named after the late Baltimore civic leader Walter Sondheim and his late wife, Janet, the Sondheim Artscape Prize recognizes the achievements of visual artists living or working in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and southeastern Pennsylvania. The semi-finalists, finalists, and winner are all chosen by an independent panel of jurors.

This year’s jurors are Polly Apfelbaum, a New York-based artist; Isolde Brielmaier, curator, writer, and creative consultant; Lucy Gallun, a curatorial assistant in the Photography Department of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tina Kukielski, a member of the curatorial team that is organizing the 56th Carnegie International, a leading global survey of contemporary art. An exhibition of works by the semi-finalists is on view at the Maryland Institute College of Art, July 14 - 31, 2011.

Organization: Presented by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts in partnership with The Baltimore Museum of Art. Organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

The exhibition is generously sponsored by Stiles Tuttle Colwill. Additional support is provided by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Rabinowitz.

The 2011 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize is made possible by a generous grant from The Abell Foundation. Additional support is provided by Alex. Brown Charitable Foundation, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation, Charlesmead Foundation, Ellen Dankert, France-Merrick Foundation, Willard Hackerman, Legg Mason and an anonymous donor.