By Jackie Mintz
You may pass them every day—a landscape on the way to lunch, a portrait around the corner, an abstract painting that catches your eye as you head down the hall. But have you ever stopped to think of these individual works as part of a collection? The exhibit “Look Again: The Broadmead Collection” invites us to do just that. For the first time since its establishment six years ago, the Arts Council will display, in one exhibit, paintings that have become part of our everyday surroundings—works obtained for a permanent Broadmead Collection. The exhibit opened on October 2 and runs through January 28, 2027.
The Collection got its start in 2020, during the Master Plan project, when the administration asked a few residents to examine artwork then hanging throughout the Community Center and to recommend what should be retained or discarded. Relatively few works of art were retained, and that prompted the effort to build a more coherent collection of original art for Broadmead’s public spaces.
Today, the Broadmead Collection includes approximately 60 paintings and 30 photographs. This exhibit concentrates on the paintings. They are on view primarily in the South Hall gallery, with some in Holly Terrace and several in the vestibule at the lower-level entrance.
The paintings have come to Broadmead in two ways: some were purchased with funds generously contributed by residents and others, while some were donated directly.
The Collection focuses on works by Maryland artists. Within that framework, works have been selected with an eye toward both quality and variety. And variety there certainly is. The paintings range from fairly traditional representational works to contemporary abstractions and include landscapes and city scenes, interiors, still lifes, portraits, and figures.
Landscape and urban scenes are especially well represented, while Mark Karnes takes us indoors, finding his subjects in familiar domestic spaces. Still lifes include works by Palden Hamilton and Ed Praybe, while Raoul Middleman and Nancy Linden are among the artists who explore the human figure and portraiture.
The more abstract works are just as varied. Some still have recognizable subjects—a landscape by Eric Abrecht, figures by John Hartell and Jerry Prettyman—while others move further away from representation. Works by Keith Martin and Christine Neill add still more approaches to the mix. Most of these paintings are familiar to residents who pass them every day. But seeing so many of them together is quite a different experience. Connections emerge, contrasts become more apparent, and individual works may catch the eye in a new way.
Above all, the exhibit is a chance to look again—perhaps a little more closely—at a collection that has quietly been growing around us for the past several years.
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