CIRCA Presents: Cara Ober

The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) is pleased to present Baltimore-based cultural organizer and artist Cara Ober, who will speak about her experiences as founding editor of BMoreArt, Baltimore’s celebrated online art magazine and print journal.

Named “Best Art Scene Doyenne” by Baltimore Magazine in 2017, Cara Ober is an innovator, cultural organizer, artist, and producer of digital and print media. Ober’s writing in the form of critical reviews, essays, and opinion editorials have explored the political and economic impact of the arts in Baltimore and the way artists maintain a professional practice and thrive in a city full of rich and diverse cultural traditions as well as deep and troubling social issues. As the founding editor of BmoreArt, Baltimore’s online art magazine and print journal, Ober has spent a decade building a local, national, and international audience for arts and culture produced in Baltimore. She founded BmoreArt in 2007 to encourage accessible and rigorous dialogue about arts and culture in the Baltimore region. Named “Best of Baltimore” by Baltimore Magazine in 2017 and 2014, BmoreArt questions and analyzes issues of gender, race, social justice, and cultural institutions with emphasis on artist-centric issues of material and process and how they influence content and artistic output. In 2015, Ober launched BmoreArt: A Journal of Art + Ideas, a bi-annual, full color print journal that explores Baltimore’s cultural landscape thematically, offering a deep and diverse perspective on individuals and cultural institutions. Ober has also penned art reviews for Art Papers, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, and BurnAway and numerous other national publications.

Cara Ober earned an MFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005 and a BA in fine arts in 1996 from the American University. She is a recipient of grant funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, as well as the winner of a Mellon Arts Innovation Grant from Johns Hopkins University in 2015, a Grit Fund Grant from The Contemporary via The Andy Warhol Foundation in 2015, and a Warhol Grant for Emerging Curators in 2006.

Lunch provided, admission is free.

Photo: Cara Ober by Kelvin Bulluck for Strangers With Style