Tamara Payne
Native to Baltimore City, Tamara Payne is an alumnus of the Baltimore School for the Arts where she began her artist’s practices in drawing, painting, and sculpture. After studying Fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York City, she returned to Baltimore to earn her BFA in 1994, majoring in painting with a minor in ceramic studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Upon graduating, Tamara worked as an art educator in Baltimore City Public Schools from 1999-2008. Having an innate passion for humanity, she has been involved in foreign missions since 2004, participating in health aid and beautification projects while painting murals in poverty-stricken communities in South Africa, The Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Tamara decided to pursue her own community-based art making full-time in 2008. In the summer of 2011, she earned her Masters of Community Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art while also completing 2 years of service for The Community Art Collaborative AmeriCorps program.
She was recently recognized for her community art installation for the Butterfly Effect in Baltimore City by City Council President Nick Mosby in the fall of 2021. Tamara was recently honored with her second Individual Artist Award on behalf of the City of Baltimore and Mayor Brandon Scott for her exhibition, Dear Black Girl.
Tamara is currently working full-time as an Assistant Professor in her role as Visual Arts Coordinator at Baltimore City Community College. As an artist in residence Tamara continues to work on her personal work, grant writing, art consulting, and community practices in Baltimore City.
Having witnessed echoes of mental disorders in others in her personal life over the years and throughout her residencies, her work focuses on self-exploration, healing, communal practices, celebration of life, empowerment, and relationship-building in communities. She desires to explore the construction of brown and Black women’s narratives throughout her practices in this season through performance art and her installation work. She welcomes others to join this ordained journey.
Available for:
Personal body of work entitled Dear Black Girl
