This past year called on the Baltimore Museum of Industry to change the way it connects with you, our community. But 2020 didn’t change who we are.
The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the inequality of economic opportunity in this country, and has injected new urgency and meaning into all of the BMI’s activities. As the museum that demonstrates that all work has dignity, we are grateful to you, our community, for the continued show of support that has made it possible for the BMI to make it through the public health crisis.
With the BMI’s state-mandated closure in March, galleries that would normally be alive with schoolchildren, event-goers, program audiences, and other visitors fell silent.
Thanks to the generosity of friends and supporters who responded to our emergency appeals the BMI immediately began innovating new ways to serve the community. Within weeks, a new partnership with MedStar Health led to a COVID testing site in the BMI’s outdoor pavilion. This was followed in May by the introduction of City Kits, all-in-one activity boxes that help bridge the digital divide by providing tactile learning opportunities to Baltimore City students who were missing out. The BMI also launched virtual tours over the summer to help you enjoy our one-of-a-kind galleries from the safety of home. And by October, Women of Steel, a new outdoor exhibition featuring the voices of female steelworkers, was opened to the public along the museum’s Key Highway fence.
