Sarah B. McCann
Download MP3In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Sarah B. McCann!
About Sarah B. McCann: Sarah is an artist, curator, and founder of SBM Gallery in Baltimore's Highlandtown Arts District. Her text-based mosaics, prints, and multimedia work has been shown nationally. She spent 15 years curating exhibitions nomadically before opening her own space this year.
We talk about launching SBM Gallery and what it means to her to support artists working with love and justice—artists using their work to push for change and move us closer to where we could be. She walks through the gallery's programming: an Artists in Conversation speaker series, collector coffees, and events around Highlandtown's First Friday Art Walks. Sarah also shares how she builds real community among her artists—she hosts dinners before group shows so people actually connect as humans, not just as names hanging on the same walls.
Sarah talks about shifting from nomadic curating to having her own space. She remembers unwrapping the first painting during COVID in 2021—the color, texture, and smell of that moment reminded her why we still need to show up in person. We get into how running an independent gallery lets her support artists who might not get institutional backing, upcoming shows like "All My Errors Are Human" about making mistakes in an AI world, and her own return to painting and clay after years of focusing on everyone else's work.
We also talk about what it takes to build an art space with intention, why physical gatherings still matter, and how to make room for artists whose work pushes us to be better.
About Sarah B. McCann: Sarah is an artist, curator, and founder of SBM Gallery in Baltimore's Highlandtown Arts District. Her text-based mosaics, prints, and multimedia work has been shown nationally. She spent 15 years curating exhibitions nomadically before opening her own space this year.
We talk about launching SBM Gallery and what it means to her to support artists working with love and justice—artists using their work to push for change and move us closer to where we could be. She walks through the gallery's programming: an Artists in Conversation speaker series, collector coffees, and events around Highlandtown's First Friday Art Walks. Sarah also shares how she builds real community among her artists—she hosts dinners before group shows so people actually connect as humans, not just as names hanging on the same walls.
Sarah talks about shifting from nomadic curating to having her own space. She remembers unwrapping the first painting during COVID in 2021—the color, texture, and smell of that moment reminded her why we still need to show up in person. We get into how running an independent gallery lets her support artists who might not get institutional backing, upcoming shows like "All My Errors Are Human" about making mistakes in an AI world, and her own return to painting and clay after years of focusing on everyone else's work.
We also talk about what it takes to build an art space with intention, why physical gatherings still matter, and how to make room for artists whose work pushes us to be better.
Photo courtesy of subject.
The Truth In This Art is supported by William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council's Creativity Grant and Mayor's Individual Artist Award - Creative Baltimore Fund (Baltimore).
Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:
- Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
- Edited by Daniel Alexis
- Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor
Photos:
- Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
- Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.
Support the podcast
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Fractured Atlas (Fundraising): https://www.fracturedatlas.org
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetruthinthisart.bsky.social
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthinthisart/?hl=en
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Website: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Shop: Merch from Redbubble
