Endowment Gift to Advance Engagement with Global Photography

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced a significant endowment gift from the foundation of cultural advocates Sheela Murthy and Vasant Nayak to establish the MurthyNAYAK Global Photography Endowment Fund, strengthening the museum’s long-term commitment to photography as an essential art-form. Designed to provide support for photography at the BMA in perpetuity, the endowment emphasizes opportunities to connect global perspectives and innovations—particularly from South Asia, Africa, and other regions of the Global South—with those emerging from Baltimore and its communities. The fund will support a wide range of initiatives, including exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational and community-based programs.

“This extraordinarily generous gift allows the BMA to deepen our engagement with photography as a global language—one that reflects diverse histories, geographies, and ways of seeing,” said Asma Naeem, Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. “Photography has always been an affordable and democratic medium and Sheela and Vasant share our belief that photography is a powerful tool for understanding the world and our place within it.”

The MurthyNAYAK Global Photography Endowment Fund reflects a shared vision between the donors and the BMA to foreground global narratives in contemporary museum practice and to expand the scope of photographic histories represented in the museum’s collection and programs. Murthy and Nayak’s commitment will be fulfilled over five years, with a portion of the gift providing early support for photography initiatives while the endowment grows.

“Our connection to the BMA has deepened our belief in its role as a steward of culture and a space where images shape understanding across communities,” said Sheela Murthy & Vasant Nayak, Co-Founders of the MurthyNAYAK Foundation. “Through the MurthyNAYAK Global Photography Endowment Fund, we hope to amplify global voices and ensure that photography continues to illuminate, connect, and inspire in Baltimore and across the world.”

Baltimore Museum of Art
Press Release
April 30, 2026

Photo © Baltimore Museum of Art

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