Ramey Mize

From one great PMA to another… Philly, we’re back! 🦅 The past four+ months have been a whirlwind of change (yes, we moved smack in the middle of that massive snowstorm), and we left a huge piece of our hearts in Maine. Though transitions can be so hard, I just feel so lucky to have found such special places to call home and so many friends to claim as family in this world. It’s such an honor to be returning to beloved colleagues at @visitpham and to be close again to @pennarthistory , where it all began. It has been especially inspiring to start my position just as “A Nation of Artists” opened, a truly spectacular feat by the most incredible curatorial team: @kathleenafoster1 @alexandraakirtley @juliahamerlight @leah_triplett @gibsongirl18 🙌🏻❤️‍🔥 Come see it! Proud to be among such greatness and excited for what’s to come, including nurturing the newest, cutest little Philly sports fan! (Poor Phillies, but let’s go Flyers!!) Come visit 🥰

Congratulations @diturraldem for bringing a breathtaking selection of contemporary works from the Ecuadorian Amazon to NYC, which joined others from across the region as part of the exhibition Amazonia Açu at @artamericassociety - including this unforgettable painting that Angélica Alomoto made with *rubber sap* after an illustration of a colonial expedition that forced its way into her birthplace during the nineteenth century (Cuatros Caminos, 2024 - the installation also comprises a ceramic bowl, sadly out of view here). Couldn’t imagine a better reason to celebrate your commitment to expanding the canon of Latin American art and reunite with our @rameymize 🥰

An aspiration in my post-PhD/postpartum life has been to finally get back into the rhythm of reading for pleasure. 📖 It’s so easy to turn to TV, and while I absolutely love and relish a good show, reading has always been something that helps me feel more like myself. A thing that has motivated and enriched the experience even more lately is the practice of keeping a commonplace book, which is like a little “literary scrapbook” of all the passages and quotes that stir something in you. Reading at least one book a month and jotting down meaningful excerpts in my commonplace book has brought me joy this year—so much so that I wanted to spread the word on this platform, especially because so there many readers on here who have also inspired me! (And please send me any and all book recs so I can keep this good momentum going in 2026 😍😘) I adored ALL of these books and savored every word. They are filled with profound tenderness, deep delight, and the dissonance and awe of what it means to be a human in this world, channeled in just a few quote selections from my commonplace book: “(W)e’re just making stuff up, fairy tales to explain the deep dark woods of being alive.” (Rufi Thorpe, “Margot’s Got Money Troubles,” 99) “I knew and still know what it was like to both not belong and belong, what it was like to feel invisible inside the great, great dream of being. We’re all alike, even when we’re not.” (Morgan Talty, “Fire Exit,” 118) “Time travel is so easy! It’s devastatingly easy! All you have to do is live long enough!” (Rebecca Makkai, “The Great Believers,” 255) Here’s to a new year filled with inspiration, joy, and reflection. 🎊💫❤️ (And if I can get my act together, I’m going to try to make a follow-up post with favorite art moments from 2025 too!)

Exhibition projects are often full of twists and turns, and that has been especially true for “Jeremy Frey: Woven.” Since the show opened @portlandmuseum in May of 2024, the momentum behind the interest, awe, and admiration for Jeremy’s extraordinary artistic vision has just grown and grown—including (but not limited to!!) two additional venue presentations of the show at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bruce Museum (thank you @aloysiusbear83 and @margaritakarasoulas !!), an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin College and a MacArthur Genius award (🤩) for Dr. Frey, and, most recently, some lovely recognition for the exhibition catalogue, which I was lucky enough to co-edit alongside another endlessly inspiring Wabanaki arts leader, Theresa Secord. We are so grateful to Historic New England for awarding this beautiful book their 2025 Book Prize. @historicnewengland Theresa and I were honored to accept the award on behalf of Jeremy and the whole team last Friday, but of course this publication was a labor of love from a huge group of fantastically talented and generous people. I can’t ever thank enough those who made it so brilliant. Contributors include Jaime DeSimone, originating curator of the project who brought the whole idea to life, Andrew Hamilton, who brought the project to Chicago and assembled an amazing glossary of Passamaquoddy weaving terms with Theresa, and Dakota Hoska, who situated Jeremy’s work in the broader landscape of contemporary Native art. Design is by the fabulous Kimberly Varella of @contentobject . Thank you also to the keen editorial eye of Isabel Venero of @rizzolibooks who co-published this with us. And to Theresa, who championed Jeremy and his art from day one and helped tell that story for posterity. Without you, none of this would have ever been possible. I also couldn’t resist this opportunity to take a walk down memory lane to share some photos of the many other adventures we’ve had along the way—with even more to come!! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 Congratulations on all of it, Jeremy. I’m forever thankful to you, Jaime, and Theresa for the chance to be a part of your amazing journey. 🥂🎉

A little highlight reel from an immersive and revelatory week-long workshop in fine art lithography at the Tamarind Institute, thanks to the Getty Paper Project! Of all the printmaking techniques, lithography has always been one of the most mysterious to me… Drawing and etching on limestone that’s filled with fossils and ghosts and sensitive enough to record the merest hint of a fingerprint? You can’t tell me that’s not magic ✨👻🪨 It was especially amazing to experience the sheer labor and razor sharp skill required for the process as well as the full scope of senses activated by it. Printers will “listen” to the ink, haul thousand-pound slabs, hoist massive ink rollers, grain the stone for ten hours or more, and might even taste the mixture of nitric acid and Arabic gum that they use to etch the stone—describing the taste as “lemon,” “lime,” and “orange” in order of higher to lesser acidity. (Don’t try *any* of this at home, kids!) 🍋🍋‍🟩🍊🤯 Needless to say, I came away totally in lithography’s thrall and enormously grateful to the absolutely incredible team at Tamarind 🔔 What tipped everything over the top was also all the amazing friends and colleagues who I now know and adore through our shared time in litho land—it was the most fun and the biggest honor to be among you all and your brilliance! 🌟🌟🌟

New project update! So excited to share an exhibition-in-progress for the @portlandmuseum that has brought me back to Winslow Homer… This time focusing on his extraordinary etchings from the 1880s 💫 Homer worked on the majority of his etchings after moving to his studio home in Prouts Neck—so these remarkable prints are very much part of his Maine story. Since he did not have access to a press there, these prints took shape through correspondence and collaboration with his printer, George Ritchie, who was based in Manhattan. In a letter to Ritchie in November of 1886, Homer wrote from his studio: “I am at work now and will finish in about two weeks an etching which I will bite here and send you for a proof. It promises to be worthy of your pupil.” It has been endlessly fascinating to think about Homer learning an entirely new medium at this mature point in his career—and that he embarked on this new artistic venture from—of all places—a little converted carriage house on the North Atlantic! 🌊 Cheers and so much gratitude to my print specialist friends for inviting me into the fold! (Paper pun very much intended 😉) Extra special thanks also to some pretty incredible thought partners—the inimitable and unbelievably brilliant paper conservator + Homer expert Judy Walsh along with Winslow Trainum, our amazing curatorial intern whose deep personal knowledge of intaglio printmaking has helped bring these prints to life! Stay tuned for more fun shares as the project evolves…and thank you to so many colleagues who have helped make it such an inspiring and joyful journey so far ❤️

✨✨35✨✨ A very special birthday weekend to start to this mid-thirties era, full of big friendship, a little luxury, plenty of sweets and treats, snuggles, and spring blooms. Taurus season forever! 🌸🎉💫🥳💝

Celebrating lucky number 7 with the kindest, smartest, most loving partner in the world—technically our anniversary was yesterday but the celebration is endless and richer every day, especially since Theo has entered the scene 💗💗💗 (And now seemed like as good a time as ever to dig up these memories from our epic, joyous, perfect wedding—can we do that again?!!!) 😘 @c0ziac

In addition to the amazing journey of “Jeremy Frey: Woven,” I’ve been working on another special show that also opened at the @portlandmuseum this month: “Peggy Bacon: Biting, never Bitter.” If you’ve never heard of Peggy Bacon before… To know her is to love her. Born in Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1895 to artist parents, she went on to spend five years at the Art Students League in New York, training under the likes of John Sloan and George Bellows—but forging her own incisive and emphatically irreverent artistic voice. She did seemingly everything (printmaking, painting, pastel, cartoons, poetry, illustration, teaching, mystery novel writing!) and knew seemingly everyone (Kuniyoshi, Stieglitz, O’Keeffe, Gershwin, Rivera, Hartley, the Zorachs, the list goes on and on). She was fearless, caricaturing icons and tycoons from FDR to La Guardia in a 1934 publication “Off with Their Heads,” which earned her critical attention (and plenty of controversy). She didn’t hesitate to put her own head on the chopping block and included a searing self-portrait in this volume: the pointy-nosed profile that animates this intro wall is hers. As one critic observed, however: “Her caricature is biting, never bitter,” a keen assessment that inspired the title of the exhibition. I had so much fun dreaming up this show with amazing colleagues like @heidesign.studio and @julie_wrchl , designer and registrar extraordinaire respectively! So much special thanks to ace colleagues in exhibitions—Molly and Lark—and dynamo preparators Kirk, Tim, and especially @failure_to_adapt who framed everything so beautifully! And though many of the works on view are drawn from our PMA collection, I’m so grateful to select lenders who shared key works with us: @aslnyc , @ogunquitmuseum , @batesmuseumofart , and @guild_hall + Darin Leese, Brad Verter and Bob Cenedella. Last but not least, Peggy Bacon loved her feline friends and found every excuse to feature them across her oeuvre, so we couldn’t help but take her lead with a little exhibition merch—thank you @bad_taxedermy and Heidi for this amazing bag, available now at the PMA store, that you just gotta add to your summer tote collection! 😽

✨ “Jeremy Frey: Woven” is here! ✨ On view at the @portlandmuseum through September 15, this exhibition of Frey’s boundary-breaking work in basketry, printmaking, video, and woven sculpture will absolutely knock your socks off. Please come visit us this summer and experience it for yourself—and let me know if you’re here! I’d love to walk through the galleries with you. ☺️ Thanks to all the incredible lenders, collaborators, friends, family, and colleagues who visited from all over the country to celebrate this historic opening. Deepest gratitude to my curatorial partner and mentor, Jaime DeSimone @jld2230 , for originating the incredible idea for this project with Jeremy, and to Theresa Secord @theresabaskets for her crucial guidance every step of the way—this watershed moment would not have been possible without the years and years of advocacy she has given on behalf of Wabanaki basketry and Jeremy’s career. To our amazing venue partners— @aloysiusbear83 at @artinstitutechi and @margaritakarasoulas at @brucemuseum , and of course to all my brilliant PMA colleagues who rallied around this exhibition with so much focus and heart: @petitplaisance @mpapows @larkwicinas @emksull @kirkarino @heidesign.studio @ctadame @failure_to_adapt @shalinilegall @biuhtriks @gabbster05 @mquigleygraham Tim Burns, and so many more. (Chris and I also happened to welcome Theo, curatorial assistant extraordinaire 😉, in the home stretch of this journey, and I can tell you that my heart has never been more full.) And to @jeremyfreybaskets , all the congratulations, all the celebrations, all the accolades—just all of it! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻To know you is to be in awe.

Two years ago, I moved to Maine and all kinds of magical things happened—especially the opportunity to collaborate on an exhibition of work by Jeremy Frey, an incredible and boundary-defying basket weaver and artist. This show was a dream that he and Jaime DeSimone @jld2230 (curator extraordinaire!) had been working towards, and a remarkable twist of fate meant I got to join them in helping to make that dream a reality. It’s now thrilling and a little surreal to think that “Jeremy Frey: Woven” will open at the Portland Museum of Art in just over a month, on May 24. There’s also an exhibition catalogue that everyone can check out in the meantime! We are indebted to all the contributors, and endless gratitude to Theresa Secord @theresabaskets for sharing her profound expertise and vision as co-editor. The book features essays by her, Jaime, and myself, as well as our inspiring curatorial colleagues and friends Dakota Hoska and Andrew Hamilton. These essays chart Jeremy’s remarkable creative evolution as an artist, his exquisite innovations within the ancient and profound art form of Wabanaki basketry, and his groundbreaking contributions to the broader landscapes of both contemporary and Indigenous art. Published by the @portlandmuseum and @rizzolibooks , the catalogue is available for sale at the PMA Store and available for pre-order via Rizzoli (see link in bio; publish date is May 7!). The book is absolutely gorgeous—Jeremy’s baskets are so spectacular and have been captured from every angle by talented photographers like @jaredlank and @availablelight1 . It’s a feast for the eyes, stunningly designed by Kimberly Varella of @contentobject and generously guided into existence by Isabel Venero. I am also forever thankful to @larkwicinas for helping me navigate all the twists and turns of making this book happen! Please come visit us this summer to experience this incredibly special exhibition. DM me if you think you’ll be in Maine—I’d love to tour everyone through this show! And most of all, thanks to @jeremyfreybaskets for sharing your art with me and with so many others—my life is so much better and more beautiful for it. Bring it on, summer 2024!

Theo is home! 🏡🧸❤️ In the end, we spent 18 days in the NICU. 18 challenging, transformative, extraordinary days we never expected and will never forget. His due date was January 18, but today is his one month birthday. With a certain shift in perspective, I can see his early delivery not as some shortcoming on my part, but rather as an incredible window the universe offered us to be able spend more time with him—an unexpected, precious extra month with Theo, under any circumstances, is a profound gift. So grateful for the journey, for home, and for the incredible nurses and doctors who helped get us here. Thank you to everyone for so many well wishes, kindness, generosity, and encouragement along the way, especially to our families who have stepped in and provided the most boundless support as we navigated Theo’s care (and to @rdorrier for the spectacular baby quilt!! 💚💙) Theo is doing great, and we’re all loving the cuteness overload, including Holly! 🥰