The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will debut John Akomfrah: The Hour of the Dog on November 16, an immersive six-screen installation that weaves moving image and sound to explore the enduring resonance of the Civil Rights Movement.
Co-commissioned by the BMA and the Menil Collection in Houston, the work brings together archival footage and newly filmed scenes to connect the past and present through visual storytelling and layered soundscapes. The exhibition remains on view in Baltimore through February 1, 2026, before traveling to Houston later in the year.
At the BMA, the presentation will include companion programs and interpretive materials that honor Baltimore’s local civil rights leaders and organizations. Working in partnership with Afro Charities, the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, the Maryland Center for History and Culture, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, the museum has also created a timeline illustrating how Maryland activism has sparked national change.
“The 1960s in the U.S. have always featured heavily on the edges of my imagination,” Akomfrah shared. “I grew up reading about figures from the Civil Rights Movement—people I absolutely idolized. It was not merely a time of protest, but a moment when Blackness articulated itself with a radical clarity. Returning to that moment, to those voices, is less about nostalgia and more about listening again—and differently.”
A Dialogue Across Time and Experience
The Hour of the Dog merges images of marches, speeches, and demonstrations with meditative scenes filmed in open landscapes and interior spaces. Through six synchronized screens and a multi-channel sound design, the work immerses viewers in the movement’s spirit and asks what its lessons mean in the current social climate.
“The power of John Akomfrah’s work lives in his ability to leverage the moving image to bend time and place to capture the raw essence and emotion of a subject,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “The Hour of the Dog is a brilliant reflection of his artistic prowess and speaks poignantly to the significance of the Civil Rights Movement within its historical moment and in the context of today’s socio-political climate.”
Special Event: In Conversation with John Akomfrah and Sherrilyn Ifill
As part of the exhibition’s opening, the BMA will host a special public program, In Conversation with John Akomfrah and Sherrilyn Ifill, offering audiences the opportunity to hear the artist discuss his creative process and reflections on art, justice, and history alongside civil rights advocate and scholar Sherrilyn Ifill.
About the Artist
John Akomfrah (b. 1957) is a celebrated British artist and filmmaker whose work examines memory, postcolonial identity, migration, and the passage of time. A founding member of the influential Black Audio Film Collective, Akomfrah has exhibited internationally at major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Tate Britain (London), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris). He was awarded a Knighthood for services to the arts in 2023 and received the “Artist Who Inspires” award at the BMA Ball in 2024.
About the Exhibition
John Akomfrah: The Hour of the Dog is co-curated by Cecilia Wichmann, BMA Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art, and Michelle White, Senior Curator at the Menil Collection, with Oscar Flores-Montero, BMA Curatorial Assistant of Contemporary Art. Major support has been provided by Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff and the Suzanne F. Cohen Exhibition Fund. Free admission to the exhibition is made possible by Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff.
For more information about the Baltimore Museum of Art and upcoming exhibitions, visit artbma.org.