Artist killed in Fells Point attack was a ‘cheerleader for Baltimore’ and its arts scene

Whenever a group conversation started to focus too much on politics or business or some other tedious subject, Claudia Bismark would redirect: “Back to the art.”

There was much to discuss after four decades in the arts world — of making it, sharing it, promoting it, fundraising for it. Plus, the 76-year-old had her own art gallery in her Fells Point home.

“What else did you need in life besides art and friends?” said longtime friend Daniel Starr. “For her, that was it.”

Those friends are now mourning Bismark and remembering the impact she had in Baltimore and beyond. She and her husband, Wade Wilson, were holding hands as they left a breakfast date at Broadway Market last week when they were suddenly attacked by a stranger.

Wilson was left with a concussion, but Bismark’s head injury was fatal. Wilson has spent the days since in a blur, navigating police interviews and making funeral arrangements for his partner of more than three decades.

But her death and the events that led to it were just moments in her life — nowhere near its full story.

Now back to the art.

Since she moved to Baltimore in the mid-1980s, Bismark helped shape the city’s art scene at The Walters Art Museum, the mayor’s arts and culture office, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She was known for her creativity and contagious energy, her no-nonsense work ethic, her compassion and her warm demeanor.

That probably had something to do with her Midwestern roots, her husband said.

She was born to Bernetta and Claude Brackins on April Fool’s Day in 1950. Bismark and her younger sister, Anne, spent their early years in eastern Tennessee before their parents relocated to small-town Illinois. It was always a treat when their older half-brothers stopped by for a visit.

She danced ballet through high school, where she met her first husband, who gave her the surname Bismark. She moved with him to Alaska for a few years before returning to study art and English at Western Illinois University. She then followed her second husband to Hawaii, where she took classes at the University of Hawaii while working at the Honolulu Academy of Art.

After a few years, she got a divorce and a job offer from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

She fell in love with the bustling city and its robust arts scene. She studied at Hunter College and finished her degree in 1981. While doing administrative work for the museum, she was a freelance calligrapher.

She had no trouble making friends, including Starr, who joined the MoMA staff in 1979. Bismark didn’t care that Starr was gay, though others were less accepting at the time. Starr was touched by her kindness: After he spent a few months surfing couches, Bismark suggested he move into her apartment. It didn’t work out, but he never forgot the gesture.

“She helped me get over that initial loneliness and isolation,” Starr said. Bismark showed him “how to enjoy life in a big city, how to make art part of your life, how to nurture friendships.”

She continued growing her career in Northern California at the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she learned how to fundraise and solicit volunteers. At SFMOMA, she established an artists-in-residence program pairing creators and collectors with corporate sponsors.

Bismark moved to Baltimore in 1986, where she began a decade-long tenure as head of special events at The Walters Art Museum. Among her greatest accomplishments there was launching the museum’s annual galas, said Kate Markert, a former coworker.

She also helped create “Artful Dining,” a dinner series inspired by the program she had managed in San Francisco. When the Walters stopped the series, she revived it at the Creative Alliance under the name “Art to Dine For.”

“She had all kinds of ideas, and the fantastic thing about Claudia was that she loved getting other people involved,” Markert said. Some people would come in just to stuff envelopes if it meant working with Bismark.

They stayed friends long after the two left the Walters, as Bismark went on to plan the city’s Artscape festival at what was then the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Art and Culture. She loved meeting people from different backgrounds and making art shows as diverse as possible, said Josh Kohn, a former committee colleague.

He called Bismark a “cheerleader for Baltimore.”

“She would have made a great mayor, because she didn’t put up with hooey,” Kohn said.

Bismark later held other events and development roles at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Maryland State Arts Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She and her husband decided to join the fun, launching the Bismark-Wilson Gallery (unofficially the Don’t Give Up the Day Job Gallery) in their home in the mid-1990s.

Michael Chandler, a former college classmate and longtime friend, was the first artist to show his work at the gallery. He sold 53 framed watercolor paintings that day and has returned every few years since to display different kinds of art.

Bismark never had an issue putting together a cohesive display relating each piece to the next, Chandler said.

“That’s a real skill and a gift: to take disparate elements and put them together and understand how they relate,” he said.

Chandler remembers Bismark as a curious, diligent and enthusiastic organizer who “didn’t suffer fools lightly.” Business was business.

That was actually how she and Wilson first connected in the ‘90s. Bismark went to a construction site to inquire about using a space Wilson’s family owned for an event.

A short time later, on a chilly October evening, he called her from a payphone to say hello. She told him she’d just started the first fire of the season. Would he like to join her?

The next three-plus decades were filled with love and laughter, Wilson said. Bismark supported him when he decided to become a lawyer. The couple took lengthy road trips, hosted art shows, and explored the restaurants and shops that made up their beloved Fells Point neighborhood.

The couple were near-daily regulars at Vikki’s Fells Point Deli in Broadway Market, where Bismark usually ordered an unsweet tea with lemon, two over-easy eggs, two “well, well-done” slices of bacon, wheat toast and fruit jelly, said owner Vicktoria “Vikki” Powers.

Powers recalled years of Bismark showering the deli’s staff with Christmas bonuses and birthday gifts and picking up the tab for service members. She always loved hearing Bismark’s boisterous laugh over meals with her husband.

At home, Bismark enjoyed watching British detective shows and playing Scrabble. There were three things Bismark never did, Wilson said — smoke a cigarette, drink a cup of coffee and pump gas.

She kept herself busy by printmaking. She made traditional linocuts by carving designs into linoleum sheets and watercolor monoprints by painting on plexiglass and then transferring it to paper. She was working on a watercolor piece the morning of the attack on Sept. 29, Wilson said. He came home afterward to find her materials still spread across the table.

She should be remembered as someone who “understands that the creativity of art is a wonderful thing, but it must be supported,” Wilson said.

Bismark’s injuries were too severe to treat, but doctors were able to keep her alive long enough to donate her organs. Her kidneys and liver saved three lives, her husband said. It’s a bit of comfort as he plans memorial services.

He spent a recent afternoon deciding what to engrave on his late wife’s headstone. It wasn’t long before he found the obvious answer: “Back to the art!”

The Banner publishes news stories about people who have recently died in Maryland. Our weekly obituaries newsletter shares these stories and death notices with you every Friday.

If your loved one has passed and you would like to inquire about an obituary, please fill out this form or contact obituary@thebanner.com. If you are interested in placing a paid death notice, please contact groupsales@thebanner.com or visit this website.