Tom Miller

Tom Miller was born in the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, MD on October 13,1945. He attended Carver Vocational High School and earned a scholarship to The Maryland Institute College of Art in 1963. 

Tom Miller grew up in Sandtown-Winchester, the oldest of six kids in a family that stitched and tailored for a living. He carried that same creativity out of his neighborhood and into the world. Miller was more than an artist. He was a teacher, a mentor, and a voice that shaped how Baltimore saw itself.

After graduation Miller taught in the Baltimore Public School System for two decades. He returned to MICA to earn his masters degree in fine art in 1987 subsequently retiring from teaching and becoming a full-time artist. It is noted by Leslie King-Hammond, dean of graduate students at MICA, that Miller was a standout student in graduate school. You know his work the second you see it. Bright colors. Funky, reimagined furniture. Everyday objects turned into something new. He called it Afro-Deco — a mix of Art Deco sleekness and the humor, pain, and beauty of Black life. Miller played with stereotypes, blowing them up until their power shrank. He turned broken furniture into survival stories and used his art to process his own fight with AIDS.

Baltimore loved him because he gave the city a mirror. He showed its joy, its grit, its toughness, and its heart. When Mayor Kurt Schmoke named a “Tom Miller Day” in 1995, it was just putting words to what people already felt: Miller was ours. He belonged to the city, but his art stretched way beyond it, pushing the boundaries of what American art could hold. Today, Tom Miller Week in February keeps his spirit moving through Baltimore.

Tom Miller left us more than artwork. He left a way of seeing — how to find value in what others call waste, how to turn struggle into beauty, and how to survive with style.