Jenenne Whitfield, former director of the American Visionary Art Museum, has joined MCB Real Estate to create cultural programming for a controversial plan to redevelop Harborplace.
Whitfield is the company’s new director of experience, a position created for her, the firm announced Tuesday in a news release.
P. David Bramble, managing partner of MCB Real Estate, said in the release that MCB officials learned through their community engagement process that art and culture are important to future residents and users of a re-imagined Harborplace.
Whitfield’s “proven background of fostering creativity and inclusivity aligns perfectly with our vision,” Bramble said in the release. “Harborplace has always been the city’s gathering place and our commitment through this process is to return Harborplace to that glory in a modern 21st century way.”
Whitfield was ousted after just a year at AVAM as a result of what the museum’s board described as “differing views” about how to ensure the museum’s long-term growth and viability.
Before she joined AVAM in 2022, Whitfield was president of Detroit’s Heidelberg project, an outdoor visual art installation in an urban setting that is beloved by Michigan residents and visitors.
Whitfield said in the news release that she was inspired by the vision of Bramble’s team.
“Baltimore is such an exciting city with energy that sets new precedents for what a world-class, diverse city can be,” she said. “I am excited to have been invited to the table.”
MCB has proposed demolishing the twin 43-year-old shopping and dining pavilions that for decades have symbolized the Inner Harbor attraction and replacing them with high-rise apartments and office buildings.
A coalition has formed in opposition to the plan, claiming it could strip the city of one of its most cherished waterfront parks. Whitfield’s hiring puts her on the opposite side of the issue from AVAM founder Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, who said at a recent public forum that not safeguarding the park for future generations would be “an obscenity.”
The redevelopment would require changing the city charter designating the land as a public park, and will go before voters in November.