---
title: Painting a New Landscape
date: 2022-05-03T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/painting-a-new-landscape"
section: Articles
---
# Painting a New Landscape

*May 3, 2022* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10)


> Alum’s Organization Brings Together Women Artists of Color

*BGWP Cupcakes Convos DC Meet up 2019 1920x1080 — When Sasha-Loriene McClain ’12 (third from left) decided to pursue art full-time, she realized there weren’t many communities for women of color in the art world. So she decided to start her own: Black Girls Who Paint, a network of more than 100 artists that provides both monetary and emotional support.*

Sasha-Loriene McClain ’12 likes to joke that she was the world’s briefest studio art major. Thirty-six hours after she’d rearranged her four-year plan at the University of Maryland to study art instead of economics, her parents told her if she wanted to follow that route, she could do it at community college. Immigrants who’d sought refuge from the Liberian civil war, they saw economics as the better path to a secure future.

McClain finished the degree her parents wanted for her, but she’s since found her way back to her first love as a full-time artist and founder of [Black Girls Who Paint](https://www.blackgirlswhopaint.com/) (BGWP), a nonprofit organization that offers women of color scholarships, stipends for materials, connections to gallery owners and funding sources, and a network of other artists who understand the particular difficulties facing Black women in the field.

“I just really wanted to create the community that I always wanted,” said McClain.


*Sasha-Loriene McClain bird painting*


*Sasha-Loriene McClain abstract painting*




**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Alumni](https://today.umd.edu/topic/alumni), [Visual Arts](https://today.umd.edu/topic/visual-arts)


**Units:** [College of Behavioral and Social Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-behavioral-and-social-sciences)