Tonya R. Miller Hall is the creative engine behind some of Baltimore’s most impactful civic shifts. As Baltimore’s first cabinet-level Senior Advisor for Arts & Culture in over three decades, she sat at the helm of one of the most ambitious cultural transformations in the city's modern history—architecting initiatives that fuse creative vision with economic strategy, policy reform, and public space reinvention.
A born-and-bred Baltimorean with a 20-year career in New York City, Tonya built her reputation working across fashion, entertainment, social justice, and global branding. From launching campaigns for cultural icons like Madonna, Steven Tyler and Wendy Williams to delivering multimillion-dollar partnerships at William Morris Endeavor (WME), she has turned bold ideas into scalable platforms at every level. Her portfolio includes partnerships with Bank of America, Samsung, Pandora, and SK-II, and production of flagship events like New York & Miami Fashion Weeks, the MTV VMAs, and the National Equal Justice Awards.
Tonya’s creative career spans powerhouse institutions including Time Inc., Viacom, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. At WME, she served as Senior Director of Business Development, bridging entertainment and corporate sponsorship in ways that redefined branded cultural engagement. Returning to Baltimore in 2018, Tonya became a driving force for reimagining the city’s arts infrastructure. She led a bold revitalization of BOPA, repositioned Artscape with a new downtown vision, and launched the award-winning campaign What Is Art, a cinematic tribute to Baltimore’s creative identity.
Tonya has reshaped how Baltimore defines arts and culture—as an economic engine, a design tool, and a civic solution. She led the redevelopment of the Urban Oasis mural corridor under the JFX, secured a $1M Bloomberg Public Art Challenge grant for the Inviting Light initiative, and brought the International Placemaking Conference to Baltimore, positioning the city as a national model for municipal arts leadership. She is also spearheading reforms to Baltimore’s 1% for Public Art legislation—modernizing the policy to expand investment in murals, green spaces, and creative placemaking, and converting a vacant parking lot into a community pocket park in Baltimore’s Art & Entertainment District – named Artscape Park.
Tonya also spearheaded Scout, a groundbreaking contemporary art fair created in collaboration with Baltimore-born, Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams, whose celebrated practice explores Black joy, identity, and cultural narratives through painting, collage, sculpture, performance, sound, and video
Curated by Adams and Teri Henderson, Scout featured over 40 Baltimore-based artists with artworks priced affordably between $150 and $5,000, intentionally designed to create real market opportunities for emerging creatives while positioning Baltimore decisively within the national arts economy.
In addition, Tonya launched Art After Dark and the Graffiti Task Force, two dynamic initiatives that transform street art into city-sanctioned storytelling—inviting muralists, graffiti writers, and public art practitioners to collaborate on visible interventions that elevate narrative while discouraging unauthorized tagging. Through these programs, she integrates cultural planning directly into public infrastructure and economic policy, ensuring the arts play a sustainable and meaningful role in urban revitalization.
Her leadership blends the creative instincts of a cultural producer with the precision of a brand strategist and the discipline of a city builder. Whether securing major funding, rewriting policy, or reshaping cultural perception, Tonya doesn’t just dream big—she delivers.
A passionate advocate for creative placemaking, artist housing, and equitable development, she believes culture is not an accessory to city-building—it’s the foundation.
Tonya is also an endurance athlete who thrives on the edge—boxing, road racing, and gravel riding are her happy place. She’s all passion and grit. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, Mark, and their two cats, Brooklyn and Rye.