The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts board of directors and CEO Rachel Graham are parting ways after less than seven months, continuing a monthslong leadership spiral at the arts-focused nonprofit.

The decision to oust Graham, the former head of external relations at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, came from a dramatically hollowed-out board. BOPA has a 13-member board, but eight members, including its executive chairman, resigned this month after Mayor Brandon Scott’s office chose to cancel the city contract that provides the nonprofit much of its revenue.

Graham’s departure is “effective immediately,” BOPA interim chair and CEO Robyn Murphy said at the close of a special meeting Wednesday. Murphy was temporarily appointed to both roles while the board searches for new leadership.

The vote to part ways with Graham was unanimous, Murphy said after the meeting. Graham wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The arts group, created to support city artists, stage high-profile festivals and events and maintain some Baltimore facilities, revealed in September it had run out of money and would struggle to cover basic expenses such as payroll.

Reeling from the fallout of having its financial troubles made public, the board voted last month to slash enough jobs to save the organization about $35,000 a month — far less than the $1.8 million it asked the city for as its financial problems came into focus. It’s not clear which jobs were eliminated; Graham, at the time, declined to specify positions.

The financial insolvency set off a firestorm that ultimately led to BOPA’s contract cancellation.

Graham, who said she knew the organization faced financial peril before staging Artscape in July, attempted to shift blame to the mayor’s office earlier this fall and suggested the city wrongly allocated grant money. Scott, having already demanded the organization undergo a forensic audit, responded by directing the city’s spending board to cancel BOPA’s contract, effective January 2025.

With BOPA largely dismantled, the city will now become almost entirely responsible for running arts and culture programming. That includes Artscape, which brings thousands of visitors downtown each year; the New Year’s Eve fireworks show; and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. The nonprofit also serves as Baltimore’s film office and arts council.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade will be the last BOPA-produced event.

It’s possible the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, which is helmed by current BOPA board member Tonya Miller Hall, contracts out much of the event planning to another city nonprofit.

Mayor Brandon Scott’s office feud with BOPA began in early 2023, when the organization said it would not stage the MLK Day parade despite being contractually obligated to do so. Scott called for then-CEO Donna Drew Sawyer’s resignation; she stepped down in January of that year, creating a leadership vacuum and kickstarting a national search for her replacement.

After Sawyer’s departure, the mayor’s office began toying with the idea of eliminating BOPA altogether, according to a 2023 memo. It suggested that BOPA suffered from low morale and internal instability, and the memo suggested that the city could redirect all money it gives the nonprofit to a wing of the mayor’s office and other organizations to put on BOPA’s signature events.

Weeks later, the city’s ire grew when the Baltimore Law Department revealed it had fought off a request from BOPA to trademark Artscape, another violation of its contract, under Sawyer’s leadership. At a tense budget hearing that year, interim leadership revealed it had approved a severance payout to Sawyer without the city’s knowledge.

In June the city’s spending board approved a restructured, one-year contract with BOPA. The new deal gave Scott’s office an easy route to cancellation and set up a payment structure that doled out quarterly installments instead of a lump sum as an additional oversight measure.

Recently departed board member Lady Brion said she was disappointed the city did not stick out the one-year agreement, calling it a “missed opportunity.” With a new CEO, a new board and a new energy, the organization was ready to spend the year trying to shore up all the deficiencies Scott’s administration had previously pointed out. Instead, the nonprofit will struggle to keep its footing in the city’s cultural scene.

“There’s a lot of knowledge and history that BOPA has,” Brion, a poet, said. “They’re a big part of the arts and culture ecosystem in this community.”

When Graham joined the organization earlier this year, she said she had hoped to create more financial opportunities for city-based creatives to make careers out of the arts. She also acknowledged the organization’s mistakes and said she felt motivated to push BOPA to reach “the next level.”

“I just love the city. I believe in the transformative power of the arts community, and I believe in BOPA,” Graham said in a February interview. “Pressure makes diamonds, and sometimes you need that to force you out of the box and look at the situation from a new perspective.”

Murphy, BOPA’s interim board chair and CEO, said the board will name a new leader of the arts council, a separate function within BOPA, later this week.

This is a developing story.