Kim Domanski, a passionate — and beloved — advocate for Maryland artists, died of a heart attack March 7 in her Baltimore home. She was 52.

Among her accomplishments, Ms. Domanski co-founded the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize, which now is among the most lucrative and prestigious visual arts awards in the mid-Atlantic region.

She oversaw the installations of public sculptures honoring such hometown heroes as baseball great Brooks Robinson, former Maryland Gov. and Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer and musician Frank Zappa.

Ms. Domanski also helped organize Light City, Baltimore’s short-lived but well-attended festival that illuminated the Inner Harbor with fanciful, colorful outdoor sculptures from 2016 through 2019.

Most recently, Ms. Domanski was director of operations at The Peale, Baltimore’s community museum. Among other innovations, she opened the Peale’s first gift shop.

”Kim was kind of a genius,” said Ed Istwan, Domanski’s long-term partner. “Her superpower was to make things appear. She could so easily make happen whatever she put her mind to.”

Though Ms. Domanski wasn’t from Baltimore originally, that did not prevent her from falling in love with the city after moving here in 1994 to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art.

”The list of things Kim didn’t love about Baltimore is a lot shorter than the list of things she did love,” Mr. Istwan said.

“Kim loved Baltimore’s quirky, offbeat vibe. She loved living in a city that could produce someone like John Waters, a city that could bring visual art together with funnel cakes.”

Ms. Domanski was born Sept. 9, 1972, in Danville, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three daughters of Vincent Domanski, a mail carrier, and Nola Domanski, a librarian.

As a child, she was creative and artistic — attributes that were combined with an unusual practical side. When Ms. Domanski enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University in 1990, she originally planned to train as an engineer.

But midway through her college career, she switched her major, graduating in 1994 with an honors degree in studio arts.

After moving to Baltimore and earning a master’s degree in fine arts from MICA, she went to work in 2005 for the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. One day, Ms. Domanski and her boss, Gary Kachadourian, began brainstorming ideas for celebrating the upcoming 25th anniversary of Artscape by starting a new prestigious contest with a $25,000 prize that would be awarded by a panel of outside jurors.

“Kim is the one that got the idea rolling,” Mr. Kachadiourian said.

”She was always the person who cleared the path and set up the structure so other artists could work. It’s really important to the art world to have people who can do that.”

Baltimore’s artists may have been Ms. Domanski’s second family, but she cherished lifelong ties to the family she was born into.

Her sister, Michele Long, looked forward to the annual five-day, sisters-only trip to Ocean City. Her brother, Vincent Domanski, said his sister was a fierce competitor at board games such as Parcheesi and Scrabble. Friends challenged her to the latter at their peril.

“Kim loved the shore,” Ms. Long said. “She loved fairs and thrift shops and the simple things.”

Ms. Domanski is survived by Long, of Northumberland, Pennsylvania; Vincent Domanski, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania; six nephews, three great-nieces; and three great-nephews.

A celebration of her life is being planned for this summer in Baltimore.

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