We are flying toward the first-ever Maryland Arts Summit! The staff members of the Maryland State Arts Council, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Maryland State Department of Education's Fine Arts Office, and Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance have been hard at work curating the first conference of its kind for the entirety of Maryland’s arts sector. More than 70 professional development sessions, presented by 150 arts leaders, will be offered along with the opportunity to celebrate leading artists during the Maryland Heritage Awards and the Individual Artist Award ceremonies. Any person, with any level of arts interest, will find the summit engaging and inspiring. I hope to see you at UMBC in June!
Ken Skrzesz, Executive Director, Maryland State Arts Council
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The MSAC Online Resource Bulletin, maintained by Maryland Art Place, includes regional, national, and international exhibition opportunities, grants, fellowships, residencies, and information on available studio spaces in the area. The Resource Bulletin is updated on a weekly basis and maintains hundreds of listings of arts opportunities, organized by subject and deadline date. Check out the
MSAC Resource Bulletin
today! To post your call for entry,
email Caitlin, the Registry Coordinator, at
caitlin@mdartplace.org
.
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Please consider inviting MSAC Staff and Board Members to any public event that may include donor recognition as part of the programming. Public acknowledgement of MSAC funding, particularly when a staff, board member, or local legislator is present, allows arts audiences to understand the connection between the vote they cast for local officials, the local official’s support of MSAC funding, and how that funding returns to the communities of arts-connected constituents. Please send all invitations to
brenda.pope@maryland.gov.
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NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS ANNOUNCES SECOND ROUND OF FISCAL 2019 AWARDS
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The National Endowment for the Arts announces $80.4 million for 1,114 new awards located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and four U.S. jurisdictions. This is the agency’s second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2019, and these awards continue the Arts Endowment’s commitment as the only arts funder reaching the entire country. Awards from this round of funding come from four categories: Art Works, Our Town, Partnerships (State & Regional), and Research: Art Works, plus a renewal in NEA Research Labs.
Grants recommended in this round are listed in two ways:
In the first funding round of fiscal year 2019 announced earlier this year, the Arts Endowment awarded 1,145 grants totaling $27 million. Other awards will be made in the coming months through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. All current grants can be viewed through the
Arts Endowment’s grants search
.
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MUSEUMS NATIONWIDE PARTICIPATE IN TENTH SUMMER OF BLUE STAR MUSEUMS
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Celebrating the tenth summer of Blue Star Museums, the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families announce that museums nationwide have signed on to provide free admission to our nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families this summer. The 2019 program will begin earlier than in past years, starting on Saturday, May 18, 2019, Armed Forces Day, and end on Monday, September 2, 2019, Labor Day. Military families can find the list of participating museums at
arts.gov/bluestarmuseums
.
Blue Star Museums is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in collaboration with Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums nationwide. First Lady of the United States Melania Trump and Second Lady of the United States Karen Pence are honorary co-chairs of Blue Star Museums 2019.
Follow Blue Star Museums on Twitter @NEAarts and @BlueStarFamily, #bluestarmuseums.
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Several Public Art Across Maryland projects supported by Public Art Project grants debuted recently including the Harriet Tubman mural,
Leading the Way,
by artist
Michael Rosato
. The project was painted
at
the Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center
in Cambridge
and implemented by Dorchester Center for the Arts and Alpha Genesis CDC.
The concept for the mural went through several iterations with the community and resulted in Rosato painting Tubman extending her hand and reaching out of the building, inviting visitors in to learn the history of enslaved individuals.
The public artwork became interactive when a young girl reached out to touch Tubman’s hand - the moment captured in a social media photo shared the new Cambridge mural worldwide.
Mural by Michael Rosato
Photograph by Jill Jasuta
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MARYLAND MICRO-CREDENTIALS FOR CREATIVE CLASSROOMS
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Maryland State Arts Council and the Fine Arts Office of the Maryland State Department of Education present a new suite of competency-based professional learning courses for facilitators of creative classrooms.
The Maryland Micro-Credentials for Creative Classrooms (MCreds
)
focus on developing specific skills and knowledge for use in schools and communities, including music, dance, visual arts, media arts, theatre and multidisciplinary arts spaces.
Successful completion will result in an MCred Endorsement from the Maryland State Arts Council for Community Arts Providers and an MSDE Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credit for Arts Educators. All courses are FREE.
Register today!
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The Baltimore Natural Dye Initiative, which grew out of a 2017 visit by Maryland First Lady Yumi Hogan to the Natural Dyeing Cultural Center in Naju, South Korea, aims to transform a portion of a West Baltimore vacant lot into an urban farm, which will produce crops to make natural dyes for artistic, educational, and commercial use. Funded by the Maryland Department of Commerce (through the Maryland State Arts Council) and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Baltimore Natural Dye Initiative is a public-private partnership that includes MICA, the Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation, and the Baltimore Development Corporation. Additional support for the exhibition comes from the Living Classrooms Foundation.
In April, volunteers and partners planted 765 Black-eyed Susans at the
Parks and People Foundation
9-acre LEED Platinum headquarters and campus in West Baltimore. The event was a milestone in the Baltimore Natural Dyes Initiative, a multi-agency pilot project to create the area’s first natural dye farm and processing site. The initiative will support urban farming, economic opportunities, community redevelopment, international relations, and the arts in Maryland.
MSAC staff member Rosa Chang serves as a senior adviser and a fiber artist who has experience with Asian indigo cultivation and the natural indigo dye process.
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THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART INVITES 300 ORGANIZATIONS TO PARTICIPATE IN HISTORIC SURVEY
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The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced it is relaunching its ambitious 1937 citywide survey to find out how the museum can best serve the interests of Baltimore’s communities. Titled
Make It Now
, the updated survey asks 300 organizations—including schools and civic, social, and religious groups—to tell the BMA what they want from Baltimore’s largest art museum. This initiative will help in planning future exhibitions and programs while reinforcing longstanding relationships and developing new ones throughout the city.Individuals who wish to contribute thoughts and ideas to the survey can participate online by visiting
artbma.org/now
. Responses are due by Sunday, June 30.
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Jazz pianist and educator
Harry Appelman
has performed on concert stages on five continents. He has been chosen three times to participate in U.S. State Department music tours overseas. Mr. Appelman is a member of Afro Bop Alliance, winners of a 2008 Latin Grammy, and has contributed several arrangements to the group's recordings. A recipient of Maryland State Arts Council Awards for composition in 2012 and 2018, he was a finalist in both the 1987 and 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competitions (finishing second in 1988) and one of three prizewinners in the 1989 Great American Jazz Piano Competition. Mr. Appelman was named in Washingtonian magazine's February 2003 "Great Music" issue as one of the D.C. area's best jazz artists. He currently performs in the area at Blues Alley, the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Twins, and other popular jazz venues.
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Steven Skerritt-Davis, Deputy Director
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Steven Skerritt-Davis joined the staff of the Maryland State Arts Council in February 2017 as Program Director of three statewide initiatives—Arts and Entertainment Districts, Community Arts Development, and Individual Artist Awards. He was recently promoted to Deputy Director of the Maryland State Arts Council for his outstanding commitment to the arts across Maryland. In this role he strives to elevate and support the arts statewide and make the arts accessible to all Marylanders. Prior to joining MSAC,
Skerritt-Davis
served as Director of External Relations at American Dance Institute. As a fledgling experiment in Rockville, Maryland when he joined in 2013, ADI offered technical residencies to leading contemporary dance artists.
Skerritt-Davis
helped bring the organization to national prominence by securing grants and partnerships to expand its programs, and he helped design and implement a national scholarship program to increase diversity in dance education. Beginning in 2015, he secured initial funding and partnerships to move the organization's main operations to upstate New York where where it became Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts and began building a dance residency facility designed to catalyze the transformation of the small town of Catskill into an arts destination.
Skerritt-Davis
graduated Brown University after retiring from a 10-year ballet career and worked for the National Dance Project at the New England Foundation for the Arts prior to moving to Maryland.
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Jacqueline Copeland, Baltimore County
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Jacqueline Copeland has a lifelong passion for art, culture and history. Copeland has served as a senior museum professional for nearly 30 years at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, where she worked for 15 years. At the Walters where she served as Director of Education and Deputy Director of Audience Engagement, she led the Education Division that was the recipient of local and national awards for its creative and innovative programs. A member of both museum’s senior management teams, she worked steadily to craft a team-based approach within the museum for exhibition and program development, and led the museum’s efforts to evaluate the exhibition and program experience. In 2011 she discovered, in a Baltimore antique shop, a heretofore unknown and rare photograph (c.1872 -1878) of African American sculptor Edmonia Lewis. She is a curator of private collections, a museum consultant, and a Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Copeland recently joined the senior management team of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (the Lewis), where she is Director of Education and Visitor Services.
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Artist in Residence Program:
The MSAC's Artist in Residence (AiR) Program provides grants to Maryland schools that cover half the cost of a teaching artist residency. Guidelines for the FY20 Program can be found
here
and applications can be accessed in
eGrant
.
Presenting and Touring Program:
The Maryland Touring Grant assists eligible nonprofit organizations by, subsidizing the presentation of any performer on the Maryland Performing Artist Touring Roster. Guidelines for the FY20 Program can be found
here
and applications can be accessed in
Smart Simple
. All applicants will need to register for a new account.
Creativity Grant Program:
The purpose of the Creativity Grant Program is to strengthen the vitality and sustainability of artists and small organizations, in order to maintain a strong arts infrastructure in the state. The Creativity Grant also provides opportunities to serve the growing needs of relevant arts projects and collaborations within Maryland communities. Guidelines for the FY20 Program can be found
here
and applications can be accessed in
Smart Simple
, beginning June 5. All applicants will need to register for a new account. Applications submitted prior to June 5 can be submitted through the application link on our
website
.
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