Monthly Archives: May 2020

LTYC LEARN Virtual Arts Camp

Leader of Tomorrow Youth Center (LTYC) offers a Virtual Arts Camp this summer. Need something to enrich your children this summer? Help them make the most of their time with interactive arts camps taught by experts, artists, and practitioners. Each week and session consists of five days starting on Monday and ending on Friday, either in the morning or afternoon. Themes change weekly so sign up for one session, or as many as you like! Multiple sessions means a variety of arts experiences and opportunities. Visit www.ltyc.net for updated information.

Enjoy daily sessions in the following contents:

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Maryland State Arts Council Awards $1 Million in Emergency Grant Funding to 125 Arts Organizations and Independent Artists

The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), an agency of the Maryland Department of Commerce, announced awards totaling $1 million dollars to support arts organizations and independent artists across the state during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The funding will help adjust to losses sustained because of modified or cancelled programming and/or operations. MSAC received 155 eligible requests totaling $2.6 million by the May 1 deadline. Based on staff evaluation of applications against a rubric that considered the needs of the artist or organization relative to the available funding, the Council approved grants for 64 arts organizations totaling $869,318 and 61 independent artists totaling $128,682. For a full list of grantees, visit msac.org/grants-awarded.

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Shelter in Place (SiP) digital residency program is looking for visual artists who identify as activism and community organizers for a 6 week digital artist residency. This residency is an opportunity for community organizers and activists to come together as artists to support each other’s growth in the studio and to support the larger work of building power and liberation.   

2020 Residency Dates: June 22 – July 31

Applications are due by 11:59 pm EST on Friday, June 12, 2020.

SiP Online Residency offers 6 weeks of:
Peer to peer support and feedback
SiP artists presentations
Online pop-up shows
Community discussions on building power, solidarity economics and studio practices.

Application Process and Selection
Application deadline is June 12th, all applicants will be notified by Tuesday, June 16th.

Residency Requirements
Experience in Community Organizing or activism
Practicing Visual Artist, (Any medium)
Availability to engage in weekly online events
This residency prioritizes Southern artists but is open to all artists of any region.
6-8 artists will be selected for this first residency with the goal of opening it to more artists in future iterations.

More information is available at www.shelterinplace.art.

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar hosted by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, alongside Delegate Brooke Lierman and Nicholas Cohen, Executive Director at Maryland Citizens for the Arts. We spoke with Councilman Eric Costello and Shelonda Stokes, Downtown Partnership Interim President, about what the path forward through the coronavirus looks like for the arts.

One of my suggestions during the webinar was that we look to our artists, our creative community, as more than just individuals, but as resources. For businesses looking to support the arts during this time, I encourage them to hire a creative person. The skills of a creative mind can help us all move forward.

This is just one of many ways in which we can step up during this time to help the arts thrive beyond this pandemic. I encourage everyone to think creatively about the ways in which we can all continue to support the arts right now.

Donna Drew Sawyer
CEO, Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts

Baltimore Conversations: The Film & TV Industry Rebounds

Over the last few weeks, movies and tv shows have been watched more than ever. Streaming services have seen huge surges in viewership. All the while, productions have been halted, premieres postponed, and shows cancelled. Join film industry Baltimoreans to talk about how the pandemic has changed the entertainment landscape across the country.

David Robinson – President, Morgan Creek Entertainment
Meryam Bouadjemi – Founder, New Market Discovery & Talent Consultant, Sundance Episodic Lab
Brian Dannelly – Executive Producer, CW’s In the Dark
Rachel Hilson – Actress, best known for NBC’s “This is Us”
Moderated by Max Weiss – Editor-in-Chief, Baltimore Magazine

Thursday, May 28, 3pm EST

Register for your zoom link here.

Baltimore Conversations are presented by Baltimore Homecoming.

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced today that it is launching three new initiatives to provide direct support to Baltimore-based artists, galleries, and communities: BMA Salon, BMA Screening Room, and BMA Studio. The initiatives will provide some immediate financial relief to local artists and businesses, develop new platforms of visibility to ensure the longer-term success of Baltimore’s arts ecology, and extend participatory opportunities to populations that do not have ready access to digital content. The development of these programs stems from the BMA’s popular, ongoing speaker series, The Necessity of Tomorrow(s), which was established to imagine futures that embrace issues of social justice, equity, and creative practice. The BMA’s new initiatives actualize the series’ core principles and respond to the needs of the current situation through creative endeavors, furthering the museum’s role as a cultural collaborator and civic leader. 

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Over the past several months, Baltimore’s creative community has had to make significant adjustments to the ways in which we all interact with the arts. With stay-at-home orders, gathering restrictions and social distancing, many arts programs, classes and activities can no longer happen the way they once did. Thinking creatively, Baltimore individuals and organizations have looked to virtual opportunities to keep the arts thriving during this time.

BOPA is proud to feature Baltimore and Maryland arts organizations that have had to make these necessary adjustments. Today’s spotlight is on Wide Angle Youth Media, one of Baltimore’s arts organizations that’s working hard to ensure that their media arts education programs both adapt and thrive in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hear directly from Wide Angle Youth Media below:

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