As part of Governor Larry Hogan’s Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative, it was announced last week that an additional $3 million will be distributed by the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) through its Emergency Grant Program. Created in March in response to the COVID-19 State of Emergency, Emergency Grants provide funding to arts organizations and artists for losses sustained because of programming, operations, and events that have been modified or cancelled.
Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 13, 2020 to be considered for funding.
For complete information regarding the Emergency Grant process, including guidelines and rubrics, please visit the MSAC website.
The Baltimore Film Office at the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts(BOPA) is accepting entries for the 16th annual Baltimore Screenwriters Competition.All screenwriters are encouraged to apply for this opportunity to craft a winning screenplay highlighting Baltimore. Screenplays may be submitted in both the feature and short categories, and scripts must be set in or able to be filmed in Baltimore. The Baltimore Screenwriters Competition is a project ofthe Baltimore Film Office in conjunction with film programs at Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University.
The deadlinefor submissions is January 15, 2021 by 5pm. The application and full guidelines are available online at www.baltimorefilm.com.
ArtsLABis a traveling professional development symposium, presented by Maryland Citizens for the Arts (MCA) each year, in different parts of the state. ArtsLAB is a place where artists, arts professionals, advocates and more, come together to discuss current issues and concerns facing the arts sector. This year will be the first ever VIRTUAL ArtsLAB. There will be an interactive artist performance, as well as honest conversations about the arts sector.
This year’s theme is: Decolonizing the Arts.
When: Friday, November 20, 2020, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Where: Crowdcast virtual platform WHO: This event is open to artists, arts professionals, advocates and more looking to come together to discuss current issues and concerns facing the arts sector. WHAT TO EXPECT: You can expect progressive, forward-moving (and thinking) conversations about how to make Maryland’s art sector the leading art sector in the country. There will be open and honest conversations about what challenges the community faces and ways to overcome them.
For four evenings in November, the Maryland Theatre for the Performing Art (MTPA)’s StageOne @ Park Place will be transformed by Orange Grove Dance (“OGD”) into a live, site-specific, socially-distanced performance, Still Standing, featuring a vivid light installation that gently reflects the adjacent Annapolis National Cemetery. With the audience viewing from MTPA’s Veterans Overlook, OGD will bring their trademark virtuosic athleticism and the alluring music of Composer Dylan Glatthorn to this surreal luminescent landscape designed by acclaimed Lighting Designer Peter Leibold.
Society’s Cage: What is the value of a Black life in America?
Society’s Cage, an experiential public art installation, is now exhibited on War Memorial Plaza, at 101 North Gay Street, through Friday, October 30, 9 AM – 9 PM daily.
Created by SmithGroup architects Dayton Schroeter and Julian Arrington, in the aftermath of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Society’s Cage highlights the historic forces of racialized state violence in America.
500 hanging steel bars form a cavernous cube with a habitable void, allowing visitors to experience the symbolic weight of institutional racism. A commissioned soundscape offer an emotive experience designed to build empathy and understanding.
Share your experience with us on social media with #SocietysCage.
(from left): BOPA CEO Donna Drew Sawyer tours Society’s Cage with lead designers Dayton Schroeder and Julian Arrington, Photo Credit: Glenford Nunez; A visitor reads data inscribed on Society’s Cage pavilion, Photo Credit: Tiffany Thompson; Society’s Cage details, Photo Credit: Mark Dennis.
Individuals interested in volunteering as a docent for Society’s Cage, please contact BOPA for more information.
Society’s Cage is a signature event of Free Fall Baltimore, presented by BGE and Maryland State Arts Council, produced by Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, with programming support from the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Baltimore).
Congratulations to Schroeder Cherry and Hoesy Corona, who will each receive $6,000 in funding for travel essential to their studio practice.
The fifth annual Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Artist Travel Prize is managed by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and sponsored by the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City.
Schroeder Cherry plans for six days of travel to Salvador, Brazil to study African diaspora in paintings, murals and assemblage art. The experience would expand Cherry’s knowledge of Black images, historic and contemporary, in the city with the largest African diaspora population outside Africa. Cherry’s work depicts Black diaspora experiences in the US.
Hoesy Corona will travel to Yuriria, Guanajuato, Mexico and the surrounding rural town of Tierra Blanca to inform a new body of work tentatively titled “Acts of Liberation”. The series will draw from Corona’s personal experiences as a queer-Mexican-immigrant to poetically consider how immigrants thrive in a new place despite their unique circumstances.
From youth development to providing a helping hand to neighbors experiencing homelessness, nonprofit organizations play a critical role in helping Baltimore residents build a good life. Nonprofits in Baltimore responded quickly to the coronavirus pandemic to continue crucial services, and many have seen unplanned costs as a result of the public health crisis. Mayor Young created the Baltimore Nonprofit Relief Fund to provide a critical lifeline to Baltimore nonprofit organizations faced with unexpected costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This one-time, $5 million fund supports nonprofit organizations by reimbursing them for unplanned costs incurred since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Through the Nonprofit Relief Fund, Baltimore City is one of a few places in the country prioritizing financial support for nonprofit organizations with federal CARES Act funding.
The application for the Baltimore Nonprofit Relief Fund is now open through 11:59 p.m. on November 20, 2020.
