KEYS Empowers & ART WITH A HEART have teamed together to provide creative therapy sessions for children who have survived these historically traumatic times. Together, they have pulled together Art Boxes to deliver to families across Baltimore in need.
It’s back! Join the Banneker-Douglass Museum online on Friday, July 31, from 10 am until 2 pm for the third annual BDM Youth Conference. This year’s theme is The Black Vote Mural Project. Viewers will experience motivational speakers, spoken word performances, learn ways to use public art as activism, and more.
This virtual summit is dedicated to the empowerment of Maryland’s youth. Now is the time to learn about how you can participate in democracy and be an agent of change in your community. Be encouraged to use your voice to advocate for the change you want to see; your voice counts!
Presentations:
The History of Youth Protest: Dr. David Fakunle – Chair, Maryland Lynching Project
The Power of Social Media: Rashad Stanton – Youth Engagement Specialist, Baltimore City Public Schools
Black Power & Graffiti – Public Art as Activism: Chanel Compton (Keynote) Executive Director, Banneker-Douglass Museum & Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture
Protest Books for Young Readers, Baltimore Read Aloud
Breonna Taylor – Black Lives Matter Mural Presentation, Future History Now
Wednesday, July 29 at 6PM: Mecca “Meccamorphosis” Verdell is a world-renowned spoken word poet, author, actress, and creator. ⠀ ⠀ In a time of unprecedented social change, join @meccamorphosis on the Baltimore Museum of Art’s INSTAGRAM LIVE for a conversation on poetry, the importance of expression, and the power of speaking up.
BMA Violet Hour is a series of online programs designed to give viewers an opportunity to relax and connect with artists, makers, and the community through meditations, artist talks, and other interactive experiences.
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The
Arts (BOPA) is proud to announce that LaToya
M. Hobbs is the winner of the 2020
Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. The coveted $25,000 prize was
presented at a virtual award ceremony on Saturday, July 25, streamed on
BOPA’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
“I am so
excited, so happy and just filled with so much gratitude,” said Hobbs during
the award ceremony. “It is an honor to continue in the tradition of the
Sondheim Award and an absolute pleasure to share my work with you.”
LaToya M. Hobbs (Baltimore, MD) is an artist, wife, and mother of two currently living and working in Baltimore, MD. She received her BA in Painting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and MFA in Printmaking from Purdue University. Hobbs’ work deals with figurative imagery that addresses the ideas of beauty, cultural identity, and womanhood as they relate to women of the African Diaspora. She creates a fluid and symbiotic relationship between her printmaking and painting practice producing works that are marked by texture, color and bold patterns. Her exhibition record includes several national and international exhibits. Hobbs’ work has also been featured in Transition: An International Review, a publication of the W.E.B. Dubois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Other accomplishments include a 2019 Individual Artist Award in the Works on Paper category from the Maryland State Arts Council, a 2019 Artist Travel Grant awarded by the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore and she is the recipient of a 2020 Artist in Residence award at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, LA. Additionally, Hobbs devotes her time to teaching and inspiring young artists as a Professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hobbs’ winning Sondheim Artscape Prize gallery is available for viewing here.
from left: The Founder; Epiphany
The five remaining finalists – Miguel Braceli, Hoesy Corona, Phylicia Ghee, Muriel Hasbun, and the artist group strikeWare, consisting of Mollye Bendell, Jeffrey Gangwisch, and Christopher Kojzar – each received an M&T Bank Finalist Award of $2,500. Semifinalists will be awarded a $500 honorarium, also partially financed by a gift from M&T Bank this year. Works of art by the winner and finalists are on view in a virtual exhibition available at www.promotionandarts.org through Monday, August 31, 2020.
Learn how Artscape co-evolved alongside the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the Mount Vernon Cultural District, as well as how the nation’s largest free arts festival is planning to take a summer tradition virtual. BSO VP of Development at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Allison Burr-Livingstone is joined by Kathleen Hornig, Festivals Director & COO of Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts for this timely historical retrospective.
Watch live on Thursday, July 23, 5PM on the BSO’s Facebook page.
This year’s Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize competition has been unlike any other. A complete pivot to a virtual exhibition allowed us to continue this Baltimore tradition in a new way, and gave our six finalists the opportunity to reimagine their galleries for a digital platform. We are so thrilled with the outcome of the Finalists’ Exhibition, and we hope you’ll take time to virtually visit each gallery throughout the summer.
This weekend, the competition comes to a close
as we celebrate our dynamic arts community at the virtual award ceremony. There
is so much talent within the creative communities of the Baltimore region, and
this competition allows us to support and invest in the careers of these
artists by awarding a $25,000 fellowship grand prize from a BOPA endowment and
$2,500 each for the Finalists for the M&T Bank Finalist award. We support
artists and fund their craft so that they may focus on their work and our arts
communities may continue to grow.
Join us on Saturday, July 25 at 7pm on the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts’ YouTube and Facebook pages for the Sondheim Artscape Prize Ceremony. You’ll hear directly from each of our finalists, Miguel Braceli, Hoesy Corona, Phylicia Ghee, Muriel Hasbun, LaToya M. Hobbs, and the artist group strikeWare; as well as Laure Drogoul, the first Sondheim Artscape Prize winner, and the 2019 winner Akea Brionne Brown. This award is a fifteen-year tradition in Baltimore and a special night for our arts community. Don’t forget to tour the galleries before joining us for big announcement of this year’s winner!
I will look for you on Saturday!
Donna Drew Sawyer
CEO, Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts
