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 Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, a leader in the Maryland cultural community know for their innovative productions of Shakespeare’s works and other classics. With performances canceled, the team has been working hard to produce virtual content and adapt their summer programming. Read more below to see how they have been able to shift from the stage to the screen over the past few months.
The Overlea ArtsFest is a family-friendly annual arts festival and juried art show organized by the Overlea Community Association to celebrate the visual & performing arts, and to promote local artists and their work. Artists of all genres and all levels of experience are welcome to submit their work to compete for prizes in up to nine different juried categories.
The Overlea ArtsFest is (normally) held on the first Saturday of June each year, from 10 AM til 6 PM. Because of COVID-19, the event will be postponed until August 15. A week-long virtual event will celebrate our artists, performers and community. The call for artists is now open, with more information below.
It is FREE to attend the festival, partake in the activities and enjoy the performances. Artists are not charged a fee to submit their work for the juried show, nor are they charged a commission on any work sold during the show, which makes ArtsFest a very “pro-artist” event. The goal of the ArtsFest Committee is to provide a respectful and joyful experience for both the artists and the performers, as well as the attendees of the event.
Call for Artists
Calling on Maryland and DC visual artists to submit to the 2020 Overlea ArtsFest Juried Show. Applications accepted in nine categories of 2D, 3D and Short Film. Cash prizes for winners, no application fee, and no commission on sales.
Last Thursday, the 2020 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national ceremony, traditionally held at Carnegie Hall, was transformed into a virtual affair to celebrate the national recipients. Chris Colfer, Lena Dunham, and Jennifer Garner headlined the virtual Ceremony to honor the nation’s most talented teen artists and writers.
Jocquelyn Downs, Director of the Arts Council at Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, congratulated students on behalf of all the partner affiliates across the country during the virtual ceremony.
Watch the ceremony below!
Presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers,the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the country’s longest-running and most prestigious creative teen recognition program for students in grades 7–12. Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) is the regional affiliate for Maryland. In the competition’s almost 100 year history, this is the first time that Maryland has had a regional affiliate. BOPA is proud to take on this effort of supporting the next generation of artists. We received nearly 4000 visual art and writing submissions from teens throughout the state in seventeen counties and Baltimore City.
In March, BOPA gathered at Baltimore Center Stage to celebrate the award recipients of the Maryland Region Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Hundreds of talented teens from across Maryland attended with their friends and families to be honored for their work. BOPA shared the incredible talent of young Maryland artists with an art exhibition at School 33 Art Center, samples of which you can now explore virtually here. We have also shared samples and selections of Maryland’s young writers, available to read here and here.
About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are presented by the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and are made possible through the generosity of Scholastic Inc., The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, New York Life Foundation, Command Companies, The New York Times, Blick Art Materials & Utrecht Art Supplies, The Herb Block Foundation, the Salamander Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation, Golden Artist Colors, Bloomberg Philanthropies, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and numerous other individual, foundation, and corporate funders; and, for the National Student Poets Program, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Wunderkinder Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, and Academy of American Poets.
For more information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, visit artandwriting.org.
The arts sector experienced unprecedented loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated total economic impact to date is $5.5 billion, nationally, and $14.6 million in Maryland. 95% of all scheduled events were cancelled resulting in 1.3 million Marylanders, and 57.3 million Americans, not attending arts events.
As an immediate response to the pandemic, the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), Maryland State Department of Education’s Fine Arts Office, Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, and Maryland Citizens for the Arts collaborated to offer four public LISTENING SESSIONS. The initial sessions were attended by 250 stakeholders who shared recommendations and prioritized actions to mobilize support. Through the public sessions, consistent communication guided independent artists to think of themselves as entrepreneurs and arts organizations to think of themselves as small businesses, and, for both individuals and organizations, to encourage the pursuit of applicable state and federal loan and grant programs.
In addition to the LISTENING SESSIONS, three recurring virtual communities were established to deal with immediate concerns in real time, provide updates, hold the space for peer-to-peer sharing, and offer relevant professional development. A common thread evident in all public sessions was re-envisioning of the arts in Maryland. Total constituents in the combined virtual sessions numbered greater than 1,000 attendees, and the information collected formed the basis for the guiding documents below:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As Baltimore City and the nation raise our voices to combat racism, BOPA supports the right of everyone to speak up against injustice and inequality. Racism is everyone’s problem and cannot be tolerated. None of us escapes the scourge of racism in America or globally and all of us must work together to combat the pervasive callous indifference to life and liberty.
Our Constitution affords us the right to peacefully assemble in protest. Like the right to life, liberty, and justice, freedom of speech is an inherent right for all Americans. As artists, we process what is happening and what we hope for the future through our images, music, and words. Art is an effective and necessary form of activism and peaceful protest.
Art as activism has a long history in moments of struggle across the world. But it documents the present for the future and the art that we create remains and helps shape the narrative of history. For it is often through the arts – through murals, novels, poems and more – that we can most clearly show the world around us, challenge it and, hopefully, change it.
As we remember George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and the many others that were murdered at the hands of injustice, it is incumbent upon all of us to use our voices, our art and our vote to demand much needed change.
Donna Drew Sawyer
CEO, Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts
Exploring art as a tool to improve social justice in African American communities in Maryland.
Join the Banneker-Douglass Museum for a “Virtual BDM” online panel discussion exploring art as a tool to improve social justice in African American communities in Maryland. Speakers will share their experiences with the Black Vote Mural Project, voter suppression, mass incarceration, and policies that adversely affect communities of color.
Thursday, June 4, 7-8:30 PM.
To register and access the panel discussion, please visit here.
Artwork: “Everything We Own” by Amy Boone-McCreesh, FY19 IAA Winner
The Maryland State Arts Council’s Independent Artist Awards (IAAs) recognize achievement by Maryland artists who are working independent of an institution or organization. The awards are accompanied by grants of $2,000, $10,000, and $15,000 that encourage artistic growth and sustained practice.
2021 IAAs will recognize artists in the Visual/Media Arts. Artistic categories rotate in a three-year cycle. Literary Arts applications will be accepted in 2022, and Performing Arts applications will be accepted in 2023. Eligible artists may apply to the category they feel best represents their work.
Applying for an Award
Applications for the 2021 Independent Artist Awards are now available. To apply, click here.
Deadline: Friday, July 24, 2020 at 11:59pm.
The full guidelines for the 2021 Independent Artist Awards can be found here.
