Dear Friends in the Arts:

On behalf of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), I want to update you on Gov. Martin O’Malley’s announcement of the considerable budget challenges facing our state. This week, the Board of Public Works approved more than $345 million in reductions to balance Maryland's Fiscal Year 2009 budget and prepare for expected shortfalls in FY2010.

Gov. Martin O’Malley has appointed award-winning author Alice McDermott (pictured with governor) as chair of the State Poet Laureate Selection Committee to help select Maryland’s ninth poet laureate. Nominations must be submitted by mail or in-person to the Maryland State Arts Council’s Baltimore office by Dec. 1. Check the Art Council’s web site for details regarding qualifications and nomination procedures.

McDermott is Johns Hopkins University’s Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities. Her short stories and articles have appeared numerous national publications. She has also published six novels, three of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Her novel Charming Billy won the 1998 National Book Award. Continue...

Nine visual artists who received Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council this year are displaying their work in a new exhibit, Personal Vocabulary, at the Art Council’s Backas Gallery in downtown Baltimore, 175 W. Ostend St.

“We are proud to live in a state that supports its artists and arts community,” says Theresa Colvin, MSAC executive director, “The James Backas Gallery allows our artists to showcase their work and contribute to the exceptional quality of life in Maryland.” Continue...

Suzan E. Jenkins (pictured) was recently named chief executive officer of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC).

“Suzan’s dedication to creative and visionary leadership, as well as her business management and local and national experience in the cultural sector, made her the very best choice for AHCMC and Montgomery County” said Sylvia Crowder, AHCMC board president. Continue...

Maryland’s professional performing artists can apply to be listed in the Maryland State Arts Council Touring Artists Roster, which gives artists opportunities to obtain bookings through the Capital Region Performing Arts Touring Program. Deadline for application is Nov. 3.

(Pictured, Vincent Thomas, current roster artist, VTDance.)

“We still have that ‘wow factor,’” says Mickey Love (pictured), executive director of the Dorchester Center for the Arts, about the organization’s recent move into newly renovated quarters at 321 High St. in downtown Cambridge’s Arts and Entertainment District.

Amazement stems from how the new building looks and how the expanded space allows the Center to dramatically expand its programming. “It opens up so many avenues,” she says. The Center now occupies a 7,500-square-foot space – triple what it had previously – on the street level of the updated 1930s Art Deco building that formerly housed Nathan Furniture.

As the four members of The Hedge Band began to play, one of them – Billy McComiskey (pictured), the celebrated Irish-American button-accordion player whom one national journalist called “the finest and most influential B/C box player ever to emerge from the U.S.” – asserted himself. He would look at the others, offer an occasional nod or silently mouth a few words of direction.

Whether he played in full swing or provided a soft background for a tune that featured a solo by one of the other artists – flutist Laura Byrne Egan, vocalist and guitar player Pat Egan, or keyboard player and fiddler Donna Long – McComiskey was a guiding force. With his thick grey hair and the dark suit jacket that he wore to start the concert (it was gone within 20 minutes), he presented an air of authority. He was also quick to smile and engage both the band members and the audience. Continue...