New chair, councilors emerge as Blair, Pipkin and Hug step down

Baltimore attorney E. Scott Johnson (pictured) was elected chair of the Maryland State Arts Council, effective July 1. Johnson, who previously served as the Council’s secretary-treasurer, succeeds Dania Blair (pictured below), the longtime Council board member and St. Mary’s County resident, whose term expired.

Johnson received a gubernatorial appointment to the Arts Council in 2004. He was re-appointed in 2007 by Gov. Martin O’Malley. As a principal with Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver, a Baltimore-based law firm, Johnson works with a wide range of intellectual property issues that affect individuals, companies, nonprofits and educational institutions.

The new chair is a board member of CityLit Project, Inc., Creative Alliance and Maryland Lawyers for the Arts. He was also selected for the 2008 edition of Maryland Super Lawyers.

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Patricia Lewis Mote, a Prince George’s County resident and visual artist, has become vice-chair of the Arts Council. William Mandicott, an assistant vice president at Frostburg State University and an Allegany County resident, is the secretary-treasurer.

Blair said working with the Arts Council as it attained its highest level of funding ever was her most significant experience during the two years she served as chair.

She also recalled when the Arts Council hosted the Performing Arts Exchange and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, both with record attendance. Much of the success of those events, she said was a result of the Arts Council staff. Another achievement, she mentioned, was the Arts Council’s efforts to help stabilize the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Two other councilors have also stepped down from their positions – Alisa Pipkin and Lois Hug. “Dania, Alisa and Lois have all been wonderful resources for the guiding the Maryland State Arts Council,” said Theresa M. Colvin, executive director of the Arts Council. “And Dania’s leadership was exemplary.”

The Arts Council has also gained four new councilors. Barbara Bershon assumed her role on May 2, and Nilimma Devi, Nancy Haragan and Susanna Nemes became new councilors on July 1.

Four issues

Bershon said she has four major issues that she’d like to address as a councilor: increase access to the arts; create a marketing plan for making Maryland an arts destination; develop regional film location offices; and provide a way for major musical artists to perform in venues not close to metropolitan areas.

She is executive director of the River Concert Series at St. Mary’s College in St. Mary’s City, a classical music event that draws an average of 5,000 people to weekly concerts. She’s also a professor in St. Mary’s psychology department.

Devi is a Maryland Traditions artist and a recipient of an Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award in 2007 for dance. She is founder and director of the Nilimma Devi Dance Theater and the Sutradhar Institute of Dance and Related Arts in Silver Spring.

Haragan has been executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance since its inception in 2001. She is interested in determining with her co-councilors “how we can get louder in the crowded marketplace to broaden audiences for arts and culture programs.” Haragan considers this to be “one of the major challenges faced by the cultural organization members” of the Alliance.

She also serves on the boards of the Baltimore Heritage Association, Station North Arts and Entertainment District, Arts Every Day and the newly formed Baltimore Cultural Development Council.

Nemes is director of OBRAS Art Gallery in Baltimore. The gallery features Latin American artists. She is also president and CEO of Social Solutions International, Inc.