Arts organization profile:
Arts Council generates economic development in Western Maryland


First, came the bus.

A year or so after Andy Vick, executive director of the Allegany Arts Council told an official of the local transit system that he’d be interested in taking an old bus off his hands, he got a call. Allegany County Transit was upgrading its fleet and willing to donate a retired bus to the Arts Council.

Students from a vocational school in the county reconfigured the interior of the bus, removing some of the seating and installing tables in its place. The revived arts bus – a brightly decorated art-mobile – now travels throughout Allegany County, offering art-related activities to children who might not have opportunities to engage in art experiences, says Vick, who’s one of the designated drivers of the bus.

Then, came the new building – actually, it’s a century-old building that dates back to the 1890s.

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During an Arts Council retreat in 2005, Vick (pictured below) told board members that the Council needed more space – the Goodwill Building around the corner in downtown Cumberland looked enticing. A year later, one of the board members and her husband bought the Goodwill Building with the Arts Council in mind.

The new owners arranged a lease with Vick and renovations began several months later. The building was a longtime furniture store before Goodwill Industries converted it into a retail store.

When the Arts Council moved into its new ground-level quarters at 9 N. Centre St. in early June, it suddenly tripled its physical space. The 4,500 square-foot space enabled the Council to expand both its offices and its in-house exhibition space, the Saville Gallery, while also developing a new space – a community room – that will serve what Vick refers to as the non-visual segment of the arts community.

Vick plans to host literary readings; small music, dance and theater events; and public workshops in this space. A local production company celebrated the opening of the community room by staging debut performances of two one-act plays there during the last weekend of June.

Both the newly renovated building and the arts bus – to different degrees, of course –reflect the Arts Council’s efforts to brand itself as a vital and high-profile part of Allegany County’s economic resurgence.

“We have focused on the development of Cumberland’s Arts and Entertainment District, we’re working with the Main Street Program (a downtown revitalization program created by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development) and with local tourism to tie all the pieces together,” says Vick, who has held the Council’s leadership position since 2003. He’s also the coordinator for Cumberland’s A&E District.

Invested in partnerships

The Arts Council is deeply invested in its partnerships, he says, in order to enhance the Art Council’s visibility. He mentions some of his partners: the cities of Cumberland and Frostburg, Allegany County Tourism, Frostburg State University, Allegany County Library System and Allegany College of Maryland in Cumberland.

In fact, the Council maintains a page on its web site dedicated to “Community Partners,” which lists area arts organizations, members of the local business community and funding sources.

It’s all part of the Arts Council’s ongoing campaign to project Cumberland as a regional arts destination, as well as a place where artists would be interested in moving to. The Council has run ads in national artist publications that support this strategy. Actually, Vick and his wife, Beth Piver, were both full-time artists when they came to Western Maryland 10 years ago from Fairfax, Va.

The Council also has a section on its web site called “Artist Relocation.” It includes a detailed description of relocation incentives – tax breaks for Cumberland’s Arts and Entertainment District, Enterprise Zone, Historic District and more.

Vick sees the arts as a catalyst for the economic revitalization of Cumberland that has been in progress for the past half-dozen years. In 2002, Cumberland’s application to create an Art and Entertainment District in its downtown section won state approval. Many of the artists who have moved into the District, says Vick, purchased and renovated historic buildings to use as residences, studios and retail space.

With a staff of seven – two full-time (including Vick) and five part-time – the Arts Council is the umbrella organization for Allegany’s art scene. Its operating budget for the 2008 fiscal year is approximately $365,000. Grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, Allegany County, and the cities of Cumberland and Frostburg supply a third of the Council’s annual funding.

$35,000 in grants

The balance of funding comes from memberships, individual and corporate contributions, other grants in the private and public sectors, investment income and programming revenue. During the 2007 fiscal year, the Allegany Arts Council awarded nearly $35,000 in grants to more than 35 nonprofit organizations that support arts programming in Allegany County.

There are always an ample number of events and activities that the Arts Council promotes for any given week. The July 19 weekend, for instance, featured a Saturday Art Walk – a self-guided evening walking tour through downtown Cumberland’s A & E District. Visitors could enjoy opening receptions and exhibitions at galleries, live entertainment and art projects on the art bus. The next Art Walk will be Sept. 6.

July 20, it was Sunday in the Park – the Council presented 1990s rock ’n’ roll by The Lake Effect at Cumberland’s Constitution Park Amphitheatre in Cumberland. Sunday in the Park performances are free and part of the Summer in the City music series.

Then, on Tuesday evening, July 22, it was Shakespeare at the Gap. Maryland Shakespeare Festival actors staged a free public performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Rocky Gap State Park Amphitheatre in Flintstone.

The Arts Council also operates Arts at Canal Place, an artists’ cooperative in downtown Cumberland’s Canal Place Heritage Area that displays and sells artwork created by more than 30 regional artists. Vick and his wife are members of the cooperative – they design mixed-metal jewelry.

Vick is well connected in the state’s art, tourism and business communities. He’s a member of the Maryland Tourism Development Board, the panel that advises the Maryland Tourism Office. He also chairs the Canal Place Preservation and Development Authority. And, he’s a member of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce board of directors and the immediate past president of Cumberland’s Rotary Club.