Maryland
presents strategic plan for the arts
 The
Maryland State Arts Council unveiled Imagine
Maryland: A
Strategic Plan for the Arts, 2009-2013, April 15, at
the Reginald
F. Lewis Museum of African American History & Culture in
Baltimore.
DBED Secretary Christian S. Johansson joined Arts
Council Chair Scott Johnson and Director Theresa Colvin in also
announcing that the Arts Council received a $318,000 grant from
the National Endowment for the Arts to help stabilize jobs in
the state's nonprofit arts community.
The award was authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009. Colvin detailed how arts organizations can
apply to receive arts stimulus funds through the Maryland State
Arts Council.
Release of the community-based-five-year strategic plan and stimulus
grants are designed to increase participation, attendance, employment
and technical assistance for the arts in Maryland. The strategic
plan was developed with input from more than 4,000 Marylanders
through surveys – 500 people participated at open forums
across the state.
Additionally, a new logo for the Maryland State Arts Council was
unveiled.
Jazz master and Maryland
Traditions grant recipient Lafayette
Gilchrist (pictured) performed at the event with John Dierker in
recognition of national Jazz Appreciation Month.
Stimulus funds support arts organizations
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) received $50 million
through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to invest
in organizations that preserve jobs in the arts.
Eligible organizations in Maryland may receive an award from only
one source – the NEA, the Maryland State Arts Council or
the Mid-Atlantic Arts
Foundation.
MSAC has received
funding from the NEA to award grants to Maryland organizations.
Details of the Maryland
Arts Employment Stabilization program are on the Arts Council
web site; applications are due May 8.
Imagine
Maryland!
Imagine the
vision that sang in the pocket of the sails
as they crossed the ocean to reach this shore,
the deep longing that gives voice to dreams
transforming, like artists, the old to the new
the covenant of the Ark, the wings of the Dove
Imagine the courage of the sojourners’ hearts
beating relentlessly against the dark,
weaving their claim and dancing as they do,
toward the edge of tomorrow
where the future we imagine always begins anew.
Michael
S. Glaser
Maryland State Poet Laureate, 2004-2008 |
