Three arts groups celebrate 30 years and counting

The Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, Imagination Stage in Bethesda and Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel are each celebrating 30-year anniversaries.

Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts is a comprehensive arts center that offers arts programming for people of all ages and backgrounds, while encouraging life-long participation in the arts. More than 5,000 people participate in art classes each year. The center also presents a full range of performances throughout the year. In fact, Maryland Hall has four resident companies: Annapolis Chorale, Annapolis Opera, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Ballet Theatre of Maryland. Local and regional visual artists exhibit in Maryland Hall’s galleries and outdoor sculpture program. Baltimore’s Peabody Preparatory offers music instruction at the center. Maryland Hall also has a labyrinth that is open to the public. This meditative space is a replica of the labyrinth at Cathedral of the Chartres in Paris, France.

Imagination Stage is among the largest theatrical organizations for young people of all abilities and backgrounds in the region. It was founded as the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts and renamed in 2001. The company offers year-round productions with professional adult actors, after-school programs and summer camps, and arts training for teachers and students. In 2007, Inc. magazine selected Imagination Stage as one of the top 50 fastest growing small companies in the nation. And in 2008, Imagination Stage became one of five organizations in the U.S. to partner with Kids Included Together, a California-based nonprofit that provides training for youth organizations that include children with disabilities into their existing programs.

Montpelier Arts Center, located on the grounds of the historic Montpelier Mansion in Prince George’s County, offers visual, literary and performing arts programming. It has three galleries, artists’ studios and classrooms. The center has 16 resident artists who work in a variety of media. All are professional artists and several teach in classes there. The Montpelier Fall Jazz Series is a yearly schedule of jazz concerts that runs into November. Montpelier also has its own record label – Jazzmont Records – which offers CDs of jazz performances at Montpelier. The 30th Reunion Exhibition, an exhibition of work by Montpelier’s resident artists during the past 30 years, runs to Oct. 25.