Arts And Humanities

Already one of the region's pre-eminent arts education facilities, Howard Community College will try to further raise its profile next month.The arts department -- which includes members of the celebrated Rep Stage theater group, Aurora Dance Company, Howard Community College Jazz Ensemble and various artists, actors and musicians -- will open its doors to the public for an afternoon of workshops, performances, presentations and demonstrations by the Columbia...

Maryland Humanities Council, Maryland State Arts Council and Maryland Historical Trust will present a free workshop on funding opportunities in the arts and humanities from 1 p.m. to 4: 45 p.m. today at the Central Howard County Public Library, 10376 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia.The workshop, which is designed to help applicants gain access to grant money for programs in the arts and humanities, is open to individuals and organizations.Representatives from each organization will be available to meet individually with potential grant recipients.

Though federal funding for the arts and humanities may have won a reprieve in the Senate, leaders of local arts organizations yesterday expressed concern that budget reductions will force a narrowing of the artistic and cultural spectrum available to the public.With fewer federal dollars available, museum curators increasingly will choose exhibits that are proven crowd-pleasers -- and proven revenue producers -- instead of more obscure, scholarly explorations. They may develop offerings more likely to attract corporate dollars.

Impresario Martin Feinstein continues to focus his passion for the arts on the Washington area. Mr. Feinstein recently joined the staff of the University of Maryland as senior consultant for the Maryland Center for the Performing Arts, a $107 million BTC state-of-the-art education and performance facility scheduled to open at the University of Maryland in 1997.After resigning as general director for the Washington Opera this spring, Mr. Feinstein now divides his time between the center and the opera, where he will serve as a consultant through the 1995-1996 season.

Nancy E. Davis, former director of the Octagon Museum in Washington, was appointed to the position of curator at the Maryland Historical Society. She will assume the post Oct. 1.One of Ms. Davis' principal duties will be to help determine the content of the major exhibition on Maryland history to be installed in the former Greyhound Bus Terminal building, located behind the society's complex in the 200 block of West Monument Street. Renovation of the building will begin this year, with no scheduled completion date.

Anxiety spread throughout the cultural world as the current lame-duck session of Congress moved toward its close in recent days. The Republicans who will dominate Congress have cast cold eyes on federal arts spending in the past."

The role played by the arts and humanities in our national life is the subject of celebration this month, which has been designated as America's first National Arts and Humanities Month by President Clinton. Marylanders will celebrate the occasion by proclamation of Gov. William Donald Schaefer and Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. The purpose of all the hoopla will be to spotlight the impact of arts and humanities on the lives of all Americans.A project of the National Cultural Alliance, an umbrella group of 50 national arts and humanities organizations representing 23,000 cultural institutions in the U.S., the month will be marked by thousands of humanities and arts activities across the country, including book festivals, museum exhibits, music, theater and dance programs and scholarly conferences.

October always tends to be a busy cultural month, as arts organizations fully immerse themselves in their new seasons. This month's designation as National Arts and Humanities Month will focus even more public attention on this dizzying array of activities.Developed by the National Cultural Alliance, a non-profit coalition of arts and humanities organizations nationwide, this designation is for the most part a means of calling attention to already existing events. Politicians and arts organizers will be finding various ways to spread the word about the importance of the arts.

Jazz, African dancing, Japanese dance theater and American choral music will be part of ArtSalute, a free multimedia celebration featuring some of the state's finest performing artists Oct. 4 at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.Organized by Maryland Citizens for the Arts, the statewide arts advocacy organization, ArtSalute will serve as the main event in the state's observance of October as Arts and Humanities Month.ArtSalute performers include jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz, jazz singers Ruby Glover and Nataska Hasan, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the Sankofa Dance Theater, Japanese dance theater performer Shizumi and the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Robert G. Shedd, a retired University of Maryland Baltimore County professor who was the first chairman of its division of arts and humanities, died Sunday of emphysema at his home in Ten Hills. He was 72.Dr. Shedd retired in 1983 at UMBC, where in 1966 he established the arts and humanities division on the new campus and was a professor of English and humanities. He was for many years the chief reader in English for the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.He began his academic career at the University of Michigan in 1946 as a teaching fellow and was an instructor there from 1950 to 1952.

Rep Stage will celebrate its Sweet 16 on Saturday night with a party and a salute to its "mom" - founder Valerie Lash. The theater company, in residence at Howard Community College, is throwing its first gala event, called REPartee, in the newly renovated Smith Theatre on the college's Columbia campus. "We are saluting Valerie for all of her work over the years for education and entertainment in the community," said Michael Stebbins, producing artistic director of the theater. The 8 p.m. show in Smith Theatre, hosted by Stebbins and Rep Stage regular Bruce Nelson, will feature musical entertainment and guests.

First lady Laura Bush honored the Baltimore Urban Debate League this week as one of 17 outstanding community arts and humanities programs for youth in the United States and Mexico. Pam Spiliadis, the debate league's executive director, accepted a $10,000 award at a ceremony Monday at the White House. The ceremony honored winners of the federal Coming Up Taller awards, an initiative of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Yesterday, Baltimore school officials celebrated the achievements of the debate league in a ceremony at Chinquapin Middle School.

Robert N. Giaimo, 86, who while serving in Congress helped create the national endowments for the arts and humanities, died of lung ailments Wednesday in Arlington, Va. Mr. Giaimo, a Democrat who represented the New Haven area in Congress from 1959 to 1981, co-sponsored the bill that in 1965 formed the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, grant agencies that support the nation's arts and the study of literature, history...

Isabel S. Roberts, an art historian and patron of the arts, died of heart failure Aug. 16 at her Bolton Hill home. She was 94. She was born Isabel Spaulding in San Francisco and spent her early years in Mexico and Cuba, where her father was a mining engineer. She later moved to Philadelphia and graduated from the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. After graduating from Vassar College in 1933, she moved to New York City, where she later became head of education at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. While working there, she met and married Laurance Page Roberts, a world-renowned Asian art scholar, in 1937.

Fund raising for Howard Community College's planned arts and humanities building got a boost recently with a $350,000 donation from the Rouse Co., one of the largest gifts that company has given to a community institution. "I'm really delighted the Rouse Co. saw the importance of the arts and humanities building," said Roger N. Caplan, chairman of the college board of trustees. In addition to helping support a large demand for arts classes among students, he said of the building, "I envision it to be a gathering place for the community."

Fund raising for Howard Community College's planned arts and humanities building got a boost recently with a $350,000 donation from the Rouse Co., one of the largest gifts that company has given to a community institution. "I'm really delighted the Rouse Co. saw the importance of the arts and humanities building," said Roger N. Caplan, chairman of the college board of trustees. In addition to helping support a large demand for arts classes among students, he said of the building, "I envision it to be a gathering place for the community."

Laurance Page Roberts, an internationally known Asian art scholar who had been director of the American Academy in Rome, died Sunday of a heart attack at his Bolton Hill home. He was 95. Mr. Roberts' career in the world of art and culture spanned about 70 years. He had lived in a Bolton Street rowhouse since 1988, when he and his wife moved to Baltimore after 15 years in Venice, Italy. Born into a life of privilege in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., Mr. Roberts was a descendant of settlers who arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1600s to accept a land grant from William Penn.

Little girls dressed up in flights of fancy and elbow-length gloves, sipped juice from teacups and imagined themselves ladies yesterday. Then they ran off to other pursuits. Like smearing blue paint over a canvas with their fingers. This is art - not Art with a capital "A" that keeps all but the avant-garde away, but the kind that attracted more than 300 people looking for entertainment and a little food for thought. Called "First Arts 2001," the affair was Howard Community College's chance to open its doors and show off its creative side.

VLADIMIR MARINICH does a pretty good imitation of Frankenstein's monster. Just ask the 30 people who attended his lecture on the history of horror films as part of First Arts 2000 -- a showcase of the arts held Saturday at Howard Community College in Columbia. About 400 people attended such workshops, activities and performances as two children's operas, an open rehearsal of "The Mystery of Irma Vep," the HCC Jazz Ensemble and Native American poet Edgar Gabriel Silex, said Joan Phillippi, coordinator of the event.

Already one of the region's pre-eminent arts education facilities, Howard Community College will try to further raise its profile next month.The arts department -- which includes members of the celebrated Rep Stage theater group, Aurora Dance Company, Howard Community College Jazz Ensemble and various artists, actors and musicians -- will open its doors to the public for an afternoon of workshops, performances, presentations and demonstrations by the Columbia...