Arts And Humanities

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.

The Baltimore City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will honor Chazz Palminteri with a Thurgood Marshall Award for the Arts and Humanities at its Freedom Fund Banquet tonight. In 2011, the New York-based actor opened a restaurant in Baltimore's Harbor East neighborhood, Chazz: A Bronx Original . In announcing the award, the civil-rights organization said, "Palminteri has devoted time to visiting city schools, young people in the juvenile justice system and allowing his restaurant to be used as a venue to raise funds for numerous city charities.

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.

Robert W. Griffith, former dean of arts and humanities at the University of Maryland, College Park who had chaired the history department at American University, died Jan. 25 of lymphoma at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. The Takoma Park resident was 70. Robert William Griffith was born in Atlanta and raised in Evansville, Ind., where he graduated in 1958 from Bosse High School. Dr. Griffith earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1962 from DePauw University. He earned his master's degree in history in 1964 and doctorate in 1967, both from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

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...

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."

The Baltimore City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will honor Chazz Palminteri with a Thurgood Marshall Award for the Arts and Humanities at its Freedom Fund Banquet tonight. In 2011, the New York-based actor opened a restaurant in Baltimore's Harbor East neighborhood, Chazz: A Bronx Original . In announcing the award, the civil-rights organization said, "Palminteri has devoted time to visiting city schools, young people in the juvenile justice system and allowing his restaurant to be used as a venue to raise funds for numerous city charities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kurt Vonnegut, the gentle humanist who challenged Americans to be true to themselves and mistrust technology, wealth and the arrogance of power, died last week, possibly with a bemused appreciation of the fact that all of the ugliest aspects of popular culture he challenged for more than half a century appeared to be thriving. The author of 19 novels and an array of plays and short stories, he struggled to make a living as a writer of science fiction until the success in 1969 of Slaughterhouse-Five, a fictional treatment of his survival as a prisoner of war during the tragic and senseless Allied bombing of Dresden late in World War II. An estimated 135,000 people died in the Dresden firestorm.

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."

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.

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."