Arts Organizations

Reductions in Glendening's budget should not snub Md. arts and cultureWhen I heard recently that Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposed Maryland state budget was about to be cut, with a direct effect on the arts, I felt compelled to write.Governor Glendening has proposed a fiscal 2000 budget that includes a $2.1 million increase for the Maryland State Arts Council's budget.Because the governor's income estimate exceeds the General Assembly's by $140 million, the legislature is forced to cut the governor's budget.

The Howard County Arts Council will distribute a record $278,000 in grants this evening to local arts and performing organizations, select county public schools and some Baltimore arts groups.The council's Artistic Review Panel -- made up of academics, artists and community leaders -- recommended the funding, which is an increase of $20,000 over last year's.Pursuit of the grants is "very competitive and we're always disappointed that we can't give each of the arts organizations who apply each year more," said Coleen West, executive director of the arts council.

The National Endowment for the Arts today announces its first round of grant awards to arts organizations for the year 2000. The nonprofit arts groups will use the money for everything from commissioning new plays to taking dance performances on the road to presenting art shows, symphonies and operas to funding literary residencies and readings.The NEA has an overall annual budget of $97.6 million with $79.6 million designated for grants. This round of 820 awards -- totaling almost $20 million -- represents about 25 percent of the NEA's annual grant funds.

An article last week in the Howard County edition of The Sun incorrectly stated that arts organizations in Baltimore supported by the Howard County Arts Council would receive funds raised by the Celebration of the Arts in Howard County gala. The money will benefit only county arts organizations.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/22/98

An article last week in the Howard County edition of The Sun incorrectly stated that arts organizations in Baltimore supported by the Howard County Arts Council would receive funds raised by the Celebration of the Arts in Howard County gala. The money will benefit only county arts organizations.The Sun regrets the error.The first Celebration of the Arts in Howard County gala netted about $50,000 for local arts organizations and Columbia's Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts, organizers estimate.

State lawmakers should follow lead on finance reformI hope the Maryland legislature will follow the lead of other states, such as Washington, in campaign-finance reform.A 1992 ballot initiative there made it illegal for unions to collect or spend union dues for political purposes unless they received the approval of members.It is not fair to U.S. workers that money is taken from their paycheck by labor union bosses without the worker's permission for political purposes.The initiative in Washington was approved by 70 percent of the voters.

Sixteen Howard County arts organizations were awarded dTC more than $186,000 in grants from the state Arts Council for projects and operating costs, state officials announced yesterday.In a morning ceremony in Annapolis, officials from Gov. Parris N. Glendening's office awarded nearly $7 million to 275 arts organizations statewide.In Howard, the biggest grant -- $53,014 -- goes to the county Arts Council to help keep its offices running and for such projects as an artists-in-residence program that pays for artists to work with students in county schools.

In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts gave $2.5 million to support arts organizations, arts agencies and individual artists in Maryland. These are some of the grant recipients in the Baltimore metropolitan area:* The Maryland State Arts Council: total of $607,800 -- $495,000 to support its grant activities, $59,800 to support a touring program that brings arts to communities that lack them and to train future presenters, and $53,000 to support arts...

Carroll County Arts Council and two other county arts organizations have received grants totaling $53,177 from the Maryland State Arts Council.The matching grant program supports the operations of arts organizations, continuing arts programs and other projects.Carroll County Arts Council received $50,577 for fiscal year 1996, which began July 1, while Chamber Music on the Hill at Western Maryland College was awarded $600, and Theatre on the Hill, also at the college, was given $2,000."All of the county arts councils around the state received the same amount as last year," said Hilary Hatfield, director of Carroll County Arts Council.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Maryland Historical Society and Maryland Art Place are among the Maryland arts organizations, individuals and agencies receiving a total of $1,841,900 from the National Endowment for the Arts.The federal agency awarded mid-year grants worth $78 million to arts projects and artists in every state. Support went to symphony orchestras, visual arts organizations, dance companies, music festivals, opera and musical theater companies, folk arts programs, literary publishing, media arts centers, community-based arts organizations, museums and other state arts agencies and regional arts organizations.

The news stung. An old friend had died, and I never said goodbye. I assumed she'd always be there for me. But the Baltimore Opera is gone - yet another casualty of the economic morass. I can wag a finger at corporate sponsors and major donors. But my laissez-faire attitude also contributed to the final curtain. I should have gone to more performances. I could have bought season tickets. Had I known that the illness was terminal, I would have been more attentive. Too often, perhaps, I favored Washington or New York for their grander productions.

Arts cuts costly for jobs, culture Glenn McNatt's editorial notebook "Pennies for the arts" (March 7) eloquently stated the need for leadership and vision by our state leaders in developing policy and funding for the arts. Even during the best economic times, arts organizations face financial challenges. Their main revenue sources are ticket sales, contributions from individuals and corporations, foundation grants, endowment income and state funding. Every one of these revenue sources has been dropping as the economy has slid into recession.

Music lovers have a lot to be grateful for in this area: An orchestra of international standing, along with several smaller ensembles, all producing remarkably effective performances on a regular basis. A fine, full-sized opera company, along with some of more modest dimensions, all trying to serve the vocal art with distinction. Excellent choral and chamber groups. A vibrant, history-rich conservatory. And much more. But, on this Thanksgiving Day, the gratitude mingles with trepidation.

After 10 years of performing The Nutcracker at Jim Rouse Theatre in Columbia, the Howard County Ballet is moving its popular holiday tradition to Reservoir High School. The price tag was too high and funding too scarce to use the Rouse Theatre this year, said the ballet's director, Kathi Ferguson. She also has cut back on staffing and looked for ways to reduce overhead, and plans a smaller dance concert than usual in the spring. Like many other segments of society, local arts organizations are feeling the squeeze of the tough economy.

For the second straight year, arts organizations in Baltimore plan to offer free performances, lectures, exhibitions, workshops and other creative experiences in the fall. Free Fall Baltimore would return for one month, instead of the two it ran last year. The city's Board of Estimates agreed yesterday morning to a $500,000 allocation to fund the program. The money must still be approved by the City Council, which is expected to take up the matter before the end of June. The funds would "provide additional resources so that we don't have to put the arts on the back burner," Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday at a news conference.

After 32 years of contemporary dance concerts, Eva Anderson Dancers -- the oldest modern professional dance company in Maryland -- will no longer take the stage. Anderson, a 73-year-old dancer and choreographer who ran the organization out of her Columbia home, will continue to teach dance. She said the dance troupe "may occasionally do something special, but I can't keep the company all year." Anderson's is one of several arts organizations in Howard County facing difficult transitions as their founders prepare to step down.

The vision is of a campuslike complex that includes performance stages, rehearsal rooms, classrooms, galleries, a ballroom, retail stores - even a restaurant. There is no blueprint or schematic drawing or artist's rendering for this ambitious vision, one that advocates concede is still off on the distant horizon. But proponents of bringing a performing arts center to Harford County continue to push ahead on an effort that dates back more than two decades, convinced that the absence of such a facility is a shortcoming in an otherwise growing and vibrant county.

The dramatic music of Broadway, the precise steps of ballerinas, the flowing brush strokes of Oriental-style painting and the echoing sounds of the Celtic harp will all be on display this spring in Howard County, where more than 100 resident groups contribute to a rich and diverse artistic scene. As the arts community has thrived, local audiences have responded. The county's population increased by 13 percent between 1995 and 2000, but attendance at arts events increased 90 percent during that time, according to ArtsVision: State of the Arts in Howard County 2003, a report sponsored by the Howard County Arts Council.

Arts organizations and audiences have multiplied in Howard County over the past decade, but challenges remain for local artists, according to a report released this week by the Howard County Arts Council. "ArtsVision: State of the Arts in Howard County 2003" assesses arts activities here and serves as a guide for the future. It builds on a 10-year plan for the arts that was created in 1992. "We are really hoping it will be a practical tool for the entire arts community," said Coleen West, executive director of the arts council.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make any noise? In the art world, the answer to that age-old conundrum is an emphatic "No." Paintings, symphonies and novels must be seen, heard or read to exist. That's the animating principle that drove a group of local artists to begin developing professional exhibition opportunities for themselves and for others back in 1963. Incorporated as a nonprofit organization, this federation of artists soon opened the Maryland Federation of Art Circle Gallery in Annapolis, an intimate restored loft in the heart of the historic district.