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Executive Director’s Letter 4/26/2022

Posted on April 26, 2022 by GBCA

Executive Director’s Letter

April 26, 2022

Last week, The Waterfront Partnership announced a brand new arts festival, Baltimore by Baltimore. The event will take place on the first Saturday of each month from May 7 through October at the Inner Harbor and will highlight the rich talent of Baltimore. Click here for more information. Also new this year is a three-day literary festival, “The Lost Weekend,” which debuts May 13-15 and will be hosted by the Greedy Reads bookshop at its Remington store.This is welcome news, especially since Artscape, Light City, and the Book Festival are not scheduled to return this year.

Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) is responsible for those festivals and serves as the City’s Arts Council. As we recover from two years of COVID-19 disruption, you have a chance to learn more about BOPA and to share your perspective on the needs of the creative community. Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 27, from 6:00–7:00 p.m., BOPA will host an online information session. A prelude to an upcoming series of community-focused groups, this session will serve as a forum to discuss the series’ objectives and how the arts community will be engaged throughout their process. As members and supporters of the creative sector, I strongly encourage you to participate. You can register here.

BOPA will host a follow-up session in June on Facebook Live to share the key takeaways from each session and have the larger community weigh in.

Now’s the time for artists to look ahead to the flagship 2023 marketplace American Craft Made. Click here to apply by the July 15, 2022 deadline. American Craft Made is a series of marketplace events that take place in two cities, Baltimore and St. Paul, and now in the Online Artists Directory (new this year). The Baltimore marketplace, coming up on its 46th year, has an average attendance of 17 thousand annually. The total retail artist sales for the 2020 event came to an estimated $5.2 million. Now we’re talking!

Enjoy the spring weather,

Jeannie

P.S. Maryland Film Festival starts tomorrow with Opening Night Shorts at SNF Parkway Theatre and goes through May 1st! Find more info about all the events happening for the Maryland Film Festival here.

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