The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County is pleased to again partner with the Anne Arundel County Office of Planning and Zoning Cultural Resources Division, which protects the County’s historic sites, buildings, archaeological sites and landscapes, to offer a FY2021 grant funding opportunity. These grants provide funding of up to $2,500 for public programming that utilizes heritage resources in Anne Arundel County in a new or innovative way; increases public access to historic sites; or improves or enhances how the public engages with heritage resources.

Preference will be given to complete applications submitted by smaller, new, or developing archaeological, historic, cultural, and historic preservation organizations. The grant application period will be open from October 5-30, 2020. Grant awards will be announced by December 9, 2020.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO APPLY!

The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County is excited to share our new monthly blog series, “Connecting with the Arts”, featuring news and updates happening with art organizations in Anne Arundel County. This series is about highlighting and sharing with the community what local organizations have going on. Tune in the last Friday of each month to connect and learn more about the art organizations that are making an impact in our community.

Our first post of this series kicks off with Maryland Theatre for the Performing Arts new partnership with a professional dance company. The Arundel Vocal Arts Society entices music lovers to their online music academy. Creating Communities shares the success of their virtual Arts Mentorship Academy and lastly the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra announces the exciting launch of their new virtual series, Symphony+.

You can learn more about these organizations by clicking their logos below. We hope you enjoy!

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An Innovative Performance in Annapolis
MTPA is excited to announce a new partnership with professional dance company, Orange Grove Dance (OGD). OGD will be presenting their transformative site-specific choreography and lighting design this November at MTPA’s StageOne venue.

About the Performance: Performed on the MTPA Lawn and inspired by the reflective nature of the adjacent Annapolis National Cemetery, OGD will use custom built wireless lighting units to pivot performers and audiences alike into a surreal luminescent landscape that reveals the connection and power of the collective across difficult times and distance.

Tickets are on sale now at https://whatsuptix.com/.
Nov. 6 (6pm & 7:30pm)
Nov. 7 (6pm & 7:30pm)
Nov. 13 (6pm & 7:30pm)
Nov. 14 ( 6pm & 7:30pm)

*A free performance for students and veterans will also be available on Veterans Day! For more information, contact [email protected]

AVAS Academy – an online music education program
The Arundel Vocal Arts Society (AVAS), Anne Arundel County’s premier vocal chamber ensemble, is pleased to offer the following programs to all who are interested.

To access any of the listed programs, please contact us through our website arundelvocalarts.org or on social media @avaschorus and we will provide you with the sign on information.

Donations are always appreciated and can be made through our Facebook site.

Creating Communities Arts Mentorship Academy Online
Creating Communities hosted a highly-successful arts program over the summer, the Arts Mentorship Academy Online. Creating Communities serves children and families from low-income households in the City of Annapolis and throughout Anne Arundel County with arts and STEAM programs. Due to the pandemic, Creating Communities longstanding summer program at Maryland Hall was canceled. After much deliberation, the organization realized that our students and families still needed quality arts programming to overcome the social isolation and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. At the end of June, our organization quickly mobilized and enrolled 70 students in the Arts Mentorship Academy Online. All of our mentors received professional development and received Zoom accounts while families picked-up arts and STEAM supplies for the program. Mentors met with students via Zoom twice per week and tracked progress via emails and call to families. Students created amazing art and poetry, a testament to their resilience during the pandemic, documented at the website www.amashowcase.com. Executive Director Rob Levit, Program Manager Steve Poole and Mentor Erica Jensen were given formal citations as HACA Heroes by the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis “for your generosity and continued commitment to our residents during a national pandemic.” Creating Communities continues to demonstrate that arts are essential services to families and children during difficult times.

We are proud to report some of our meaningful metrics for the program:
• 100% of families reported: The AMA Online is an excellent model for how students can and should be positively engaged for online learning.
• 84% of families reported: Creating Communities – the host and sponsor of the AMA Online – is an important partner for our family.
• 85% of families reported: The only program my child(ren) participated in this summer was the AMA Online.
• 77% of families reported: Creating Communities was the only nonprofit organization that consistently reached out and connected with our family during the pandemic.
• 92% of families reported: Communities – the host of the AMA Online – demonstrated care and concern for the well-being of my child(ren) and family during the pandemic and during the program.

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Launches a New Virtual Series
When COVID-19 hit Maryland in March, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Music Director José-Luis Novo was well into preparation for the 2020-21 Masterworks Series “Harmony in Nature.” In a matter of days, everything changed. “It was impossible to predict that we would find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, affecting everyone to an extent we have never experienced before,” said Maestro Novo. The continuing pandemic fueled a decision to forego in-house audiences through December 2020 for a 2020-21 Virtual Series.

“To launch our new season, we had to reimagine the complete symphony experience,” says ASO Executive Director Edgar Herrera. This led to the development of Symphony+, a comprehensive virtual platform powered by Vimeo Over the Top (OTT) comprised of three unique components: ASO Live! (a live stream of all concerts), ASO RePlay (the ability to watch previously live concerts on demand), and ASO Chats (our pre-concert talks with Dr. Rachel Franklin). More information can be found at AnnapolisSymphony.org/VirtualSeries

The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County’s Mini Grant program is designed to support innovative, well-defined arts-related projects that are directed to a new or broader audience, preferably within underserved communities. They are awarded to eligible nonprofit cultural/arts organizations and programs on a dollar-to-dollar matching basis and may not exceed $2,500. New partnerships with other arts-related groups are also encouraged in an effort to engage more local residents in cultural and artistic activities. The Arts Council is available to assist applicant organizations with outreach to potential partners and audiences within Anne Arundel County. Organizations may not apply for more than one Mini Grant per fiscal year.

The Fall Mini Grant FY2021 application will be available from September 14, 2020 until October 16, 2020 by 5 PM. Awards will be announced by November 4, 2020.

For Fall FY2021 Mini Grant applicants only:
In recognition of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on arts programming, organizations will be asked within the application to explain how their grant activities will comply with current public health guidelines. We encourage applicants to develop creative proposals for projects that can be delivered safely, whether virtually or utilizing social distancing measures.

This cycle, on a case-by-case basis, the Arts Council is prepared to relax the Mini Grant requirement for the 1:1 cash match. For example, in kind donations may be included in the match. The match requirement may also be reduced or waived for smaller projects, or those filling a critical need in the community.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY!

Artists Sunday unites individual artists and supportive organizations across the country, creating a voice of thousands, all promoting the purchase of art during the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

All professional artists, craftsmen and organizations are invited to join Artists Sunday, the free nationwide promotional event encouraging consumers to shop with artists.

The powerful new campaign is designed to make the Sunday after Thanksgiving, November 29th this year, the arts’ most profitable day of the year this holiday season, alongside Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday.

Join participating organizations across the country – state art councils, art local districts, county agencies, arts organizations, cities and chambers of commerce – each invested in championing artists in their communities.

Participation is free and we are a partner in the effort! 

Organizations and artists will receive a comprehensive marketing toolkit, enabling them to generate buzz and awareness as the holiday season approaches. Join individual artists and supportive organizations across the country in this unique and powerful promotion.

About Artists Sunday

Artists Sunday is a nationwide alliance of professional artists, non-profit agencies, community organizations, and sponsors encouraging consumers to shop with artists and craftsmen. This artist-focused day takes place the Sunday after Thanksgiving – the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Shoppers support local professional artists, find unique, personal gifts for their loved ones, and invest in something that has a lasting legacy.

To learn more about Artists Sunday artists, partners, sponsors, or get involved click the Artists Sunday logo below!

#ArtistsSunday #ShopArt

Future History Now in partnership with Banneker-Douglass Museum and Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture bring to you this collaborative community mural project depicting Breonna Taylor at Chambers Park, Annapolis MD, USA. This 7,000-square-foot mural of Breonna Taylor was painted by artists and volunteers over the Fourth of July weekend. To learn more about this incredible mural, head over to www.futurehistorynow.org

*Video Courtesy of Brian White StreetArt Films / Future History Now YouTube
*Featured Photo Above and Photos Below Courtesy of Robert W. Madden Photography

The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County
is excited to announce our new calendar of events!

Our events calendar will house all of the amazing offerings our grantees and other arts organizations in Anne Arundel County are hosting, either virtually or in-person.

OR

If you have an arts related event going on virtually or in Anne Arundel County, simply click the “Add Your Event” button on the right side of the calendar, fill out the form and hit submit.

*Please note, all event submissions have to be approved before they will appear on the calendar.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW CALENDAR AND CHECK OUT WHAT’S GOING ON IN ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY!

The Arts Council Virtual Art Gallery Series Featuring AAC Artist: Rick Schimpf 

Hello, allow me to tell you a little about myself.
I’m retired from a career in Information Technology. I’ve had interest in art since a child. I even took a correspondence course when I was a kid – that’s an online course before the days of the Internet. Lessons, directions, and grades were exchanged via “snail mail”- Communications were slow – sometimes weeks between sending off a lesson and getting any type of response returned. I lost interest before completing the course.

As an adult, I dabbled with painting from time to time but only in my retirement have I sustained my focus and efforts to develop my skills. I describe myself as a self-taught, hobbyist painter. I’ve made an occasional sale and have had several paintings exhibited.

You may detect some influence in my work by painters such as Thomas Moran, Christopher Clark or more recent artists like Mark Keathley. I have a large collection of photos of Monet paintings and drawings for reference. However, I don’t strive to replicate any of their works and styles or limit myself to another’s criteria that may result in restricting development of my personal creative expression. Rather, I’ve viewed the works of those more accomplished. Studied many techniques, and attempt to use what I’ve learned to produce a painting that uniquely affirms my artistic style while at the same time captures, emphasizes, and celebrates the interest and beauty of the scene as I see it.

In the words of Thomas Schaller -“We’ve likely all heard there are no bad subjects, only bad paintings. Maybe so, but I’m saying something a bit different. It is not that the subjects we see are intrinsically beautiful or not. Nothing can actually contain beauty. Rather, beauty is found within us and we confer it upon what we see. And so, it is less that some person, place, or thing may inspire us than it is a matter of how adept we are at tapping into the inspiration we already contain. We access it, design it, and then put it down on paper. In this sense, we are the architects of our inspiration.”

My paintings are primarily landscape and seascape scenes with an occasional venture into other interests. I hope you can have as much enjoyment viewing my paintings as I have producing them. I’ve exhibited in several local Maryland exhibits as well as on-line exhibits. My paintings have received awards, been covered by local and statewide newspapers, and digitally displayed at the Louvre in Paris.

Website:
Paintings By Rick

Contact Rick for any purchase inquiries:
[email protected]

Scroll down to see a few selected pieces of Rick’s work along with the details for each piece. 

(From Left to Right)

View From Behind The Waterfall
Acrylic on Canvas
20”X16”
Price on Request

Rail To The Sun
Acrylic on Canvas
20”X16”
Not For Sale

Snow Moon (featured in the Arts Council BWI exhibit “All Things in Small & Big”)
Acrylic
20″x16″
Price on Request

Dispersion of Light (featured in the Arts Council AAMC exhibit “Wonders of Nature”)
Acrylic on Canvas
20″x16″
Price on Request

Buddies (featured in the Arts Council BWI exhibit “Space & Place”)
Acrylic
20″x16″
Price on Request

Severn Tranquility (featured in the Arts Council What’s Up? Media exhibit “Land & Sea”)
Acrylic
22″ x 18″
$210

The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County stands in solidarity with those protesting as a result of the senseless murder of George Floyd and others while in police custody. We join with our community in fighting for justice and against systemic racism and oppression, not only throughout Maryland but also throughout our nation. We honor and remember the many black lives that have been lost and harmed as a result of our nation’s history of systemic racism and continued incidents of police brutality.

Art shapes our culture. The freedom of expression in all artistic pursuits allows us to see, understand, and express the inequality of discrimination.  And through art we have the ability to imagine a world of equality and equity.

Because the Arts Council recognizes our responsibility to promote equality and equity as part of our mission to encourage and invest in art throughout Anne Arundel County, we will continue to reach all communities through grant funding in support of performing, visual and historic arts. We will not tolerate racism or any type of discrimination in our actions.

We are committed to ongoing learning, reflection, and action in our efforts to build positive social change through community engagement and support to the diverse group of arts organizations throughout our County.

We are excited to announce that the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County can now be your charity of choice when shopping on Amazon! For eligible purchases on Amazon, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to the Arts Council.

Use this link HERE when shopping.

We greatly appreciate your support!