Connecting with the Arts – December 2021
Welcome back to the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County’s monthly blog series, Connecting with the Arts, where we feature news and updates from the arts community in Anne Arundel County. Tune in the last Friday of each month to connect and learn more about the arts organizations that are making an impact locally.
Here’s a look into this months post:
- Don’t miss the gallery open house and hot chocolate bar at ArtFarm.
- Creating Communities delivered over a dozen community and school-based arts programs in 2021.
- Chesapeake Arts Center has an exciting announcement about their Makerspace.
- Ballet Theatre Of Maryland returns the magic of The Nutcracker to Maryland Hall.
- The Classic Theatre of Maryland is thrilled to be offering a variety of shows for this holiday season!
- November was an eventful month at Maryland Hall full of inspiring performances in the Main Theatre as well as the Bowen Theatre.
- Join Hammond-Harwood House for an evening of music, poetry, and merrymaking at their annual tradition!
- The Londontowne Symphony Orchestra to Salute Our Veterans in January.
- Join The Talent Machine Company as they celebrate their 30th anniversary musical “Holiday Magic 2021”
You can connect and learn more about these organizations by clicking their logos below. We hope you enjoy!
*****
Gallery Open House and Hot Chocolate Bar
December 3rd (5-7pm) at ArtFarm
Join us for our closing reception for Neil Harpe’s ‘Hindsight 2020’ gallery show, featuring work created during lockdown. We will also be showcasing new and familiar work of Charles Lawrance and an array of jewelry by Kristi Allen.
Hot chocolate bar and light refreshments available. Bundle up and join us at the studio for a cozy evening of art. More information HERE.
Creating Communities delivered over a dozen community and school-based arts programs in 2021, more programs than any other nonprofit of our size in Anne Arundel County. With our network of partnerships, amazing mentors, and LARC operating model (Lean, Agile, Creative and Responsive), we have been able to rapidly put highly effective programs in schools and communities that lack access to arts programs.
Here are just a few of our 2021 and 2022 program highlights:
- The Family Arts Cohort shipped arts supplies to over 15 families per month and followed up with monthly live arts sessions via Zoom.
- A brand new STEAM program began at Southgate Elementary, a Title I school in Glen Burnie, with state-of-the-art VEX Robotics kits with enrollment of 25+ students. Creating Communities will be launching a Ukulele Club at Southgate in January 2022 and are excited about the rapid success of our partnership and collaboration with Southgate.
- In 2022, Creating Communities will launch a world-drumming and mentoring program at Monarch Global Academy in Laurel. At long last, Creating Communities can say we have programs in nearly every corner of Anne Arundel County, fulfilling our mission of “direct access to the arts.” This new program will mirror the success of our Arts Ambassadors program at Georgetown East Elementary, a Title I school in Annapolis, that currently has 25+ students enrolled and
participating in world drumming, creative writing, and mentoring. - We continue to collaborate with the REACH program where we had an amazing mental health counselor work with the students on “Wellness Wednesdays” in addition to painting amazing murals, creating hip hop poetry with Femi the Drifish, and putting on a live broadcast “Souls of the Decade” variety show.
- Our programs in Eastport – at 1000 Madison and Harbour House/Eastport Terrace – continue to serve children directly in the neighborhoods in which they live. Creating Communities has been serving in Eastport since our inception with a broad array of visual arts activities and programs.
- Finally, we delivered multiple summer programs in neighborhoods and community centers with our partnerships with the City of Annapolis and Center of Help, reaching 123 students across four sites. Students received instruction in art, robotics, creative writing and music.
Creating Communities – since 2007 – has been the leading edge of progressive, robust, and meaningful arts programs for students and families in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. We will continue to lead the way in innovation and equity through the arts far into the future!
Chesapeake Arts Center is ecstatic to announce that our Makerspace is officially accepting new members, and running tool safety programs for folks 16+ for only $25!
What is a makerspace you ask? Well, it’s a community workshop where folks take classes for the equipment they want to use, and then they are able to come back during open studio to work on their personal projects. We have everything from a full woodshop, to a screen press room, to a 24″ vinyl cutter, and even a CNC laser – perfect for creating custom pieces for hobbyists & small business owners alike. We are located just minutes north of the Glen Burnie MVA, and 5 minutes south of Locust Point, with ample free parking. Check us out on the web, we just might be the dose of creativity you’ve been craving.
Keep up with the Chesapeake Arts Center: Website|Facebook|Instagram
Ballet Theatre Of Maryland Returns The Magic Of The Nutcracker To Maryland Hall
Magic, storytelling, and classical dance meld in this beloved holiday classic, brought to the stage by professional company dancers and local student performers.
Ballet Theatre of Maryland will present the holiday classic The Nutcracker, December 11th-19th. This yearly tradition from Maryland’s premier ballet company takes the stage at Maryland Hall with a live, in-person audience for the first time since 2019. It will feature performances from the company’s 38 professionals alongside 47 student and trainee dancers from BTM’s Conservatory and the local community. To purchase tickets or learn more, visit www.balletmaryland.org
Read the full press release here.
The Classic Theatre of Maryland is thrilled to be offering a variety of shows for this holiday season!
We just opened our 5th annual production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” which will be running through December 26th and is a great show for the entire family. We also have a Christmas Cabaret happening live in our cabaret room on Sunday, December 5th at 7:30pm, featuring all of our favorite cabaret artists singing and dancing to classic holiday hits!
And finally, CTM is proud to bring the 3rd year of our original musical, “A Broadway Holiday,” featuring song, dance, and tap dance while jumping rope! “A Broadway Holiday” will open on December 9th and run until December 26th.
Come and see all of the wonderful offerings we have over the next month at the Classic Theatre of Maryland! For more information, visit classictheatremaryland.org
November was an eventful month at Maryland Hall full of inspiring performances in the Main Theatre as well as the Bowen Theatre. Much to the delight of many, the Annapolis Opera opened its season with Gioachino Rossini’s Cinderella. The following weekend, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra delivered its second Masterworks Concerts conducted by former Music Director Peter Bay. And Live Arts Maryland added performances of film and music, Voices of Light, to complete our main stage performances. Looking ahead check out all of the holiday performances to come in December here.
Maryland Hall’s partnership with the Annapolis Film Society brought a private screening of King Richard, starring Will Smith in an inspiring true story of the coach/mentor/father of tennis stars Venus & Serena Williams. Monthly film screenings will continue in the Bowen.
We are thrilled to announce our newest exhibit in the Openshaw Balcony Gallery, “The Art of Criticism”. The show is presented in partnership with artist and youth mentor Dee Ward’s B.L.A.C.K. Excel program. Enjoy art from our talented Teaching Artists and visit the all-new Artisan Pop Up Shop showcasing their original artwork in the Chaney Gallery.
Finally, we’re excited to unveil our Winter/Spring Class Catalog. View all classes and register on our website here.
Twelfth Night by Candlelight
Saturday, January 8 at 4 p.m and at 7 p.m
Join Hammond-Harwood House for an evening of music, poetry, and merrymaking at our annual tradition! This year will feature cantatas and arias by Italian composers Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Claudio Merulo, along with traditional carols of the season. Critically acclaimed soprano, Elissa Edwards, is joined by Dr. Joyce Chen on harpsichord and dramatic poetic recitations by Katrina Atsinger in the ballroom of the historic Hammond-Harwood House.
Edwards is an artist-in-residence at the museum and is hailed for her ‘pliant, seductive, free-ranging voice’ (Gramophone) and her ‘glistening tone’ (Early Music America). The close of the Christmas season on the 6th of January was known in the past as Old Twelfth Night and it was a moment given over to mischief and merrymaking.
This is Hammond-Harwood House’s most popular event of the year and due to COVID restrictions, there is limited seating for a live audience-early booking is encouraged. This event will also be live-streamed. For more information, visit hammondharwoodhouse.org/event/twelfth-night-by-candlelight-2
The Londontowne Symphony To Salute Our Veterans
A program of music celebrating our veterans and current military personnel will be presented by the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra at Maryland Hall on January 15, 2022, at 7:30 pm. “Veterans serve us all the time and should be recognized not just on Veteran’s Day”, said Anna Binneweg, Music Director/Conductor of the LSO. “So, we are having our own Veteran’s Day to salute them again.”
Joining the orchestra will be vocalist Dana Robinson and the Archibald Spalding High School Chorus. And the military theme will be enhanced by the presence of the USO and George Owings, Secretary, Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs.
The music will all be military-based, and will include “Variants on the Navy Hymn”, “Victory at Sea” and “the Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
The LSO hopes that many people will join in this celebration through wonderful music. Tickets may be purchased from Maryland Hall at www.marylandhall.org/events/ or call 410-263-5544. Maryland Hall requires audience members to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Individual concert tickets are $25 each. Students are always free but still need a student ticket ordered through Maryland Hall. Tickets will also be available at the door on January 15.
English 
Spanish