Connecting with the Arts – November 2020
Welcome back to the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County’s monthly blog series, “Connecting with the Arts”, where we are featuring news and updates happening with art organizations in Anne Arundel County. 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.
The holidays may be looking a bit different this year, but we can still find ways to stay connected. In this month’s blog post there is a lot to look forward to and celebrate!
First, you won’t want to miss The AngelWing Project’s Virtual Poetry Showcase featuring talented young voices streaming this December. We then learn about a large-scale Stormwater Management Project that is underway at Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park (AMM) that will not only be an asset to the AMM’s Education Center, but also the entire community. Annapolis Shakespeare Company is opening their doors again this winter with two-holiday productions with the options to view both live or virtual. Maryland Federation of Art (MFA) has a fun new mystery art event coming up called In the Box – just in time for the gift-giving season! You will want to mark your calendars for The Arundel Vocal Arts Society (AVAS) virtual annual Christmas Concert that will be full of holiday songs and other festive thoughts and inspirations. Creating Communities tells us about the success of their annual Thanksgiving Jam at Eastport United Methodist and invites us to celebrate the creative work of their students at Susan Campbell Park/City Dock Annapolis. You can also celebrate the holidays with the Ballet Theatre of Maryland as they continue the holiday tradition with their performance of The Nutcracker. ’Tis the Season to Shine at the Hammond-Harwood House at they inspire us with festive holiday decorations and have us looking forward to the New Year with their annual Twelfth Night Concert!
Connect and learn more about these organizations by clicking their logos below. We hope you enjoy!
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Don’t Miss The AngelWing Project’s Virtual Poetry Showcase!
Featuring talented young voices who have written about current events and the world they would like to see in the future. They are poets, rappers, writers, singers, and more. Our Future. Our Voices. is the title of this powerful showcase.
This very special event will stream on December 18th and 19th, 2020 at 7:00 on our Social Media platforms.
Tune in and hear what they have to say. You don’t want to miss these powerful voices with lots of wonderful surprises. Stay tuned for further details.
In partnership with,
Chesapeake Arts Center
Generation Write Now
Funded in part by The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County
A large-scale Stormwater Management Project is underway at the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park’s (AMM) 12-acre Park Campus, located at 7300 Edgewood Road, Annapolis, also known as the Ellen O. Moyer Nature Park. The Park Campus’ main entrance and plaza area have been vulnerable to stormwater runoff and nuisance flooding for decades. The shoreline along the cove has struggled to maintain vegetation and has visible signs of erosion due to high tides and storm surges. To combat these persistent degradations to the landscape, the AMM along with the Chesapeake and Coastal Services division at the Department of Natural Resources developed a conceptual design to restore the low-lying lawn area by redirecting the water to create a natural wetland system.
Work for this project commenced at the Park Campus in mid-October and is projected to be completed by early December. The project consists of a variety of stormwater management techniques, such as a stormwater conveyance system, and utilizes natural materials like sand, cobble, and sandstone to treat stormwater before it flows into Back Creek. “To put it simply, the goal of this project is to slow it down, spread it out, soak it in,” said Alice Estrada, President, and CEO of the AMM. Additionally, this restoration project will not only be an asset to the AMM’s Education Center, serving 12,000 students annually but also the entire community by providing an ecological exhibit that will be seen by thousands of visitors each year. These improvements to the Park Campus will increase public access to the Chesapeake Bay, improve water quality, creating an ideal location for fishing and crabbing. This project will also serve as a demonstration of proactive management strategies to combat the effects of climate change and coastal flooding.
While the Park Campus’ main entrance and plaza are under construction, the walking trails will remain open to the public. The full press release can be found here.
Annapolis Shakespeare is opening their doors again this winter starting with their holiday rep. With both live and virtual viewing options!
A Christmas Carol November 27th – December 27th
Charles Dickens’ original story was created to inspire a spirit of charity toward those less fortunate. Our Helen Hayes Award – recommended original production of this classic holiday story has become an ASC annual holiday tradition, delighting patrons of all ages.
Holiday Swing! December 11th – December 26th
This brand-new festive production features singing and dancing to celebrate the holidays with your family and friends. Enjoy some of your favorite holiday music featuring the Unified Jazz Ensemble.
To order tickets visit our website at www.annapolisshakespeare.org/index.html or call our box office at 410-415-3513
MFA has a fun new mystery art event coming up called In the Box.
Art enthusiasts can purchase a box which contains a random piece of art from an MFA Member and will be shipped directly to them by December 15th, just in time for the gift-giving season! Boxes can also be purchased as gifts for other art lovers. There’s a lot of different styles and artists involved – so you never know what you might get in the box! More info can be found here.
While socially distanced events like In the Box are fun, we are also very happy to still be open and showcasing art and artists to the community in person, like in our upcoming exhibition Small Wonders, where the only requirement was the work had to be under eleven inches on all sides. The exhibition will be on display in person at Circle Gallery (18 State Circle, Annapolis MD) and online at our website mdfedart.com December 3rd-27th.
Mark Your Calendars!
The Arundel Vocal Arts Society (AVAS) is planning a virtual annual Christmas Concert –
“Winter Holidays in/on the Cloud”
Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 4 p.m.
JoAnn Kulesza, Director and AVAS members will be performing and leading Holiday songs and providing other festive thoughts and inspirations at this virtual event. Program details are still in the planning stages, so please refer to our website and social media pages (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – @avaschorus) to get the latest updates.
Please consider giving to AVAS via Facebook during “Giving Tuesday” on December 1st. Just hit the Donate button on our Facebook page.
On Wednesday, November 18, Creating Communities hosted its annual Thanksgiving Jam at Eastport United Methodist, serving over 150 families and senior citizens from low-income households a full Thanksgiving dinner. In ordinary times, the event would have been held indoors with Creating Communities volunteers working hard to serve a hot dinner with family arts activities. However, due to COVID-19, the event was held outdoors for the first time in ten years as a drive-through, contactless distribution with all volunteers wearing masks, using sanitizer, and safe social-distancing. In addition to the traditional Thanksgiving fixings eggs and bread were donated by Pasadena-based nonprofit the Caring Cupboard and bags of fresh produce and beans by Julie St. Marie Catering. In addition, the Eastport Civic Association provided additional funding for food and supplies. Creating Communities is a small arts nonprofit serving hundreds of youth and families per year with afterschool arts programs in schools and community centers. During COVID-19, Creating Communities has shifted to food and supplies 
distribution as well as running outdoor arts programs at Eastport United Methodist Church and the Chesapeake Children’s Museum with Centro de Ayuda.
Creating Communities is the 2020 Innovation Award recipient from the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County and is grateful to the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County for its incredible support for arts programming to help close the creativity and achievement gap in students in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.
Please join Creating Communities at Susan Campbell Park/City Dock Annapolis with our program partner Centro de Ayuda on Saturday December 5, 2:30pm-4:00pm to celebrate the creative work of our students. The event will follow all COVID-19 regulations and protocols.
Celebrate the holidays with Ballet Theatre of Maryland!
This December, the holiday tradition The Nutcracker returns as a one-act show featuring all your favorite characters. Performance dates are Saturday, December 12th at 2pm and 6:30pm, Sunday, December 13th at 2pm, Saturday, December 19th at 2pm and 6:30pm, and Sunday, December 20th at 2pm. Performance venue and ticket information coming soon! Make sure to follow Ballet Theatre of Maryland on Instagram and Facebook for updates. Visit our website at www.balletmaryland.org
’Tis the Season to Shine!
To carry on an Annapolis tradition, local garden clubs will decorate Hammond-Harwood House for the holiday season. This year’s holiday displays will be inspired by flowers that bloom around the world in winter; due to the pandemic, the museum is closed to the public but the decorated rooms will be featured online at www.hammondharwoodhouse.org.
Fresh, festive holiday centerpieces will be available for sale online. Crafted from boxwood and other seasonal greens from the Hammond-Harwood House garden, the decorated centerpieces can be picked up on-site between Dec. 9 and Dec. 11. For orders and more information click here.
The New Year will kick off with the Elan Ensemble featured at the annual Hammond-Harwood House Twelfth Night Concert. The concert will premiere virtually on January 2 –visit the website www.hammond-harwoodhouse.org for tickets.
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