A Blues Fest ain't born. It's built.

Blues Fest 2007! The annual transformation of downtown Hagerstown's Central Parking Lot into a venue for fantastic music and just plain fun has begun. It takes a few turns around the clock to make that happen, along with months of logistical planning, a dozen years experience, and a boatload of cooperation on the part of all of us who comprise Historic Downtown Hagerstown. Long live the residents and merchants (and the sponsors, the sponsors, the sponsors) who conspire to make this happen. And about 500 volunteers. By the end of the weekend, thousands and thousands (and thousands) of blues fans will have experienced some of the most memorable performances of their lives. And by the end of the weekend, your faithful reporter will be ready to sit down in a cool shady spot and reflect on the hot hot hot days of the Blues Fest. Photos indicate a dressed-up parking garage, a public works manager being interviewed by NBC25, a parking lot about to be transformed, and also one of the big stages-on-a-truck being waved through the barracades. Embiggen for the seriousness of it all. All photographed about 36 hours before lift-off. Let the Fest begin!

Bobbleheads are a kind of art. Aren't they?

Best-selling novelist Nora Roberts—who is a resident of Washington County and reliably generous supporter of the arts council—was honored this week when the Hagerstown Suns unveiled a new bobblehead in her likeness. At the news conference (hosted by our Convention & Visitors Bureau president Tom Riford) Miss Roberts claimed that the bobblehead was a sign that she’s finally made it, and that she will be the envy of all her writer friends. This from a woman who has been on the NYT best-seller list for years and who has sold nearly 300 million copies of her books. Be one of the first thousand fans at Municipal Stadium on July 6 and you’ll receive your own little Nora. Embiggen to see grown adults bust out laughing.

Surprise.

A chance meeting led me to a new painter this week. One thing led to another, and before long I had scheduled a studio visit, one of the cool things an arts council director gets to do. The artist, Dan Cumpata, welcomed me into his house in Hagerstown. I’d been in the neighborhood before, lovely curving tree- lined streets full of nicely-tended homes and gardens. I’ve always been curious what sorts of lives went on inside those houses. I didn’t imagine that there’d be an artist’s studio the likes of which I saw in Dan’s house.

The entire house is full of art. Fabulous art. Everywhere. And Dan’s own huge and luminous landscapes dominate the collection. He showed me his painting studio, in the basement, where he paints, paints, paints into the wee small hours of the morning. He works with the same paints
he’s used for years. He keeps a pair of pliers handy for opening those tubes of European paint that haven’t been opened in a decade.

He’ll have an exhibition in our gallery in 2008. Watch for it. In the meantime, when you’re driving around town, imagine what sorts of fantastic creativity might be happening around you. I’m inspired by the possibilities.

Two days in May

It was quite a sight, dozens and dozens of school buses rolling down Potomac Street to the Maryland Theatre, where Elizabeth Schulze and her Maryland Symphony Orchestra delivered an enthralling program to 4,000 ten-year olds this week. Hearing all those kids sing "My Country 'tis of Thee" accompanied by a professional orchestra was pretty darn enthralling, too. And here's an essential part of the picture: Citicorp Credit Services paid for the whole thing, as they have done for the past 22 years! This year, that nut was over $50,000. That's a huge gift to the children in this area, and an demonstrates an enormous commitment to the cultural life of our community. The MSO, in partnership with Citicorp and Washington County Public Schools, is a real champ when it comes to connecting children and music. Even if the logistics of unloading and loading all those buses in downtown Hagerstown can get a little nervewracking. Clipboards for days.

Can art make you smart?

Here are some students and staff at the end of the day at Fountaindale Elementary School for the Arts and Academic Excellence, the local public school that's putting into practice the theory that immersion in the arts has a positive effect on children's achievement across all disciplines. What that means is that instead of focusing solely on math and science, Fountaindale uses an interdisciplinary approach wherein the arts create a rich learning environment in which inquisitive children experience the interconnectedness of different subjects. A great theory which takes a lot of hard work and training to execute, but it seems Fountaindale has done it. I know in my bones that if I hadn't taken piano lessons, I'd never have made it through math in high school. Of course that was more than 30 years ago, long before arts immersion was legit. What do you think? Can the arts make you better at algebra or chemistry?

Aging audiences for the arts?

See this photo of our Maryland Theatre. How old must you be to ride this ride? Is the rising average age of an audience-member something to worry about? Or is it just how things are? For years now ArtsJournal.com has been touching on the matter occasionally. RAND has produced some dandy reports on this and other arts topics. This weekend, the topic surfaced in the pages of our own Hagerstown Sunday Herald-Mail. I tend to think that for arts presenters in general, and museums and symphonies in particular, it’s generally true that they’ll keep audiences up until they’re in their early 20s, then they won’t see them again until they’re about 47 or 48. But they will come back. However, this only will be true if the museum and symphony continue to focus on achieving the highest possible artistic merit in their products. Each symphony season, each exhibition, must aim high. Fancy marketing won’t save them over time. Obviously I agree that employing new media (hence this blog, and our occasional podcast) is affordable and effective, but ultimately it’s the art that counts. What do you think?

Art on the Avenue.

A beautiful day in Hagerstown. This morning under brilliant blue skies, dozens of artists and craftsmen set up shop outside the Benjamin Gallery in Hagerstown. I saw a lot of extremely nice work, everything from photographs to furniture, paintings and pottery. And I came away with two bags of lovely pottery (it's not all for me; I'm going to a wedding reception this afternoon and needed a unique gift). Also, I got a stack of business cards from people I'll want to show in our gallery downtown. Major props to Molly Amos and the Benjamin Gallery for continuing this annual event. See? Art isn't always about looking for funding; sometimes it can actually be lucrative. Yay! Embiggen the photos to see what a fine day it was.

Pretty.

It’d be a curious thing for an arts blog not to contain some art. Today’s offerings were created by Joan Bontempo of Sharpsburg, Maryland. “Wings” and “Whirlwind III” are on display at our gallery in downtown Hagerstown. Embiggen for the loveliness.

Art = Work = Dollars. It's a good thing.

The Maryland State Arts Council reports that there were 13,762 full-time arts-related jobs in Maryland last year. Out here in Western Maryland, that there was the equivelant of 508 full-time arts jobs, with an impact of $37 million in Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties. That’s calculated by salaries which are then spent and then spent some more. Otherwise, you’d conclude that the average salary is about $72k, which would indicate that I’ve chosen the wrong arts-related job. Actually, the average is probably more like $25k, which then gets spent at Martin's Foods and the mortgage company and the gas station, and in turn gets spent with the electric company and WJEJ's advertising department and Younger Toyota. See how it works?

Once in a while I’ll show you how glamorous these jobs can be, and introduce you to the arts workers around Washington County. Here’s Terri working the box office at the Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown. She has the patience of a saint. You can't see her face because she is always on the phone with ticket customers. Embiggen for the sheer elegance of it all . (Meaning, click on the photo and it gets bigger. And more elegant.)

In and out.

So many things in life are about money. Even art. And for arts organizations that produce and present a rich array of cultural opportunities in our community, Life can be pretty expensive. Even if you don’t have enormous personnel costs like the Maryland Symphony, all of us still have to pay the light bill, the phone bill, the rent. The search for money can get pretty competitive. Take a look at the pictures above: on the left, today's take was about $1600; on the right, today's bills totalled about $1575. A good day.

Even at a little place like the arts council, we need to take in an average of $769 every time the mail gets delivered to make our little annual budget. I thank my lucky stars we live in Maryland, where state funding of the arts is strong. Frankly, if I relied solely on local donor support, I wouldn’t be able to heat the place. In the county where I live and work, the county government accounts for about $41 of that $769 I need every day, which works out to about ten cents per county resident per year.

Sustaining the arts is a topic that will be coming up occasionally on this blog. What’s your opinion? Are there better ways keep our arts institutions alive without bleeding our donors dry?

An art school in Hagerstown?

Here’s the building Vincent Groh donated for the new Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in downtown Hagerstown (Barbara Ingram was Mr. Groh’s late wife). Imagine how exciting it will be to have 300 motivated students using our downtown as a campus!

As anticipated, the plan is not without its critics. But the bottom line is that finally budding artists—painters, potters, musicians, actors, dancers—in our public school system now will have the opportunities for preparation that they need and deserve. And the economic opportunities have downtown business owners feeling happier than they have in a long time.

Watch for construction and renovation to begin soon. Opening is targeted for January 2009.

Calm before the storm.

This is the birth of our blog. I don’t know where it’s headed yet, but isn’t it always fun to find a new means to communicate? I expect some days will provide more interesting material than others, but stick with me while we discuss the everyday experience of making the arts as good as they can be and as accessible as they can be for our community. When I first got out of college, an electric typewriter was about as high-tech as it got. Computers were at least the size of a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer, and our casket-sized photocopier made about six copies per minute. The very idea that 20-some years later I'd be shamelessly blogging and podcasting was unthinkable. But here we are.


We're enjoying a rare peaceful weekend in the arts world of Washington County. The Maryland Symphony concluded their season a few weeks ago in triumphant style. Our Museum of Fine Arts wrapped up their 75th Anniversary celebration. Things are quiet at the Maryland Theatre. This is the calm before the storm. All hell breaks loose in a few weeks with the 12th Annual Western Maryland Blues Fest. Four days of excellent music, along with a lot of beer. If you haven’t been to Blues Fest, this is the year to start. My role during the weekend is to handle the logistics of connecting tens of thousands of blues fans to a large supply of Budweiser products. This is my fourth year as beer czar, and it’s nothing I can’t handle as long as I have adequate liability insurance, ear plugs, and 200 reliable volunteers.

I also had the pleasure of recruiting the artist for this year's poster (see image). He's a great young guy who grew up here and is fresh out of art school. Mike O'Brien. South Hagerstown grad, and an excellent illustrator. Just wait until you see how cool this thing looks on a t-shirt. You'll want one in every color.

Once we’ve cleaned up after Blues Fest, the summer endurance test begins, with so much free music happening it will be difficult for you to take it all in. More about that in the days to come.

Life has its embarrassing moments.

Here's one of mine. Click here for the evidence on YouTube. Mercifully short.