A bit of stimulus money has trickled down to the arts. The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) has announced who'll be receiving National Endowment for the Arts/Baltimore City job retention grants, which were made possible by $250,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and matched by the city. As reported [...]

Artist Grace Hartigan left paintings valued at more than $1 million to MICA and MAP, according to officials from both institutions. Hartigan, who passed away last November, reportedly left 12 canvasses to MICA and five to MAP, and her gifts will likely be used to fund scholarships and future projects. More details can be found [...]

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The top three vote getters in our recent Best of Baltimore readers poll will play Rams Head Live this Thursday night. If you missed it, the Kelly Bell Band (pictured) came in at number 3, Can't Hang was runner-up at number 2, and Flipside took top honors. So we'll consider Thursday night's show something of [...]

Becoming Billie Holiday, by Baltimore's Carole Boston-Weatherford, has won the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award. According to the ALA website, the award is "given to an African American author for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution. The books promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the [...]

In our "Arts Under Attack" story that ran in the May issue, we reported that local arts organizations could expect some federal stimulus money. This morning, Governor Martin O'Malley announced that 29 local arts organizations will receive $306,000 (in Maryland Arts Employment Stabilization Program grants) from the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). Those funds come [...]

Not that BDC. The Baltimore Development Corporation is not to be confused with the Baltimore Development Cooperative, the group of artists awarded the $25,000 Sondheim Prize at the BMA over the weekend. Here's how the BMA folks described the co-op in a press release announcing the award...
The Baltimore Development Cooperative uses the strategies of art, [...]

William P. Tandy's excellent Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore! has been nominated for a 2009 Utne Independent Press Award in the "Best Zine" category. It's a much deserved nod to a publication that consistently presents entertaining stories that are more likely to be told on barstools than via mainstream media outlets. Tandy's zine is essential [...]

The $25,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize has been awarded to saxophonist Carl Grubbs and visual artists John Ruppert and Hadieh Shafie. Check out the Baker Artist Awards site for more info.

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A pair of books by Baltimore's Carole Boston Weatherford (Becoming Billie Holiday and Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane) won Coretta Scott King Awards this week at the American Library Association's Mid-Winter Conference in Denver. Baltimore readers know how much we like Weatherford's work, and this sort of acknowledgment is [...]

Baltimore's Hilary Hahn won a Grammy last night for her recording of the Schoenberg/Sibelius Concertos. She returns triumphantly to town on June 9th for a concert with Marin Alsop and the BSO. They'll play Beethoven, Dvorak, and a newly commissioned piece by Jennifer Higdon.