BmoreArt

This Week: We are featuring online events that you can participate in from the comfort of your own couch plus a few ways to get involved locally. Stay home, stay healthy, stay engaged in the arts.

For more information and resources for artists during coronavirus quarantine, please see our previous post: Actionable Items: Arts-Related Resources in the Age of COVID-19

BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.

To submit your calendar event, email us at [email protected]!

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We’ll send you our top stories of the week, selected event listings, and our favorite calls for entry—right to your inbox every Tuesday.

BROS Online Opera Series (OOpS!) | Call for Entry
Deadline: May 25

THE CHALLENGE: Using only what you have at home (and following the strictest of socially responsible guidelines for keeping everyone healthy and safe) create an original mini-rock opera up to 3 minutes in length and film it to share with the BROS’ community.

You can have support and collaboration (digitally and responsibly) but only those in your quarenteam should be featured in the film (don’t be gathering extras for your big crowd scene).

There is no theme and the only limitation is what your imagination can do with stuff you have at home. Remember that BROS will need to share this, so do not use music or IP that is copyrighted.

CRITERIA FOR SUBMISSION:
-Submit a video in any format to [email protected] before May 25th
-Must contain music
-Be no longer than 3 minutes
-Must have a story and recognizable characters
-Cannot contain any copyrighted music recordings or other specific intellectual property

Beyond that, we want to see your creativity pushed to its extremes!”

Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival 2020 | Call for Entry
Early deadline: May 29 • Regular deadline: June 26 • Final deadline: July 24

Submissions Are Now Open
Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival | Oct 23-25, 2020

Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival (SEAF) celebrates the world’s most boundary-pushing, mind-blowing animation. This annual festival is focused on supporting unique, experimental and diverse voices in the field of animation, with a lean toward off-the-wall humor and energy.

2019 programming included multiple Academy Award nominees and a Cesar Award winner; animated shorts paired with live musical performance, guest curators, animator retrospectives, student work, and more. Sweaty Eyeballs is dedicated to innovative storytelling and craft, and our staff is working to create meaningful connections across geographic and stylistic divides even—and especially—as we temporarily transition to an online screening platform for 2020.

GLB Covid-19 Relief by Acquisition Application
Deadline: May 31

Grace Linton Battle would have turned 100 in May 2020. We find great alignment in beginning the cycle of her legacy at her one hundredth anniversary. Universally, art communities are experiencing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of this the GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts is gifting an additional $10,000 through acquisitions of art into the GLB Art Collection to artists in need of relief funds who are aligned with our mission.

The Application Portal will be open from May 7-31, 2020.

Final decisions on all acquisitions will be made by June 30, 2020.

A Curatorial Selection Committee established by the Fund’s Executive Director will review applications to provide relief funds to selected artists as quickly as possible after the deadline.

Eligibility:
Woman-identifying artists who reside in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia and who work across the artistic media of drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, collage, printmaking, new media arts, performance or installation.

TAC’s 13th Anniversary Member’s Show | Call for Entry
Deadline: June 7

Annual celebration of all TAC members! The theme and content is completely open! Join us as we celebrate the resilience and creativity of our members during a time of solitude and uncertainty.

Four Awards:
“Award of Excellence,” three awarded
“Hope Award,” a recognition of one artwork that best illustrates resiliency during these unprecedented times

Anniversary Exhibition Entry Fee
CURRENT MEMBERS: $10 for entry of 1 piece; must fit in a 3′ x 2′ space, if applicable
NEW MEMBERS AND RENEWING MEMBERS: $25 includes 1 year membership fee and entry of 1 piece; must fit in a 3′ x 2′ space, if applicable
NEW STUDENT MEMBERS AND RENEWING STUDENT MEMBERS: $15 includes 1 year membership fee and entry of 1 piece; must fit in a 3′ x 2′ space, if applicable

Mark Ryder Original Choreography Grant
Deadline: June 24

Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) is pleased to announce that applications for the FY2021 Mark Ryder Original Choreography Grant Program are now available. Established at the bequest of Mark Ryder’s family in honor of his life’s work, this program recognizes individual creative expression by providing financial assistance to choreographers to create new original work. A fund has been established at the Community Foundation of Howard County to enable monies to be awarded for this purpose in perpetuity. The grant award recipients will be announced at HCAC’s Annual Meeting and Grant Awards Ceremony in September 2020. The minimum grant amount will be $500.

HCAC Cultural Arts Showcase 2020 | Call for Entry
Deadline: June 26

The Howard County Arts Council is seeking artist applications for its annual Cultural Arts Showcase, presented in partnership with the Recreation & Leisure Service Branch (RALS) of the Maryland Recreation & Parks Association (MRPA). The event will be held at Howard County Center for the Arts at 8510 High Ridge Road in Ellicott City on Friday, October 9, 2020.

The Cultural Arts Showcase is a program to assist schools and civic organizations in identifying performing, visual and literary artists for workshops, performances, demonstrations, and in-school residencies. Attendees of Showcase include cultural arts representatives, PTA Representatives, festival and special event coordinators from Recreation and Parks, and other members of the community. The deadline to apply is June 26, 2020. Interested artists should visit the Opportunities for Artists & Arts Groups section at hocoarts.org for more information and to apply online.

Howard County Arts Council General Exhibit Applications
Deadline: July 1

Artists wishing to be considered for an exhibit in the Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) galleries are invited to submit a general exhibit application. The HCAC Exhibits Committee meets quarterly to review applications and select artists for the exhibit space. Artists, ages 18 and older, working in all media and styles including time-based and installation artists, are encouraged to apply either individually or as a group. The Committee also welcomes proposals from curators and organizations.

For detailed entry guidelines, visit https://hocoarts.submittable.com/submit or email [email protected]. The next deadline for submissions is Monday, July 1, 2020.

Creatively Mindful Artist Relief Fund | Call for Donations

We had over 100+ submissions for the first ever “Creatively Mindful Artist Relief Fund.” There was only one winner, but why stop here when everyone can be a winner!

We know this can be a difficult time for artists. So, we’re considering it our duty to help in any way we can for the art community. Our goal is raise $1000 to help 4 artists. Those artists will be receiving a grand total of $250.

The proceeds will benefit artist working on the following disciplines:

-Photography
-Videography
-Painting
-Printmaking
-Drawing
-Graphic Design
-Sculpture
-Ceramics

We greatly appreciate your contribution and support throughout this pandemic.

Jacob Marley Artist Take Over
ongoing through May 18
presented by Waller Gallery

Artist Jacob Marley presents his work “30 Curls.” “30 Curls” features 30 styles of hair, skintone, and personality created on individual index cards. Marley calls this work, “An exploration of the diversity in the black hair experience. A selection of colors and curls.” You can find a webpage of this series through our profile.
Check out Jacob Marley Artist Take Over event page to get notified with the latest updates.

Story District at the Kennedy Center
Tuesday, May 12 • 7:30 p.m.

Story District will bring its hilarious, heartfelt stories to the virtual stage on May 12. Story District’s debut show at the Kennedy Center, ​Funnier than Fiction, ​took place in February to two full houses. If you missed it the first time, or are new to the live storytelling world, now is your chance to listen and laugh along with these exceptional storytellers.

Pay what you can

Cast: Shawn Banks, Yasmin Elhady, Carol Moore, Ijeoma Njaka, Cody Pomeranz, Sherwet Witherington

Story District has been dedicated to fine-tuning a reflective and disciplined process that’s led us to nights like ​Funnier than Fiction — ​where people share intimate and thought provoking stories with a virtual room full of strangers, reminding us that we are not alone. In this unique, uncertain time, we hope to bring some levity, humor, and a chance to escape.

Showcasing a diverse cast of newcomers and seasoned storytellers, each performance delights with situations that range from relatable to ridiculous.

Story Teasers:

• Sherwet Witherington​ goes to great lengths to rescue a stuffed animal to prove to her children, her wife, and herself that she’s a good parent.

• Muslim-American​ Yasmin Elhady​ makes a bold run for class president soon after 9/11 at her Southern high school.

• Cody Pomeranz ​meets his basketball hero and gets a taste of the difference between the person and the myth.

• Ijeoma Njaka ​spends time with her grandmother despite the language barrier to make a connection and assure herself that her grandmother definitely, for sure, knows her name.

• Carol Moore​ learns to manage her anger towards her neighbors due to very thin walls.
• Shawn Banks ​survives an attack by an aggressive horse.

“All I hope is that this performance acts as a way for people to see there are so many types of voices that are out there, and underneath everything, despite our ethnic backgrounds and sexual identities and etc, we’re all the same and have faced similar experiences,” says comedian Shawn Banks, another first-timer to the Story District stage.

“​My story features my late grandmother and my late father. When I started working on this story over the summer, my dad had been dead for about a year. I was pleasantly surprised to see him appear in this story with levity. My grandma and my dad remain some of my favorite people, so I’m glad I get to keep talking about them with other people,” says first-time storyteller, artist, and writer, Ijeoma Njaka.

“​My mission is to bring as many people into the world of storytelling as possible. To work alongside Amy in helping storytellers, many of them first-timers, perfect their craft and become ambassadors for the art form brings me joy,” says co-director Shawna Renee, a long-time storyteller and music reporter.

About Story District:​ ​Story District has been entertaining audiences in Washington, DC since 1997. In that span of time, Story District has mastered the art of turning good, true stories into great performances at the Washington area’s finest concert venues including a monthly show at the Black Cat, Lincoln Theatre, 9:30 Club, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Sixth & I, DC Improv, Union Stage and more. Learn more at ​storydistrict.org​.

Intellectual Empathy: Tools for Managing Difficult Dialogues
Thursday, May 12 • 1-2 p.m.
presented by AIA Baltimore + Baltimore Architecture Foundation

Reminder: this program is virtual. After registering, you will receive an email with access to both the zoom meeting code and the link to our webinar. Please keep this information for the program on May 14.

Despite a commitment to diversity and inclusivity, many groups and organizations find that their members still have a hard time talking across differences in race, class, gender, political affiliation, sexual orientation, age, religion, ability, or any other kind of identity. We often lack the tools to help us graciously navigate conversations like these—and so we avoid having them. We just don’t talk, even though research shows groups who share diverse viewpoints are more innovative, better at problem solving, more open to feedback, and better off in the long run.

In this workshop we will explore how avoiding conversations about difficult social issues can lead team members to feel unheard, perpetuating a cycle of misunderstanding and misinformation. Fear of “saying the wrong thing” can actually result in worse outcomes. Rather than avoiding potentially contentious conversations, we will develop stepping stones to increase awareness, mutual understanding and growth. In short, we can all benefit from diversity and inclusion. But it won’t happen by itself. We have to do our part to be the change that we want to see, by creating productive spaces for these types of conversations and learning how to effectively navigate difficult topics.

This workshop will also address communication during this time of social distancing, and navigating difficult dialogues in virtual spaces.

Curtains | Highlighting UMD MFA Candidates
Thursday, May 14 • 6 p.m.

Join the STAMP Gallery for Curtains, our virtual midpoint show featuring the work of three second-year University of Maryland Department of Art MFA candidates. We’ll explore these artists’ studio spaces and creative processes via video.

Our first featured artist, Noah McWilliams, is a Maryland/DC sculpture and video artist who uses his art to examine how culturally agreed upon definitions of beauty are used as tools to justify the otherwise indefensible. Additional information about McWilliams can be found at his website: noahmcwilliams.com

Join us on STAMP’s Youtube channel on these Thursdays at 6pm for these premieres: youtube.com/umdstamptv

April 30 – Noah McWillians

May 7 – Heidi Zenisek

May 14 – Elaine Qiu

Museum Nights at Home: Quarantine Party II with DJ Supream
Thursday, May 14 • 6-7:30 p.m.
hosted by Reginald F. Lewis Museum

WE HEARD YOU! We’re back for another edition of #MuseumNightsAtHome. It’s a party at YOUR house – quarantine style!

This social distance dance party will feature the sounds of Baltimore’s own DJ Supream. Tune into our Facebook Live on May 14 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to get your groove on.

CAN I KICK IT? LIVE STREAM / feat Foxy Brown
Thursday, May 14 • 9 p.m.
presented by Shaolin Jazz

CAN I KICK IT? (LIVE STREAM) returns on Thursday, May 14th with a badass blaxploitation screening of the 1970’s classic “Foxy Brown” starring the one and only Pam Grier! It’s gonna be an extra special night of fun because it also happens to be the birthday of Shaolin Jazz co-founder DJ 2-Tone Jones.

At each CAN I KICK IT? event cult-classic martial arts film are screened with a unique, scene-by-scene score of hip hop, soul, funk, and more mixed LIVE on turntables by DJ 2-Tone Jones. CAN I KICK IT? (LIVE STREAM) will bring this unique movie watching experience to your home and beyond.

On the day of the event go to www.shaolinjazz.com for the live stream link (which will go up at 8:30 p.m.). The film will kick off at 9 p.m. EST / 6 p.m. PST. And if you miss it, catch the re-stream of the film on Saturday, May 16th at 12 p.m. EST / 9 a.m. PST on www.twitch.tv/shaolinjazz.

So, What Do We Do Now?
Sunday, May 16 • 6 p.m.
hosted by The Peale

Join comedian Nekia Hampton and special guest Sheila Gaskins for a true “happy hour” on using humor to help navigate life under lockdown.

Join Nekia Hampton and special guest Sheila Gaskins for a workshop on navigating life during quarantine while using humor to survive. In the workshop, Nekia will talk about ways laughter helps her get through the hardest days and offers tips to help others incorporate humor into their daily lives. Participants will also brainstorm what will replace the hug and the handshake in Baltimore and beyond in the post-quarantine world.

Nekia Hampton is a stand-up comedian, producer, and your newest best friend. Her anecdotal comedy has been described as refreshing, thought-provoking, silly, and inspirational. Born and raised in West Baltimore, one of her first memories was seeing her mom on stage making a crowd full of people laugh. Although those memories lasted in her head over the years, it wouldn’t be until she moved to Seattle that she would actually get on stage herself. She has recently returned home to Baltimore to bring laughter & light to her own community. In less than two years, she has performed on numerous stages around the country including at the NW Women’s Comedy Festival in Portland 2018 and the Black Girl Giggles Festival in New Orleans 2019.

Nekia also opened the stage for national headliners like Paul Elias (Conan), and Jared Fried (JTrain Podcast), Jackie Fabulous (America’s Got Talent), and Jordan Rock (Comedy Central, Netflix). She produced & headlined two wildly successful comedy shows, one in Seattle (Aug 2019) and one in Baltimore (Feb 2020) both sold out. Ms. Hampton doesn’t ask for permission in life. She feels the true meaning to life is being authentic and loving the skin you’re in. She lives out loud and suggests you do the same!

Sheila Gaskins is a teaching artist, activist, playwright, facilitator, stand-up comic, and healer. Sheila teaches in the Community Arts Program at MICA. She is a drama teacher at the Forbush School in Glyndon, where her special needs students performed 5 of her original stage productions. She is an experienced facilitator in the civic dialogue of the art of theater of the oppressed. She is the playwright and director of “The Last House Standing,” which premiered at the Arena Playhouse. Among other performance pieces, she has created “Surprise,” a birthday party for Trayvon Martin at the Transmodern Festival, and “Hired: Knot!” at the EMP Collective. Credits include, HBO’s “The Wire,” “BET Comicview,” and “The Salon.” Gaskins was recognized for her art activism in the Baltimore Sun’s “10 People Who Make Baltimore Better (2018).” She is one of the co-founders of “Artpartheid: Bridging the Gap of Disparities in the Baltimore Art Scene.”

BFSFF Taste Test Virtual Shorts Program
Sunday, May 16 • 7 p.m.

On Sunday, May 17, 2020, 7 p.m. – The Houston Museum of African American Culture(HMAAC) is partnering with the Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival (BFSFF) to bring you the Taste Test Virtual Shorts Program! Taste Test is a serving of animated, experimental and horror short films that center the Black Femme as a global protagonist. The program will be followed by Q&A with BFSFF founder, Nia Hampton and the filmmakers.

Skills with the Director Joy Davis
Monday, May 18
presented by Waller Gallery

Our Director Joy Davis’ social practice work has manifested in a new series of teaching new skills and interviewing those that have created skills to help others or themselves. Learn along with her every week as she learns something new!

Find at: www.instagram.com/wallergallery

May 4: Project and Time Management at Home w/ Councilmember Kristerfer Burnett

May 11: Building platforms in a digital space w/ Saida Agostini

May 18: How can we stay connected? w/ Faye Kabali-Kagwa

May 25: How the F do you stay active right now? w/ Korina Barry