BmoreArt: David, congrats on your new role! For any reader not familiar, what is the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, and how do they operate?
The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund is one of the only dedicated private arts funders in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. It makes over $1million in strategic investments annually to Baltimore’s art and artists, and helps ensure that residents have access to quality artistic experiences.
The majority of the Baker Fund’s annual grants provide funding to strengthen the programs and practices of arts and cultural organizations in Metropolitan Baltimore. These include grants for general operating support, organizational capacity, as well as for the presentation of innovative programs that deepen audience engagement and build new audiences. We also have a reserve fund program that is designed to help facilitate the ongoing financial stability and success of our grantee organizations.
What are just a few of their recent projects or key grants programs?
The Baker Fund remains committed to investing in a broad range of organizations that make up the robust cultural ecosystem in Baltimore. It also supports service organizations in the area, such as Maryland Citizens for the Arts (MCA), Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (MdVLA), and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA), who foster collaboration across the cultural community, strengthen organizational abilities to work at the highest levels.
In order to support individual artists, The fund created the Baker Artist Award program in 2009, in partnership with the GBCA, who manages the Baker Artist Portfolios and Award programs. Artists of all disciplines from the Baltimore-region are invited to create a free, online portfolio, which they can use to promote their work, and connect with curators, collaborators and other artists. Having a portfolio also allows artists to participate in a variety of opportunities to share, show, and sell their work throughout the year.
Tell us more about the Baker Artist Portfolios!
Every artist who has a Baker Artist Portfolio is automatically considered for one of the annual Baker Artist Awards, which awards $90,000 a year to artists across six disciplines. One artist each year receives the $40,000 Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize– the largest art prize in the region. Awardees also receive promotional support and showcase opportunities, including an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art for awardees in the Visual Arts and Interdisciplinary Arts categories.
As an artist yourself with two decades of experience in performance, museums, and theater, you have had a front row seat into Baltimore’s arts ecosystems. You have insight into what is working well in Baltimore and perhaps what could use more support and intentionality. Can you describe an experience you have had, artistically / professionally, that shaped your vision for Baltimore’s arts and culture sector?
Baltimore is such an incredible place to be an artist. It is filled with seemingly boundless creativity, incredible artistic talent, and opportunities to connect, collaborate, interact with, and learn from a robust creative community. I give so much credit for my own work to this city, which provided me space – both literal and figurative– to explore, and experiment, and create, and try, and fail, and succeed.
The arts in this city thrive on experimentation. There are tools and resources available to support creativity and expression, and a community of artists, administrators and other arts professionals who are accessible to connect with and learn from at any time. I believe that for all of these reasons, incredible things can grow here.
All that said, like the city itself, the arts here also certainly have challenges. Without deep philanthropic pockets, many organizations must compete for limited funding. The slow return of audiences post-COVID has also meant less revenue overall for organizations across the country, and has been felt particularly hard in the city.
The perception of Baltimore is also always a challenge in a city that often gets portrayed in the world as unsafe, and, undoubtedly can feel that way too. As blight remains and even reclaims some neighborhoods, it can be particularly hard in Baltimore to attract new audiences, especially from surrounding areas.
But this is why I believe in Baltimore’s art and artists so much. I believe that the unique creativity of Baltimore is not only the key to attracting all kinds of new visitors and residents, but that the more creative our city becomes, the more successful we will be in coming up with new ideas and approaches to help the city grow and thrive.