When did you last have time to talk, dream, and plan? To sit with brilliant people from within and outside your networks to learn, strategize, and wrestle with challenges in Baltimore? To think about how the City’s many cultural assets can help create solutions, address problems, and celebrate accomplishments?

If digging into this productive brainwork sounds good to you, I hope you will join me and the GBCA team on April 24 at the sixth annual Baltimore Think-a-thon, presented in partnership with the University of Maryland and Maryland Institute College of Art. The Think-a-thon places attendees in the driver’s seat, so when you register, be sure to suggest a topic you would like to explore. For example, Maryland Citizens for the Arts has proposed a deep dive into advocacy issues, such as voter registration, and participation. There will also be discussions about critical issues related to equity and inclusion.

In past years, the Baltimore Think-a-thon proved it could get results. There has been definitive action around a variety of topics. In 2015, the event made space for serious investigation, planning, and healing that resulted in the “Baltimore Stories: A Narrative in the Life of an American City,” a partnership between the University of Maryland, UMBC, Maryland Humanities, Enoch Pratt Free Library, and GBCA that was funded by an NEH Humanities in the Public Square grant. The project was designed to help examine the roles of narrative in the life and identity of the city and will produce an educational website to help educators and the public in other cities investigate the roles of narrative and race.

Congratulations from GBCA to Precious Blake, a graduate of the 2016 Urban Arts Leadership Program. Precious’ Fellowship placement was at Arts Everyday, where she subsequently received a Baltimore Corps Fellowship and was then hired full-time as their Communications and Development Coordinator. This week she starts a new job on the Education Department's National Partnerships team at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Precious is an amazing leader and we are proud to count her as a UALP alum.

All the best,

Jeannie

P.S. Mountainfilm on Tour is coming to Baltimore, bringing a selection of culturally rich, adventure-packed, and inspiring documentary films curated from the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado. GBCA is pleased to be a partner in the tour. Find out more and reserve your free tickets to a screening through this Baltimore School for the Arts link.