The independent agency that produces Artscape would receive a cash infusion of $581,334 to help plan the 2024 festival and perform other services, if Baltimore’s City Council and Board of Estimates approve a request to restore operating funds that were withheld from its budget in June.
City Council member Eric Costello, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, announced on Monday that his committee will meet in City Hall this month to consider legislation that would provide a “supplementary General Fund operating appropriation” to the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA).
BOPA has a contract to serve as the city’s events producer, film office and arts council through June 30, 2024. During budget hearings in June, the agency requested $2,625,754 in city funds for fiscal 2024, which began July 1. But council members withheld more than $1.7 million, saying they would restore the money if BOPA made progress on addressing certain concerns they had with its governance and operations.
Since then, BOPA produced the Fourth of July fireworks at the Inner Harbor and in September brought back its signature Artscape festival after a three-year hiatus. Interim BOPA CEO Todd Yuhanick announced plans to work with the Waverly Main Street organization and others to hold the Baltimore Book Festival in Waverly next spring. This week organizers said Artscape 2024 will be held during the first weekend in August.
In September, the council and Baltimore’s Board of Estimates restored $581,334 in city funds that were requested by BOPA to help cover its operations in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. The next $581,334 appropriation, which must be approved by both the council and the Board of Estimates, would help cover the agency’s operations in January, February and March of next year.
The Ways and Means Committee hearing is a key step in the process of restoring BOPA’s withheld funds. The committee’s hearing on Council Bill 23-0452, which would provide the supplementary appropriation for BOPA, will be held in City Council chambers on Dec. 12 at 10 a.m.
