Worried that recent decisions at City Hall will contribute to turmoil and uncertainty within Baltimore’s cultural community, arts advocates are asking Mayor Brandon Scott not to make any more major moves in that area without consulting them first.
In a letter sent to Scott this week, 10 representatives of Baltimore’s arts community asked that he “immediately STOP taking further action” that could adversely affect the city’s relationship with visual artists, performers and others in the city’s creative economy.
The letter was sent after Scott on Friday called for the board of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) to “remove” Donna Drew Sawyer as its CEO and then on Tuesday announced that he was naming one of Sawyer’s lieutenants, Tonya Miller Hall, to fill the new position of Senior Advisor for Arts & Cultural Affairs in the Mayor’s Office. Sawyer resigned on Tuesday and BOPA said it would begin a search for her replacement.
The arts advocates didn’t specifically object to Scott’s decision to create an arts-focused position at City Hall, but they were “disheartened” that he did so without checking with them. They noted that an Arts and Culture Committee was created as part of the larger transition team formed to advise Scott when he became Mayor in December 2020, and the committee recommended a series of steps he could take to help make sure Baltimore is a place where artists thrive and the arts are celebrated. They say they’re prepared now to help him think through any future moves he may be contemplating along those lines.
“Any decisions related to BOPA, and any new Arts and Culture office within City Hall, should be paused until meaningful input from members of his transition team as well as other members of the arts and culture community here in Baltimore City can be consulted,” the letter said.
The 10 signers of the letter, all members of the 32-member Arts and Culture Committee, are: Lady Brion; Nicholas Cohen; Krista Green; Denise Griffin; Adam Holofcener; Eze Jackson; Declan McKenna; Ryan Patterson; Jess Solomon, and Maggie Villegas. The advocates indicated their letter might have been signed by more people but it wasn’t possible to contact every transition team member on short notice.
In its final report, entitled “Valuing Creative Hubs and Cultural Institutions,” the Arts and Culture Committee listed 23 recommendations for Scott to consider.
The committee divided its recommendations into steps Scott could take during his first 100 days, his first year and his first term. Most have not been implemented. One of the recommendations Scott has now followed is to “Create a mayoral-appointed, cabinet-level position for arts and culture.” A second one that he followed was: “Enforce Baltimore’s One-Percent-for-Public-Art Ordinance,” which requires that one percent of the budget for any capital project funded by the city be spent for public art.
A representative from the Mayor’s Office responded with a statement indicating that the Scott administration is willing to hear what the arts advocates have to say.
“We have a responsibility to engage with…the arts community as we work to determine the future of Baltimore’s thriving arts and culture ecosystem,” the statement read. With Miller Hall’s appointment, “we now have dedicated personnel in the Mayor’s Office to focus on arts, culture, and community engagement. This administration is ready to listen to all voices to develop and operationalize a shared vision for the future of the arts in our great city.”
Officials say the city’s contract with BOPA remains in place to serve as Baltimore’s arts council, events producer and film office, and that Miller Hall will be the primary liaison between BOPA and the Mayor’s Office. As the mayor’s Senior Advisor for Arts & Cultural Affairs, officials say, Miller Hall also will work directly with members of Baltimore’s arts community and lead planning and coordination of events that BOPA isn’t involved in, such as the AFRAM festival.
Scott said on Monday that the Mayor’s Office, not BOPA, will organize the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade that starts at noon on Jan. 16 at Eutaw Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Before Miller Hall was appointed as Senior Advisor for Arts & Cultural Affairs, BOPA’s chief contact with City Hall was Justin Williams, Baltimore’s Deputy Mayor for Community and Economic Development. Before Williams, it was Deputy Mayor Ted Carter, who is no longer with the Scott administration. Scott’s former Chief of Staff, Michael Huber, was instrumental in overseeing the work of the mayor’s transition team.
Following is the text of the letter sent to Mayor Scott:
Over the past few days, Mayor Brandon Scott has finally taken drastic action regarding leadership at the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA). The undersigned members of the Mayor’s Arts and Culture Committee of his transition team applaud the long overdue acknowledgment that BOPA has suffered from several years of systemic and leadership issues.
However, we are disheartened that Mayor Scott failed to consult a meaningful cross section of the many Baltimore City arts and culture communities before he called to have Donna Sawyer step down as CEO of BOPA and installed Tonya Miller Hall as the newly created Senior Advisor for Arts & Cultural Affairs in the Mayor’s Office.
Mayor Scott formed an Arts and Culture committee that served on his transition team in December 2020. The members of that committee drafted recommendations that were approved by the Mayor and included in the transition report. These recommendations outlined suggested changes to how City Hall supported arts and culture, including changes to BOPA and the creation of an office of Arts and Culture in City Hall. Since the release of the transition report in February 2021, members of the transition committee have continued to advocate for a thoughtful, measured approach to restructuring BOPA, changing BOPA leadership, and funding arts and culture programming throughout the City. The transition team recommendations can be found…on page of 76 of the transition report.
Before the actions taken this week, Mayor Scott had implemented only one recommendation made in the transition report: That the City would actually start to enforce the 1% for Public Art Law which has been on the books since 1964. Despite the Mayor’s limited attempt to bring the transition report to life, members of the Arts and Culture Committee continued to communicate with the Scott administration, attempting to push City Hall to make good on the recommendations.
The Scott administration was explicit about their distrust and lack of confidence in BOPA from the start of their conversations with transition team members, but City Hall would not operate in the open about generative ways to move forward. After months of fruitless communications, advocates had to draw a boundary that prioritized transparency and inclusion of other arts community voices. This led to a breakdown in communication with the administration.
We are extremely disheartened that Mayor Scott would choose an initial adviser for Arts and Cultural Affairs without input from his transition team or other members of Baltimore City’s creative communities.
The undersigned members of the Mayor’s transition team ask that Mayor Scott immediately STOP taking further action. Any decisions related to BOPA, and any new Arts and Culture office within City Hall, should be paused until meaningful input from members of his transition team as well as other members of the arts and culture community here in Baltimore City can be consulted. Given the quickly changing landscape of this situation, not all members of the Arts and Culture Committee of the transition team could be reached to review/sign this document. Further, some members of the Arts and Culture Committee chose not to sign.
Sincerely,
Lady Brion, Nicholas Cohen, Krista Green, Denise Griffin, Adam Holofcener, Eze Jackson, Declan McKenna, Ryan Patterson, Jess Solomon and Maggie Villegas
The Arts and Culture Committee of the mayor’s transition team was co-chaired by Graham Coreil-Allen and Jess Solomon. Other recommendations from the committee were:
The First 100 days: Reconvene a small task force to decide what to do with the city’s Confederate monuments; Establish an Arts & Culture Advisory Board; Increase representation of artists/creatives on city task forces, agency commissions and other committees; and Enhance CharmTV with arts and media programming from Baltimore-based artists and media makers.
Also, Designate an Arts Advocacy Day in Baltimore; Provide additional support to the culinary arts by providing funding for local restaurants that agree to manufacture and/or distribute food to Baltimore residents experiencing food insecurity; and Recognize the legacy of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its origins within the Baltimore City Department of Music by re-launching the municipal band.
The First Year: Ensure that the Creative Baltimore Fund is operating in a manner that is racially equitable and subject to accountability; Reverse longstanding historic disinvestments in Black neighborhoods, Black cultural institutions and LGBTQ+ spaces; and Create Public Artist in Residence positions to enhance the vision and breadth of existing city programs and services.
Also, Revamp the Baltimore Development Corporation’s small business loans for those working in the creative industries, specifically those in film, music and digital entertainment, and Mandate that all new real estate developments receiving incentives from the city, such as Tax Increment Financing and Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreements, also include a Community Benefits Agreement that supports existing arts and culture organizations.
The First Term: Prioritize arts education in the Baltimore City Public School System; Create a cultural plan for Baltimore that reflects a shared, comprehensive vision for the future of Baltimore’s arts and culture and the city’s creative economy; Implement the recommendations of the Safe Arts Space Task Force; and Establish a city pay scale for artists and cultural workers so that Baltimore residents can live and thrive as employees in institutions supported by city funding,
Also, Make city procurement more accessible for small businesses and sole proprietors, Enable multi-year funding through the Creative Baltimore Fund to reduce the development and reporting burdens for smaller organizations and independent grantees; Create a robust and streamlined arts infrastructure to open connections between residents and venues; Avoid displacement of working class residents, cultural producers and arts organizations; and Support creative entrepreneurial training and professional development for artists.
