Seven months after Baltimore’s spending board terminated a contract to work with the independent Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA), the same panel has approved a new agreement with the agency.
Baltimore’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday ratified with no discussion an agreement that calls for BOPA to serve as the “City Arts agency” and to provide certain services to Baltimore’s “creative community” from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
A memo to the board from the Office of Mayor Brandon Scott states that the agency will be doing business as “Create Baltimore” during the service period, which starts in 13 days. According to the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Calvin Young, the agency is planning to rebrand itself as Create Baltimore and the mayor’s memo reflects that pending change.
BOPA/Create Baltimore is also forming a Community Advisory Committee to help guide its work. Applications are available on the agency’s website, promotionandarts.org.
“BOPA is looking for up to twelve (12) members from Baltimore’s arts, culture and entertainment community to join its Community Advisory Committee,” the website states. “Members serve a two-year term and advise BOPA on community needs, equity in programming, cultural representation and inclusive creative direction – helping ensure BOPA’s work reflects the richness and diversity of all Baltimore communities…The BOPA Board of Directors will review submissions and select committee members.”
Changing course
According to its website, BOPA is a nonprofit cultural organization that “serves as the city’s arts council, inspires and engages audiences of all ages and backgrounds, and cultivates the city’s creative economy through the arts, events and film industry.”
The agency has been working with the city since 2002, when Martin O’Malley was mayor. Its roots go back to an organization formed four decades ago by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer, the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Art and Culture.
Wednesday’s 5 to 0 vote by the Board of Estimates represents the reversal of an action it took on November 6, 2024, when the panel terminated a contract to work with and partially fund BOPA until June 30, 2025. The last day of the contract was changed to January 20, 2025.
The decision was “compelled by concerns regarding BOPA’s financial performance and subsequent ability to support the arts community on behalf of the city of Baltimore,” Young told the board at the November meeting. “Over time, it has been evident that BOPA’s handling of city-allocated funds has not met the standards of transparency and accountability required for this critical role.”
Since last fall, BOPA has parted ways with then-CEO Rachel Graham and is now led by interim CEO and board chair Robyn Murphy. Scott has indicated at numerous public appearances and events that he supports the agency and the way it is being run since Murphy became involved.
MOACE
Another change since last fall is that Scott has formed a new division within city government, called the Mayor’s Office of Art, Culture and Entertainment (MOACE), to oversee art, entertainment, nightlife and film activities in Baltimore and produce some of the events that were previously assigned to BOPA.
Last month, MOACE collaborated with BOPA to put on the Artscape 2025 festival in a new location near City Hall as part of the mayor’s Downtown Rise initiative. MOACE is also taking the lead on planning festivities for the Fourth of July, including a fireworks display at the Inner Harbor and a drone display in Cherry Hill.
In the Fiscal 2026 city budget, BOPA requested a grant of approximately $2.8 million from the city, roughly the same as it has received in previous years. The Mayor’s Office requested about $2 million to support MOACE’s work. The budget was approved on Monday by the Baltimore City Council and is awaiting the mayor’s signature.
Create Baltimore
Create Baltimore was suggested as a possible replacement name for BOPA several years ago, when Donna Drew Sawyer was its CEO. When the agency moved to refurbished offices at 7 St. Paul St., Sawyer commissioned a mural for one wall that bears the phrase “BmoreCreative” in anticipation of the name change, but it was never implemented.
Sawyer resigned in January of 2023, after Scott said he lost confidence in her ability to lead the agency, after she said she had no plans to produce on the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
The mayor announced the formation of MOACE in his State of the City address in April. He said he wanted a centralized office within city government to support local artists and entertainers and better coordinate what they do in Baltimore. Linzy Jackson III is its director, working with the mayor’s Senior Advisor on Arts and Culture, Tonya Miller Hall.
With the formation of MOACE, there has been some concern that the general public may be confused by two arts entities and that a new name for BOPA may help avoid confusion. There have also been suggestions that a new name may help improve BOPA’s image and help remove reminders of its flawed performance under Sawyer and its many event cancellations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The words ‘create’ and ‘creativity’ appear prominently on the homepage of BOPA’s website, hinting at the name change. “Creativity is our heartbeat & together, we create Baltimore,” one message says. “When Creatives Thrive” is the title of a podcast it produces to highlight local artists and makers.
List of responsibilities
The memo to the Board of Estimates spelled out the responsibilities that Create Baltimore will have under its new agreement with the city. The list is somewhat pared down from the obligations in BOPA’s previous contract with the city, more focused on arts-related activities and less focused on producing major civic festivals and events. Here is the list approved by the Board of Estimates:
- Responsibility for organizing and utilizing staff and other resources made available to it, to best achieve the successful performance of duties and responsibilities assigned.
- Responsibility for coordinating the resources and activities with other departments of the City wherever participation of the City’s departments becomes necessary or desirable.
- Provide advisory and staff action to guide and assist the City in the development, planning, coordination or implementation of City art and culture events and grant programs.
- Serve as the City’s designated Arts Council recipient for the Maryland State Arts Council pursuant to City Council Resolution 02-03, as well as recipient of federal arts or cultural funding for the City. As the Arts Council, BOPA will coordinate the following: the Public Art Commission and the Creative Baltimore Fund.
- Provide management, maintenance, marketing and programming services for the following City-owned and/or leased properties: The Cloisters, 10440 Falls Road in Baltimore County; Baltimore Arts Tower, 21 Eutaw Street, and the School 33 Art Center, 1427 Light Street.
- Provide management, maintenance, marketing and programming services for Top of the World Observation Level, 27th floor, 401 East Pratt Street, until otherwise directed by the City.
- Coordinate, manage, and promote the Baltimore Farmers’ Market until a new operator is selected based on an RFP process.
- BOPA may be asked to support and/or assist specific art, cultural, and promotional events that may be mutually agreed upon annually at the beginning of the year. Such annual events must align with the city’s budget…
- Provide program assistance, coordination, oversight and support on behalf of the City in [furtherance] of art, musical and cultural education, outreach, and funding endeavors.
- Coordinate, produce or manage other activities, programs, or facilities as identified, requested, and/or assigned by the Mayor or his/her designee in writing to BOPA with funding based on City funding and BOPA fundraising efforts for these events provided over and above the BOPA’s current City grant.
- Solicit, receive, and administer private contributions and/or government grants for the [furtherance] of artistic, cultural, and other such endeavors, to be used in strengthening, directly or indirectly, the City’s economic base and cultural community through including but not limited to the purposes and aims and to assist in the promotion of those objectives as may be helpful to the purposes and aims of the City.
In addition, the mayor’s memo said that BOPA agrees not to move any of the events or activities it’s working on outside the city, and to work with a sister organization, the Baltimore Festival of the Arts Inc.
BOPA/Create Baltimore has offices at 7 St. Paul St. The deadline for applications to be a member of its Community Advisory Committee is July 15, 2025.
