|
On
Thursday, February 7, 2008
, Southern Marylanders carpooled to Annapolis
to speak with our legislators about the importance of the arts!
Members of the Charles County Arts Alliance and the Arts Councils of
Calvert and St. Mary's Counties attended Maryland
Arts Day and Conference
2008 to meet with our Southern Maryland
representatives in the House of Delegates and State Senate to advocate
on behalf of the Maryland State Arts Council's FY 2009 budget as
proposed by Governor O'Malley.
As we gathered for the day, we were
entertained by Soulful Symphony.
 
We spent the morning hearing from various legislators,
including Senator Mac Middleton,
 
hearing
a very motivating talk by radio personality Marc Steiner,
and
reviewing advocacy "dos and don'ts" with the
assistance of a very talented mime.
After
lunch, we proceeded to our respective delegation rooms - Room 318 for
the Southern Maryland Delegation. En route, all who traversed the
floors of the State House were well aware that this was indeed a special
day for the ARTS in Maryland... How could anyone miss the blue
mimes?
  
The Arts Councils of Southern Maryland (Charles County Arts Alliance,
Arts Council of Calvert County, and St. Mary's Arts Council)
collaborated on providing a gift bag to each of our 12 Southern Maryland
legislators with items representative of various arts initiatives
and events in the arts community of our region.
Additionally, artwork
from Charles County is now adorning the walls of the Southern Maryland
Delegation Room through the remainder of the current General
Session. Thanks is extended to Brenda Bush of Mattawoman Creek Art
Center for providing her painting of a Southern Maryland barn, and to
Nicole Stewart for providing her large painting of the Southern Maryland
Carousel Group.
 
The Charles County
attendees are grateful to Senator Middleton, and Delegates Murray Levy,
Peter Murphy, and John Wood for taking time to voice their support of
the arts in Charles County. We were sorry to miss Delegate Sally
Jameson (who was ill), but enjoyed meeting Cheryl from her staff, and we
thank Cheryl for taking the time to greet us and extend Delegate
Jameson's regrets. We were sorry to have missed Senator Dyson, but
sincerely appreciate his nice note acknowledging our visit.
In addition
to the opportunity to speak to our representatives, Maryland Arts Day
offered educational sessions on the state of the arts throughout Maryland, first person accounts on
how the arts have touched the lives of 3 teenagers in Maryland, an
update on arts integration in our schools, a dramatic performance by
young adults displaying the value of arts in education, and wonderful networking opportunities.
Thank
you to all who joined us for this eventful day, and to all who worked so
hard to make it such a positive experience. Thanks also to Mary
Thiedeman who provided these photographs.
|
