Mid-Shore Community Foundation’s Artistic Insights Fund was established in 2010 to support the arts in the Mid-Shore region by providing access and awareness to visual, literary, performing and experimental arts. By broadening the perspective of an individual or group through the arts, the Fund’s goal is to contribute to personal and community growth as well as to enhance understanding and provide insight into multi-cultural issues and the environment.The Fund provides this support through grants and scholarships totaling nearly $680,000 to date. The public is encouraged to enjoy the many opportunities to experience the arts made possible through this generous funding.
In 2018, the Fund distributed $105,000 in grants that benefited a broad range of projects. Carpe Diem Arts received $1,000 to assist their outreach to schools and under-resourced communities through their residency program, summer camp concerts, and family performances. The St. Michaels Middle High School Theater Program will use their $1,000 award to purchase building supplies for set construction for their musical theater production of All Shook Up (Feb 22-March 3, 2019). Chester River Chorale received $1,500 for River Voices, a community outreach ensemble with a mission to bring joy to the community through choral music. A $2,500 grant to Easton Middle School will support the Artist in Residence Program, in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Music. A brass quintet will spend four days with students to connect the study of world history with the experience of world music.
The Queen Anne’s County Arts Council received $5,000 for 2019 programming which will focus on the theme The Art in Our History. Exhibits, concerts and lectures celebrating the unique character and heritage of Queen Anne’s County will bring together historians, artists, storytellers and watermen to explore folklore, painting, photographs, sculpture, quilts, fiber arts and music.The Kent Island Federation of Arts also received $5,000 for art gallery exhibits for both budding and professional artists and to provide art classes, including drawing, painting, jewelry making, photography, and costume making,for both children and adults.
The Chesapeake Film Festival received $5,000 for its 2018 program which took place in October. $5,000 was awarded to the Talbot County Arts Council for its Art-in-Education Program which supports school grant requests for visiting performers and artists. The Talbot County Arts Council recognized The Artistic Insights Fund at its Winners Circle Reception in November, “for their generosity over the years in making grant awards that promote the cultural and artistic life of the community.”
The Talbot County Public Schools annual visual/literary arts magazine, Spindrift, which highlights the prose, poetry, and artwork of students at both Easton and St. Michaels High Schools, received $7,000. Young Audiences of Maryland will use it’s $7,500 grant for its Rural Access for All project which offers a wide range of performing arts programs by professional artists at school and community venues in Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties.The Garfield Center for the Arts in Chestertown was awarded $9,000 to replace its 18-year-old light board and for production assistance involving construction of sets, maintaining wardrobes and promoting productions.
The Artistic Insights Fund also renewed its $25,000 funding of the Academy Art Museum’s ArtReach program for area school children in the5-county region. ArtReach offers students a guided tour of an exhibition, works with them on a related visual arts project, and provides bus transportation to and from the museum.
In 2016 the fund advisors established an annual scholarship. In 2018, the Artistic Insights Scholarship was awarded to Kadie Ladamore, of Hurlock,who will use the $10,000 scholarship at Salisbury University to pursue her interest in music education. Scholarships for Emma Brohawn, the 2016 recipient from Federalsburg who is a Studio Art Major at Skidmore College, and Olivia Davidson, the 2017 recipient from Cambridge, who is studying vocal performance at Salisbury University, were renewed as well.
The Artistic Insights Fund is a component fund of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation which administers the grant and scholarship processes for the fund advisors who wish to remain anonymous. Scholarship applications for 2019 are due by February 14, 2019. The next grant application deadline is October 1, 2019. Application forms are available at MSCF.org.
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