July 30 , 2008

Local Arts Leaders To Guide State Arts Council During Strategic Planning Process 

Hagerstown, MD—Two Washington County arts professionals have been asked by the Maryland State Arts Council to provide expertise and insight into its strategic planning process, which Governor Martin O’Malley has named “Imagine Maryland.”  Andrew Kipe, executive director of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and Kevin F. Moriarty, executive director of the Washington County Arts Council, have been appointed by State officials to address some concerns that arose during the recent state budget process in Annapolis. 

Moriarty, who has headed the Washington County Arts Council since 2004, was appointed to the Maryland State Arts Council’s 11-member Best Practices Committee.  This panel has been examining the guiding principles and processes by which some $10 million in general operating support to arts organizations statewide is awarded every year.  Maryland’s program, which is competitive and entirely merit-based, already is considered to be among the best in the nation.  Moriarty’s role is to bring the Western Maryland perspective to the table and, as the only County Arts Council director on the panel, represent the interests and concerns of all the County Councils across the state.

Kipe, who became the Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s executive director in 2006, was named to the State Arts Council’s Long-Range Planning Steering Committee and recently began his work on the 30-member panel in Baltimore.  That group is responsible for, among other things, finding ways to enact the Best Practices Committee’s recommendations. 

Neither Kipe nor Moriarty is a stranger to service at the Maryland State Arts Council.  Kipe is a grants panelist who reviews funding applications by music organizations throughout the state.  Moriarty is a jurist on the Maryland ArtVantage program, which recommends funding for arts programs for underserved communities in the state, and also is on the panel that examines and grades the performance of County Arts Councils through Maryland’s Community Arts Development program.  Additionally, he serves on the Governor’s ArtSalute panel, which recognizes excellence in the arts in Maryland.  While these panel assignments might be a nice recognition of expertise, each of them demands hundreds of hours of study and review.  “It actually is the best kind of professional development imaginable,” said Moriarty. “We see the best, we see the challenges, we perceive opportunities, and it is all part of a collegial state-wide program that makes the most of public support.”

“It’s great that Washington County is represented at this level in determining the future of vital programs of the State of Maryland,” said Kipe.  “We’re at the forefront of something very important to our community and to all of Maryland.  It is significant that we from Washington County are counted among those who will ask the questions, find the answers, and who will lead the way to Maryland’s future as the best in nurturing and capitalizing on artistic excellence.”

The Maryland State Arts Council is an agency of the Maryland State Department of Business and Economic Development.  Its annual budget is approximately $17 million, which is distributed statewide to provide operating support for arts organizations, project funding, technical assistance, and arts-in-education.