WENDELL: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the Citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, the Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, the E.T.

and Robert B. Rocklin Fund, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.

Hi, I'm your host, Wendell Patrick, and welcome to this episode of "Artworks" on Maryland Public Television.

Today we're diving into the spaces where creativity thrives, starting with Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, a vibrant hub that fosters artistic expression in our state's capital.

In this episode, we sit down with Maryland Hall's staff to explore how this core institution supports local talent and serves as a beacon for innovation.

From its mission to its community impact, we'll uncover what makes Maryland Hall a vital part of the creative landscape.

Then we'll take you on a journey across the nation to see how other institutions are changing the artistic dialogue in their communities.

So, settle in as we explore the Art of Creative Spaces right here on "Artworks: The Art of Creative Spaces."

CHRISTINA: It's busy, it's busy, and it's crazy, but it's also this beautiful dance because the people in these spaces, they understand how to coexist with each other so they know how to, to move through each other's movements.

A pottery class, for example, it's gonna get pretty busy.

This room, well, it looks kind of large.

Once you have it full of eight students with big pieces of clay in front of them, it gets pretty cramped.

So they understand how to coexist with each other, and there's also this beautiful comradery because as they're all learning this for the first time, they're seeing the beauty and the material, but they're also seeing each other's successes and failures and learning from and with each other.

JACKIE: Maryland Hall inspired me, you know, and so I'm here now two years and, you know, we are all about "art for all."

When I arrived, we, we were doing classes in, you know, clay, in pottery, wood turning, glass, uh, we also had our 2D classes and visual art dance classes, uh, we had a little room to grow into theater classes.

I can say now we've got theater and we have music classes as well.

And then there's all the performances and the exhibits and the outreach, and then even events.

You know, there's so many exciting events, you know, it's, it's like Maryland Hall carries this legacy of being here for 44 years of being a place of gathering, a place for the community to come and celebrate "arts for all."

TRACIE: The first thing is aesthetically right, this building and what this building used to represent as a segregated school.

Add to that, the community impact, again, the significance that this building and legacy has to the community, now we're talking about taking the patrons of this, building, the employees, and moving into one that's more inclusive.

The employees at Maryland Hall were very much aware of that as well.

Leadership drives a company, and so we wanted to really focus on leadership and where leadership sat in the organization and really their mindset around how committed the leaders were and how willing they were to go the long haul.

JACKIE: I love the phrase "Art for All," and that was all over the website when I was applying for the job.

When I arrived here, I was drawn to the mission.

It's really starting to blossom on the stage that I'm staring at right now, 'cause I'm sitting in the audience of our 725-seat theater.

I think some of the performances that happen there.

We have four resident companies that are here at Maryland Hall that have been here for most of these 44 years.

Ballet Theater Maryland, Annapolis Opera, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Live Arts Maryland.

So you can go one weekend and see a ballet performance, and then the next weekend, you know, see an opera.

And then the next weekend you could actually see a Rams Head show, which is another partner of ours from the community.

And they bring in all kinds of, you know, contemporary music and rock and soul and blues.

Um, and then Maryland Hall Presents, we bring in six different shows a year.

We, one of our shows this year was called "No Gravity," and we had people look like they're flying above the stage for the performance, and it was sold out.

It was really exciting.

I think some of the other highlights are our dance studios, are our, our pottery studio is so exciting, so always so filled with people, like there's, there's never a spot open in the pottery class, which is really exciting.

But I would say another highlight in the building is our Media Arts hub up on the third floor that opened just about a year ago now.

We have a sound booth in there, and we have, uh, lots of graphic design classes going on up there.

We have 15 iPads, 15 laptops, all outfitted with Creative Cloud ready to design.

IMANI: What media arts means to the Hall is growth, with the Media Arts Hub being the newest department of Maryland Hall, uh, we wanted to now introduce media arts, learning and education to the variety of offerings that we already have here.

And so, when I think about what does media arts mean, uh, to Maryland Hall?

I think it, it, it shows and identifies what we're trying to do to continue to meet the needs of the community and, and, um, and doing that through this department.

The Media Arts Hub, you know, one, uh, identifies as learning experiences from classes and workshops through, uh, graphic design, animation, digital illustration, video production, photography, even gaming.

This is an organization where we say "art for all," and we haven't put a cap on how old you are.

This department is also, in north Maryland Hall is the home of, of Crab Radio, which is 104.7 FM, which is our community-based radio station.

It is really an extension of how we can integrate ourselves in the community more.

JACKIE: You know, we have this, uh, outdoor labyrinth that is outside.

We have art exhibits that we, we rotate and bring outside.

We have permanent and temporary exhibits, and we have these front steps, and we have festivals and events and, and concerts and all kinds of things that happen outdoors, you know, that bring people closer to the building and then into the building.

In terms of, um, contributing to the community, I was at an event just this weekend, and I was speaking to this woman and she was thanking me for helping Maryland Hall reopen after Covid, 'cause she had seen before Covid, it was so vibrant, and the community was here all the time, and there was, it was bustling inside, outside, everywhere.

And then, of course, everything, you know, quieted down in Covid.

And now she was saying, it feels like it's a bustling again, and she, she said, this center is so special and so important to this community, it is a part of the fabric of the community.

The way that I was welcomed and the way this community embraced me, um, as a representative of this institution that is here, I mean, was just awe-inspiring.

And clearly, there's this symbiotic relationship, you know, I mean, uh, the county execs office calls us up and says, you know what, we have this special award ceremony, we want to hold it at Maryland Hall, is there space available that night?

You know, um, the, the Flower Mart, the Four Rivers Garden Club does an annual fundraiser, Flower Mart, and in exchange, you know, free of charge, we, we don't charge them rent for that as a partner, because all year long, if you come into the Hall for a performance on the weekends, especially the resident companies, you will always see a big, beautiful bouquet of flowers that is sitting there in our lobby that was donated by the Four Rivers Garden Club.

So there's like this give and take of trying to build community together that was in the fabric when I got here, you know, and, and I know the team at Maryland Hall is doing our best to try to continue to, to push that legacy forward and expand and look at, okay, this is who we have been reaching, who haven't we've been reaching?

And I think that's what an art center can be, it can be a place where people come for healing, a place where people come to make connections, to build relationships, a place to, to introspect.

You know, whether that's sitting outside in on the, you know, know the Outdoor Nature Theater that sits out there and, and reading a book or, you know, coming to book club inside or, or coming and, and, and just sitting in an audience full of people breathing together while you're, while you're watching a performance, there's, there's something that happens, you know, that's, that's special in an art center.

♪ ♪ EVAN: We feel now more than ever, there's a, a strong need for artists and creatives to have a places to be able to create in outside of their homes.

Time and time again, artists are telling us that they're fighting over the, you know, the, the dinner table space where they make their artwork on, and that impetus has really created the growth and demand for Zero Empty Spaces.

Evan Snow, co-founder managing partner of Zero Empty Spaces.

Andrew Martineau, co-founder of Zero Empty Spaces.

EVAN: The initiative came through some of our other arts advocacy initiatives where we had formed so many relationships with artists over the years that they were continually asking us, where are the studios at, let alone affordable.

We found this was a, a great vacancy management solution to activate vacant space to make affordable studios.

ANDREW: Once we decided that we wanted to look and pursue, trying to get, you know, chronically vacant spaces, initially we did a little bit of research on where are the other affordable artist studios in, in South Florida, and all of them were non-profits, so very limited number of people could actually be part of it to be able to pay that low rent.

So we kind of took that number and tried to create a, a program and a model that could still afford the artists to be able to pay $2 a square foot with us paying all the utilities.

We do a month-to-month deal with both the artist and the landlord, so it's fully transparent because we take big spaces and we break them up into much smaller spaces, the artist doesn't have to take over a 3,000-square-foot space.

They can take 100 square feet, 200 square feet, 300 square feet, so the amount of money that they pay is a lot smaller.

BARBARA: I am ecstatically happy to be here because I was occupying three bedroom, two, two bedrooms and a den and a garage at home.

I'm Barbara Ziev, and I do many, many different mediums, but this is, has many meanings behind it.

It started out that, um, a white square actually is another sign for peace.

As I got into it, the baby comes out, I found this baby.

It's like these things were just popping in front of me, and I thought, you know, that's really about classification.

So it is about peace, but I ended up naming it "Classification" because I think we're all born into a classification, because of people look at us and judge us.

I really, to be honest with you, I have a hard time calling myself an artist.

I call myself a creative, but lately, I'm starting to say, okay, I guess it's okay to call myself an artist.

ANDREW: Another inspiration for the concept was obviously the early days of Wynwood and artists going into Wynwood and going into these, you know, vacant warehouses at the time, which weren't incredibly expensive to rent.

So the idea is that artists really kind of create that activity in, in areas and places that maybe don't, didn't have that much activity, and they create a lot of positivity in these areas as well.

And that certainly attracts investment and sort attracts other people wanting to come into this area to really kind of be part of that creative energy.

Having a space that is activated, it really kind of helps the walkability from space to space so you don't have to like pass by a dark storefront before you get into the next location, so it really kind of creates additional activity for the tenants in the area.

EVAN: So one of the greatest things about the program that we found as arts advocates, some of the artists have only ever created in the privacy of their home and never sold and never, you know, published on social media or any of those things for many, many years.

And now that they're in a space where they're getting to see other creatives, it's been really beneficial for artist's careers in, in many various levels.

BARBARA: I'm very comfortable with if there's something I don't know how to do, I'm sure I can find somebody here that can say, here, this is how you do it.

And, uh, I'm excited about that.

♪ ♪ EVAN: The spaces are open daily between the hours of 12 and 5:00 PM to the public.

ANDREW: It's a really free and open kind of opportunity for people to come through and just really take a tour and, and see the kind of work that's kind of coming outta the space.

EVAN: It's been a very organic, uh, you know, authentic grassroots-driven process that thankfully the community is really responding well to.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: In the 1961 book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" author and activist Jane Jacobs wrote, "Think of a city and what comes to mind, its streets, if a city streets look interesting, the city looks interesting, if they look dull, the city looks dull."

That quote became inspiration for Curated Storefront, an organization in Akron founded in 2016 as an effort to revitalize the downtown area through art.

RICK: My vision was to activate, uh, empty or disuse spaces in downtown Akron, and we are, uh, all about bringing more interest to the city of Akron and elevating it through the arts.

When we started, we had one space at the corner of Market Street and High Street, and that's now been developed into a brewery.

So we felt successful in our first time out.

And then we've slowly moved to down Main Street South and we've programmed over 26 buildings since we started.

NARRATOR: The ultimate goal of Curated Storefront is to bring commercial development to downtown Akron.

So far, it's been working.

11 buildings activated by the organization have been redeveloped.

The other objective, preserving history.

RICK: And unfortunately, our cities have erased a lot of our history, and Akron's, uh, they haven't done as good a job as they think they could have, preserving some of their historical architecture, which, if you walk up and down Main Street, there's lots of empty lots where some grand buildings used to stand.

I was born in 1954 in Akron, and, uh, growing up I remember going downtown as a child to, uh, O'Neal's and Polsky's, just about everything that happened for retail and socially happened downtown.

The Christmas windows were always a big draw, and there was always something lively going on in those windows, so they thought it would be nice to do something in the arts, but also something that would help bring downtown back to, uh, differently, but its former glory.

NARRATOR: As this year's Front Triennial expands its footprint in the Akron area, a partnership with Curated Storefront seemed natural and another great way to bring more art into empty buildings.

ANNIE: In the first edition, the only local Akron uh, location was the Akron Art Museum, um, and so it was really important to Front that this time there be a more robust footprint here in Akron.

And so the partnership with, uh, Curated Storefront was born because Curated Storefront has this sort of amazing capacity to be spread out across the city and be in all the unusual places.

Quaker Square was the obvious choice for that, one floor of Quaker Square is devoted to the Front presentation, and the second floor is a series of other Curated Storefront exhibitions.

NARRATOR: In 1932, Quaker Square was built as the headquarters of the Quaker Oats Company.

Its iconic silos were redeveloped in the late '70s as a hotel with offices, shops, restaurants, and extensive model train displays.

Today it's used for storage and dormitories by the University of Akron, and on the ground floor is where you'll find Curated Storefront.

ANNIE: This building is such an icon on the skyline of Akron, and it's such a nostalgic place for so many members of the community.

So it's really exciting to reactivate it and turn it into a dynamic arts venue and invite everyone back in.

RICK: It's kind of an advantage 'cause we have a blank slate here, there's so much empty space that we have a lot of freedom to do things that you couldn't do in a, in a city where everything's already commercially populated.

ANNIE: Northeast Ohio is surprisingly vibrant and has a lot of interesting cultural institutions and a lot of energy.

There's so much possibility here, um, and a lot of energy to make it all happen.

NARRATOR: Curated Storefront features several artists in this year's Front Triennial.

Cleveland-based Charmaine Spencer uses natural materials to create large-scale sculptures.

And Chakaia Booker from New York uses a rubber city staple, used tires, to create abstract pieces, which will be on display during the Triennial.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ CHRISTY: My name's Christy Bolingbroke.

I'm the executive artistic director for the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron.

NCC Akron, for short, is the second National Center for Choreography here in the country, we are solely dedicated to research and development and don't produce shows.

So instead, we're here to foster the creative process and enhance the national dance ecosystem.

There are seven studios, uh, the arrangement with the University is one is dedicated for our use 365 days a year.

That is so rare.

You know, the race for space, regardless where artists live is real and anytime, they come through the Rust Belt here, uh, whether it's in Cleveland or in Akron, we've hosted different groups and they can't get over the beautiful and amazing facilities that we have around here.

And so the fact that we can adapt and provide that is tremendous.

WILFRIED: Hi, my name is Wilfried Souly and I'm originally from, uh, Burkina Faso in West Africa.

And I'm, uh, currently an assistant professor in dance practice here at, uh, the University of Akron.

Choreography Center was one of the biggest attraction for me because in my work I like to constantly be creating something new.

The Choreography Center is one of the biggest asset of the department because, uh, it allows us to bring many choreographers who have like, uh, a different vision than, uh, what we are doing here in, uh, the department.

And that allows the students to learn over perspectives or, uh, themselves in dancing.

CHRISTY: You know, a lot of dance programs in the country were built in the mid-20th century, mostly by White women, mostly taking over women's gymnasiums.

And now in the 21st century, institutions are trying to open up.

ERRIN: And beat, that's what we're shooting for today, yes?

CHRISTY: And so that's where 21st Century Dance Practices came up for us as a capsule series, so we'll bring in six different teaching artists making work today, some of them building off of the knowledge in the 20th century, some of them making up their new practices today and working with the UA faculty.

ERRIN: Don't wait the first time.

WILFRIED: I think that dance should be evolving with time because people are ever evolving and our world is evolving, therefore, we need to always get inspiration from what's happening now in order to create new things for tomorrow.

CHRISTY: Willie Souly had said, you know what, I really wanna highlight what we don't have in our core curriculum.

And a lot of that led from West African dance, and that's some of his training coming out of Burkina Faso.

And Errin Weaver was one of those artists and happened to also be in our backyard, which is very exciting for us to share with the students.

ERRIN: My name is Errin Weaver; I am the executive artistic director of Mojuba!

Dance Collective.

Mojuba!

Dance Collective exists to restore community wellness, to validate the Black narrative, and to bring community through sacred and cultural dance forms.

So I've been teaching, umfundalai technique, which is an African contemporary technique that was developed and cultivated by the late Dr. Kariamu Welsh out of Temple University.

She has written the books on African dance.

All right, let's try it, okay?

So we're walking through really articulating the ankles here.

I'm so grateful to have shared in one of the modern classes for three mornings this week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

And it's really been a joy.

WILIFRIED: It's one of these forms when you look at it where you cannot really fake it or, uh, try to do like no, you have to really give yourself, and, uh, once you give yourself, it's pushing you more, it's pushing you into doing more and trying to surpass yourself all the time.

And, uh, they find it, uh, uh, in the repetitions of, uh, of the movements.

Actually, I like it because, uh, it's kind of broadening our perspective, perspectives of dancing, because I feel that, uh, to me, particularly dance shouldn't be just here, it needs to be evolving.

And, uh, yeah, because our world is evolving, need to always try new things, experiment.

ERRIN: Oh my goodness, it is amazing, I threw a lot at these students at one time, I mean, from day one, you start to tap into the emotion because it's coming from a deeper place inside rather than just trying to create shapes.

Um, and so that's what I try to inspire when I'm teaching classes to push you, challenge you to know that there is more.

We wanna dance and we'll dance, so work it, okay?

So in order to do that, we have to use our plie.

WILIFRIED: I happen to be also a musician because, uh, from my basic training, basically I learn a dance style where music and dance are always going together.

It's a great experience, uh, to see a dancer that can really move into the music.

ERRIN: It was amazing to have and to work with Willie, and what people, uh, don't often realize is that everything we're doing is on the spot.

It's a marriage, uh, where we're talking about dance syndrome in the African diaspora.

So we haven't rehearsed anything, he has no idea what I'm going to do.

WILIFRIED: I believe that, uh, the dancers were great and, uh, they really connected to the form, connected to the music, and that made, uh, I believe that's, uh, what made that experience, uh, easy and brought that joy into them.

Because when you are moving with everybody in the community and then in communion with, uh, uh, with the music, it just, uh, provides a lot of joy.

ERRIN: There's nothing like it, there's nothing like it.

Um, the excitement that you see in the classroom, excitement that you see in the students, it's coming from a natural place within me, an authentic place within me.

I am so thrilled that they had here the foresight to put something like this together.

So what they're doing is allowing a little crack, a little door to open so that there's new perspectives in the room, there's new voices on the stage, new voices in the room, and then that can only feed the artists that are here, only feed the students that are here.

So I think there's a great vision and I'm excited to be a part of it.

WILIFRIED: And I'm sure that, uh, in the future we'll have like a lot of dancers from this department bringing change into the world of dancing.

(inaudible chanting).

ERRIN: Other side, face it.

WENDELL: "Artworks" is made possible in part by the Citizens of Baltimore County and by the Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, the Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts, the E.T.

and Robert B. Rocklin Fund, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Arts Endowment in memory of Ruth Marder.