“Reflect on Our Heritage”

In the spring of 2012 the Chesapeake Arts Center will unveil a five-part mural along its eastern exterior wall (facing Ritchie Highway). The five panels of the mural will reflect on the industries that have fueled the economy and brought people to North Anne Arundel County –agriculture, maritime, aviation, technology and now, the arts.

The murals will be painted by Anne Arundel artist Joey Tomassoni, working in collaboration with the sixth grade students at Brooklyn Park Middle School, seniors from the Brooklyn Park Senior Center, members of Historical Societies and local community Improvement Associations.

The Chesapeake Arts Center, having been invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to apply for an Arts Education in American Communities grant, received the grant in May, 2011 and is the lead organizer for the project.

Chesapeake Arts Center is beginning its eleventh year as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit community arts center serving the cultural needs of northern Anne Arundel County. Providing two theatre spaces, two dance studios, an art gallery, a ceramics lab and music and art classrooms CAC presents several concert series, an art exhibits, an arts education program for all ages and rents its professional facilities to other arts groups needing space to rehearse and or perform.

The purposes of “Reflect on Our Heritage” are myriad:

n to beautify the side of CAC’s Hammonds Lane Theatre

n to bring together a professional artist to work with students and area citizens in a public arts project

n to teach sixth-grade students about mural painting and its long history in America and to teach those students about the specific history of northern Anne Arundel County.

n to highlight the heritage of the area in a memorable way

n to involve area industry with Chesapeake Arts in a novel way

Muralist Joey Tomassoni lives in Annapolis and has had commissions in Washington, DC, Prince George’s County, Baltimore County and overseas in Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica and Columbia, His passion is for community collaborative murals, working with ideas and designs that reflect a community and working with many people involved in the creation and actual painting of the murals.

“Reflect on Our Heritage” Mural Sponsors

Sponsors are sought to match the NEA grant. To provide credit to sponsors, a small rendering of the exterior mural, explaining the history of the region will be installed inside the lobby of Hammonds Lane Theatre. Sponsors of the mural will have their logos included and credit provided for their generosity in this indoor site visited last year by almost 50,000 people. Two lead gifts of $2,500 and five gifts of $1,000 (one for each industry) are sought.

All sponsors will receive permanent recognition on the indoor rendering and be listed as CAC sponsors on CAC’s website, ArtSpeek newsletter, Education Catalog, and all pertinent CAC printed materials.

$2,500 sponsors will also receive two tickets to the CAC Gals (March 26, 2012) where the murals will be recognized. $1,000 sponsors will receive one ticket to the Gala.

To become a sponsor of “Reflect on Our Heritage,” or for more information on the project, please call Davina Grace Hill at 410-636-6597. While we seek the larger sponsor levels indicated above, all levels of sponsors are encouraged and welcome. (For example, four different maritime companies or individuals wanting to provide $250 in support could share the credit for the maritime mural panel.) No contribution is too small. Consider what you can do to encourage us all to “Reflect on Our Heritage.”

CAC Fact Sheet:

Incorporated: 1997

Started Operations: 2001

Governed by a 17 member Board of Directors

Managed by a staff of 3 full-time and 6 part-time employees.

FY’12 Operating Budget: $403,000

In FY’11 CAC had 374 events in its facilities (157 performances and 124 rehearsals and 93 meetings/workshops/gallery openings). Fifty community groups used CAC for their functions, twelve arts groups were presented by CAC’s music series and four visual artists were exhibited in the first year of art exhibits. 60,544 people attended FY’11 events at CAC.