Please join us for a briefing to hear about the findings from the listening sessions held by Maryland State Arts Council, the proposed emergency fund for artists as well as other insights into arts organization/artist needs.

Open Society Institute (OSI) Baltimore was recently awarded a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pilot strategies to close the vaccination gaps among communities of color, which have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Join this conversation with Scott Nolen, director of the Addiction and Health Equity program at OSI-Baltimore to discuss the Equity-First Vaccination Initiative, what we currently know about vaccine decision-making, and to talk about opportunities to leverage or pool our resources to ensure that every Baltimore resident has meaningful access to empirically accurate information and vaccination plan that suits their needs.  Jennifer White of the Horizon Foundation will present on findings from a national study on COVID vaccine decision making in communities of color including local findings from Howard County.

In The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America, Lawrence T. Brown reveals that ongoing historical trauma caused by a combination of policies, practices, systems, and budgets is at the root of uprisings and crises in hyper-segregated cities around the country. Putting Baltimore under a microscope, Brown looks closely at the causes of segregation, many of which exist in current legislation and regulatory policy despite the common belief that overtly racist policies are a thing of the past. Join your colleagues for a peer discussion about the role of our sector in this call to action to promote racial equity, end redlining, and reverse the damaging health- and wealth-related effects of segregation.