Please join the Workforce Funders Affinity Group to hear outcomes from this year’s legislative session. Our speakers will share information about passed legislation and efforts that did not quite make it this year. They will also provide information outcomes of specific bills in the 2021 Maryland Legislative Session in the issue areas of workforce development and quality jobs, the public safety net, financial education, asset building, and consumer protections.

To kick off 2022, the Arts Funders Affinity Group is pleased to welcome Eddie Torres, president & CEO of Grantmakers in the Arts. In late 2020 and again in mid-2021, Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) surveyed their members about recent and upcoming changes in arts grantmaking practices in response to the pandemic and the movement for Black lives. Eddie will share his national perspective of arts grantmaking and discuss the findings from GIA’s latest survey. We’ll then bring it home with a brief update from Nicholas Cohen from Maryland Citizens for the Arts and have a whole group sharing session about our grantmaking practice and if it reflects the national trends in increased giving, flexibility, support for individual artists, and support for BIPOC organizations. Will also identify opportunities for collaboration and continued learning.