Public voting opens today for Baker Artist Awards

I was just informed of this event and thought you might be interested as well. A virtual press conference to introduce the Awards will be held today, Monday, November 24, 2008 beginning at noon. The press conference will be streamed live on www.BakerArtistAwards.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BALTIMORE, MD -- November 24, 2008 --- Voting for the Baltimore Choice Prize, part of the Baker Artist Awards, is now open to the public, announced Nancy Haragan, Executive Director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. Voting is being held on the Award's website, www.BakerArtistAwards.org and will remain open through February 1, 2009.

Baker Artist Awards

The Baker Artist Awards honor individual artists who live and work in Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties.  Two types of winners will be selected: winners of public voting will receive cash prizes totaling $5,000.  In addition, artists will be selected through a privately juried process for up to three  Mary Sawyers Baker prizes. The Mary Sawyers Baker Prize will be at least $20,000 each. 

The winners of both the Baltimore’s Choice and the Mary Sawyers Baker prizes will be in announced in March 2009.

The Bakers Artist Awards were established this year by the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund. The Funds’ trustees developed the Awards program to provide unconditional financial support for emerging and well established artists in all disciplines as a way to signify to the regional, national and international community that Baltimore values its artists and rewards their work.  The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund commits its resources to enhance the region's economy and quality of life by making investments in arts and culture. 

 The Awards program is administrated by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

The Baker Artist Awards present a unique opportunity for artists in the Baltimore region to showcase their work.  More than 400 artists working in a variety of media have already nominated themselves for the Awards by uploading their portfolios on www.BakerArtistAwards.org. Artists may continue to nominate themselves for the award until February 1, 2009. 

Among the media represented by nominated artists are painting and drawing, sculpture, video and film production and direction, animation, musical composition and performance, photography, spoken and written word, design, and handcraft.

Nominated artists work is showcased on the Baker Artist Awards website through samples of their work, descriptions of their projects and biographies.

“The number of artists who have nominated themselves is an illustration of Baltimore’s thriving arts community.  The overwhelming interest among artists demonstrates the importance of art to our city and our region,” said GBCA executive director Nancy Haragan.  “GBCA, along with the Baker Trustees, want creative individuals from all over the world to consider living in Baltimore because of opportunities like Baker and an increasingly supportive environment for individual artists.”

The Baker Artist Awards website was created by Fastspot Interactive Design Agency.  The site combines social networking features with a gallery format to creatively mimic the artist-community relationship found in a museum or performance space. 

The Awards website also features a Curated Exhibition section, where noted artistic leaders will select works for special online “gallery presentations.”  Curators include Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop, and Ellen Lupton, Director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at Maryland Institute College of Art.  This section of the Baker Artist Awards website will be introduced on December 1, 2008.

 Public Voting

The Baker Artist Awards website is a unique opportunity for art lovers to explore new artists and art forms, and to offer an opinion about those artists they admire.  After registering to vote at www.BakerArtistAwards.org, visitors to the site may cast votes for multiple artists, as well as track their votes for their favorite artists.  They may also choose to receive email alerts when new art in an artists’ online portfolio is added.  Visitors may change their votes as often as they wish, and can be awarded additional votes after for more deeply exploring and commenting on the works of multiple artists. 

About the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund

Mary Sawyers Baker established the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund in 1964 to honor her husband, a founding partner in Baker Watts, a Baltimore investment banking firm.  In 2007, the Fund narrowed its philanthropic mission to focus on arts and culture.  In 2008, the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund established the BakerArtistAwards.org to honor the contributions of individual artists in the Baltimore region.

The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance creates a cohesive cultural community that strengthens the livability and economic vitality of the Greater Baltimore region. The non-profit organization serves arts organizations, coalitions and individual artists by being a unifying voice and bridge-builder, acting as a convener, and providing information and services.

Fastspot, a national award-winning interactive agency founded in Baltimore, MD in 2001, has a reputation of blurring the lines between creativity and technology - creating imaginative and intelligent marketing solutions for local and national clients. fastspot prides themselves on delivering high-end design and superior technology; ranging in scope from branding design to web-based, dynamic content management solutions.