Stephanie Rawlings-Blake keeps an item posted on her refrigerator door that has nothing to do with her day and night job as mayor of Baltimore. It's a 1983 report card from her flute teacher, Bonnie Lake, a now-retired Baltimore Symphony Orchestra member who gave the then-13-year-old student a B-plus.
"It reminds me I have a fallback position," Rawlings-Blake said with a laugh. "What it really reminds me is that there are other things in life."
Like the arts. In her short time in office, the mayor has demonstrated a pronounced commitment to the city's cultural community.
In addition to the usual appearances at gala concerts and other more-social-than-arts events, Rawlings-Blake recently convened a conference with officials from arts organizations and the hospitality industry to spur dialogue and address concerns.
She has made a point of promoting the BSO's OrchKids educational initiative in a West Baltimore public school and grants to help artists move into vacant downtown storefronts. She embraces the concept of arts districts in the city and has pushed for more effective ways to develop them.
"Baltimore can and will be known as an arts city," Rawlings-Blake said during an interview in a City Hall conference room decorated with Baltimore Museum of Art posters.
The mayor has a long connection to the cultural element of her hometown.
"My parents were very interested in making sure that my brother, my sister and I were exposed to the arts," said the daughter of pediatrician Nina Rawlings and the late state Del. Howard Pete Rawlings. "We all took piano lessons. I also had ballet, even though I can barely touch my toes. We had theater class, even mime class. We were all encouraged to have artistic interests."
Although Rawlings-Blake, 40, eventually left the piano and flute behind, the experiences of sampling the city's cultural life stayed with her. During a ceremony in September renaming the Lyric Opera House the Patricia & Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric, the mayor recalled accompanying her parents to events in that historic venue when she was a child.
These days, her schedule is somewhat tighter.
"I don't get to go out very often," Rawlings-Blake said, "but I carry on the tradition with my daughter. We go to different musical performances and museums. I took her to the Walter Wick exhibit at the Walters, and she loved it. It is important to spark that creativity for her."
The mayor's daughter, Sophia, also has had a lesson in seeing Baltimore from a fresh perspective.
"I had her slumber party in one of the hotels," Rawlings-Blake said. "She and her friends were enthralled with the view. They loved being tourists in their own city. Usually, it's only visitors who stay in the hotels. Many of us get into our daily ruts, leaving only the tourists to explore the city. I want people, especially Baltimoreans, to see everything the city has to offer."
Before becoming mayor last February, after the resignation of Sheila Dixon, Rawlings-Blake made a significant impact on the local arts and entertainment business as president of the Baltimore City Council.
"One of the first things I did was try to find a way to expand culture and nightlife opportunities in the city," she said. "Antiquated zoning laws were standing in the way."
In 2009, Rawlings-Blake led an initiative to modernize those ordinances so that more restaurants and bars could offer live music.
"I was pleased that one of the first business owners who came forward in support of the changes was a restaurant owner who wanted to have live jazz," the mayor says. "I love jazz music. I recently heard the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans, which was an incredibly awesome experience."
Rawlings-Blake is impressed, too, with what she hears in Baltimore.
"We have a great underground music scene," she says. "More people should know how rich and diverse it is. I want to make sure people know the breakthrough things we have."
That includes under-the-radar art galleries that have sprung up in the city.
"The mayor has expressed an interest in taking an underground art tour with me," said Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. "Clearly, she's arts-interested and involved. That's not surprising. Her father was incredibly important in securing the arts stabilizing bill that ensured arts funding in the state."
Although some residents invariably question any public funding of culture, Rawlings-Blake is armed with statistics that demonstrate the value of the nonprofit arts to Baltimore. "They generate $270 million annually in the local economy and account for 6,400 full-time-equivalent jobs," she said.
Since the recession, local and state governments across the country have taken a hard look at every budget item, including spending on the arts.
"We had significant budget challenges, with a $121 million deficit," Rawlings-Blake said. "But we were still able to find $6 million in funding for the arts, and there was broad support for that. We can and will do more when we get on the other side of the recession."
That attitude impresses members of the arts community.
"I honestly believe Stephanie wants to fund the arts as much as possible," said Vincent Lancisi, artistic director of Everyman Theatre, which will relocate from its North Charles Street location to a renovated venue on the city's west side in 2012. "She has been incredibly supportive of our move and has tried to open doors to help us get over the finish line with fundraising."
Everyman's relocation will add to the entertainment quotient of the Eutaw Street corridor, where the Hippodrome already is helping to revive the area.
"I can't wait for it to open," Rawlings-Blake said. "It is an awesome space. I like the thought that it will be open for 'everyman' and will increase access to theater for many people."
A more energized Eutaw area would create another arts district for the city, joining such spots as Station North.
"I understand that some people are concerned or reticent about creating more arts districts," the mayor said. "But it's like deciding to have another child and asking, 'Is there enough love to go around?' I think we can support multiple arts districts, but we have to be smart about it."
Designating arts districts in neglected locales does not automatically mean rapid urban renewal. Rawlings-Blake wants to see faster changes to those neighborhoods. "We're working strategically to eliminate blight in our city," she said.
In the case of Station North, that means putting pressure on "speculative landlords to shape up or ship out," the mayor said. "And we have streamlined the process for acquiring city-owned property, cutting down on the time by two-thirds. I understand art for art's sake, but also art for development's sake."
Lancisi applauds Rawlings-Blake's commitment. "She understands the value of the arts, and not just from the aesthetic standpoint," he said, "but what the arts can do for the revitalization of a city. She gets that."
Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum, echoes support for the mayor's vision.
"Until in this city, like in any city, unemployment comes down, real estate picks up and sales tax revenue increases, the arts are going to be in jeopardy," he said. "The mayor is a realist. I applaud her for the clear-eyed view she has. She is eminently capable of working public policy to respond to reality."
Jeff Daniel, vice president and executive director of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, home of the Hippodrome Theatre, says he's also a fan of the mayor, but sees a need for the city to do more to attract shows and producers.
"We have to find a way for arts groups to leverage their risk and work very efficiently to encourage local producers," he said. "We also want to attract risk-takers to Baltimore. I think the mayor gets that."
Daniel lists Baltimore's amusement tax as a stumbling block to bringing in shows to the Hippodrome, a for-profit arts center that presents touring Broadway productions and other entertainment.
"It's 10 percent here, zero in D.C.," he said.
Daniel suggests that the city find ways to encourage theatrical producers to open new works here before hitting Broadway, as once was common, using the kinds of tax credits offered to filmmakers who bring work to Maryland.
"We need to get the best hotel rate, the best union rate," he said. "With a mayor as smart as Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and if we all work together, we have a better shot than we've had before."
For her part, the mayor said, she would look into fresh incentives to attract outside producers. She's also exploring increased cooperation between Baltimore City and Baltimore County, which could have a benefit to the arts from shared funding resources.
Rawlings-Blake is also open to the idea of citywide arts festivals, something Baltimore has not seen since Vivat! St. Petersburg in 2003, a music and visual art celebration initiated by the BSO that involved large and small organizations and multiple venues.
"I grew up with the City Fair," the mayor said. "I loved the City Fair. That was a time when the whole city came together. To an extent, Artscape has some of that feeling, but the neighborhood-by-neighborhood [involvement] hasn't been replicated."
Paul Meecham, CEO and president of the BSO and current chair of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, sees an arts festival as one way to help increase the city's profile.
"Sometimes I feel we're a little bit under the radar," Meecham said. "Although a relatively small city, Baltimore has the potential to be known as leader in its cultural offerings. … There's an opportunity for the city to position the arts as a reason to move here and to visit."
Developing a new generation interested in participating in the arts is another challenge, one that Rawlings-Blake embraces. She has helped spur funding for the BSO's OrchKids educational project, which puts instruments into the hands of pre-K and elementary school students in West Baltimore.
"We've been talking about expanding it to other schools," the mayor said. "I know what playing an instrument meant to me. It created in me an interest in music both as a performer and an audience member. You can't get that from an iPod."
tim.smith @baltsun.com
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