Randall Vega is looking to bring a new feel to Baltimore's arts scene, and she's hoping to make it happen by taking a page from her New England past.

Vega, the city's cultural affairs director, borrowed a small-town New England tradition and held a town meeting last Tuesday of 300 Baltimore artists, musicians and other performers. It was a fresh approach that highlights what many say is Vega's commitment to bringing the city's arts community into the public eye.

"Coming from New England, knowing the wonderful democratic feel of town meetings; you know, it's worked well for a couple hundred years," Vega, 54, said recently.

Vega, who lived for 17 years on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., said the idea of bringing people together in a town meeting underscores her wish to unite artists - alternative and mainstream alike - in their creative work.

Vega, who was hired last spring, said that when she first surveyed Baltimore's arts horizon, "one thing that struck me strongly is that groups on this side of town don't know groups on that side of town."

"There's not a lot of cohesion," she said. "You really need to know each other."

Her first cultural town meeting offered artists a chance to ask questions and share their views with Mayor Martin O'Malley in a forum held at the University of Baltimore.

Arts leaders said the event was a novel success.

Michael Ross, managing director of Center Stage, said that as a newcomer to the city, "I loved the event because I learned so much about what's going on in Baltimore. It really felt like a grass-roots town hall."

Vega, who is known as Randi, grew up in Philadelphia and attended the public Philadelphia High School for Girls before going to Connecticut College, where she majored in studio art. She lived in small towns in Ohio and Connecticut before moving to Martha's Vineyard, where she worked in theater, news and business, and raised three children.

Three years ago, she moved to Baltimore to marry Jim Perry, a man she met in 1968 at the March on Washington.

"I welcomed the opportunity to live in a city," she said. "I love the excitement and variety of being in Baltimore."

Still, she says, Baltimore has many charms reminiscent of small-town life.

"I love that each community has an identity and a name," said Vega, who lives in the city's Hunting Ridge neighborhood.

"There are small organizations doing great things, but we need to come together," she said. "Let's connect the dance to the theater to the museum people. Just having them in the room was an incredible advancement."

Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said she left the town meeting feeling optimistic about the arts' place on the mayor's agenda. She said Vega - who previously worked as an administrative assistant at the BMA - has the skills needed to bring different factions of the art world together.

"She can bring large and diverse groups together in a productive discourse," Bolger said. "It was thrilling to see people from every different walk of arts life. She sees things in the round."

Gregory Tucker, vice president of public relations for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, said, "You get so focused on what you're doing; it's invigorating to see the breadth of participation.

"The compelling message was that art matters."

Tucker said he also found it encouraging that O'Malley called on the cultural community to help him promote the city.

Ultimately, Vega says, she would like to set "a place at the table" for Baltimore's arts scene to participate more in policy-making.

Bill Gilmore, who heads the city's Office of Promotion & the Arts, said O'Malley has already sent him electronic messages with ideas that arose from last week's town hall.

"She's a convener," Gilmore said of Vega.