The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance named a new executive director on Monday - J. Buck Jabaily, one of the founding members of the Single Carrot Theatre. Jabaily is only the second exec the GBCA has had since its creation in 2001 as a service organization linking more than 80 local groups and individual artists. He succeeds founding director Nancy Haragan, who is stepping down for personal reasons.
"It's a very cool opportunity, of course," says the 25-year-old Jabaily, who starts on the job Jan. 19. "But it's also an awesome responsibility."
The GBCA promotes and supports the arts in a variety of ways, including such information resources as BaltimoreFunGuide.com. It has sponsored or co-sponsored many cultural activities, from the citywide "Vivat!" festival in 2002 celebrating Russian culture to the Baker Artist Awards, launched a couple years ago as an online competition with viewer participation.
"Baltimore has an incredible arts community and great arts institutions," Jabaily says. "There's a sense of community, where big and small organizations work together and can all benefit."
Baltimore Museum of Art director Doreen Bolger says that Jabaily has "all the natural leadership skills" for the job, including being "a good listener. I know Buck well, being a big fan of Single Carrot Theatre," Bolger says. "I think he will take the organization and move it to a new level and a 21st-century mind-set. He's of a generation we want to cultivate."
Jabaily's relative youth might raise some eyebrows.
"I've always worked to make age not an issue," he says, "and I've always approached things with professionalism and passion. I have a lot of passion for Baltimore and the arts."
When Jabaily and friends from the University of Colorado in Boulder were looking around for a city to build their Single Carrot Theatre, one of the persons he called was the GBCA's Haragan. "She gave me 50 names of people we should talk to if we were interested in coming to Baltimore," Jabaily says. "Nancy will be a mentor to me during the transition, which is fantastic."
Jabaily will be "stepping back" from his role as artistic director at Single Carrot (other members of the company will take on the duties). And he resigned last week from a job as development associate at Center Stage to focus on his new post at the Cultural Alliance.
"Baltimore's cultural community is at an incredible point in time," he says. "There has been tremendous growth. There have been exceptions, like the collapse of the Baltimore Opera, but most cultural organizations have been doing fairly well. There's also an underground arts community, and maybe we can encourage those who are working underground to come above ground, let them know there's an infrastructure in place, so they don't feel they have to move to other cities."
The new director specifies audience-building as a top priority, noting a recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts that revealed a steady decline in attendance for cultural (and sports) events during the past decade.
"Connecting audiences to arts institutions is vital," Jabaily says. "I know that with the Internet and HDTV, leaving home can be difficult because you have all these entertainment options. But people do value the live experience. It may take extra effort to remind people how rewarding that is."
Baker Artist Awards
Friday's the last day to submit a self-nomination for the 2010 Baker Artists Awards; up to three winners will receive a $25,000 prize, chosen by a jury. The public has until Feb. 15 to vote for their favorites; the top vote-getters will receive $1,000 Baltimore's Choice awards.
The multigenre competition, administered by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, has added a cool feature to help folks keep up on the action - an iPhone App. iPhone users can browse submissions by artists (including video) and find more information about them. Everyone else can go to bakerartistawards.com.
Foundation's confetti grants
Fifteen small arts organizations that have been adding an interesting flavor to the scene have received unsolicited grants from the Baltimore Community Foundation. The $2,000 "confetti grants" were awarded to what the foundation describes as "young and emerging arts professionals whose entrepreneurial and transformative work is an important asset to Baltimore."
Music ensembles on the list include American Opera Theater, American Studio Orchestra and Mobtown Modern. Theatrical groups include Annex Theatre and Single Carrot Theatre. Visual arts: Gallery Four, Nudashank. Multigenre: Area 405, Design Conversations, Floristree, LOF/t at the Load of Fun, Metro Gallery, The Hexagon, Ignite Baltimore, 2010 Second Saturdays Series.
Washington National Opera
The slimmed-down Washington National Opera season for 2010-2011 - five productions instead of the current six - will feature company general director Placido Domingo singing in Gluck's "Iphig?nie en Tauride" opposite soprano Patricia Racette and conducting performances of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" that will star Baltimore-born bass-baritone James Morris.
Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" will open the season, featuring soprano Ir?ne Theorin and tenor Salvatore Licitra. Also on the lineup: Strauss' "Salome," with Deborah Voigt in the title role and WNO music director Heinz Fricke conducting. Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" rounds out the season with soprano Ana Mar?a Mart?nez.
A new concert series presented by the company will offer performances by tenor Juan Diego Fl?rez and bass-baritone Bryn Terfel (Domingo will conduct the latter).
For more information, call 202-295-2400 or go to dc-opera.org.