�A Lot of Heart in This Space�

UMBC celebrated the grand opening of the university’s Performing Arts and Humanities Building on September 19, 2012, with “New Space”—a thought-provoking discussion among 14 of Baltimore’s most innovative cultural luminaries.

Co-presented by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA), the event showcased the new building as a catalyst in forging vital partnerships between the university and Greater Baltimore community. Tom Hall, WYPR radio host and Baltimore Choral Arts Society director, moderated the discussion of how new spaces inspire us to think, create and engage in unexpected ways.

Professors Wendy Salkind, theatre, and Jessica Berman, English, shared their appreciation for how the new building emphasizes—in a profound, public way—the priority UMBC and Maryland place on liberal arts education.

Doreen Bolger, executive director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, and George Ciscle, founder of The Contemporary Museum, reflected on physical, digital and transitory spaces, and how each can create new opportunities for conversations about art and society. Bolger found our mantra—“Think. Create. Engage.”—to be particularly salient, provoking important questions about the public relevance of museums.
           
Fred Lazarus, president of the Maryland Institute College of Art, has responded to that same concern through founding and growing Baltimore’s annual Artscape festival and promoting the arts-based revitalization of Station North, a neighborhood where speaker Timothy Nohe, UMBC associate professor of visual arts, has also been highly engaged. Lazarus commented, “Space is the envelope that allows exciting creativity to happen,” whether organically, as in the case of Station North, or intentionally, as with the new Performing Arts and Humanities Building.

David Mitchell, assistant artistic director of Arena Players, and Vincent Lancisi, founder of Everyman Theatre, focused on the importance of diversity in the arts. Collaboration among artists with different perspectives, they argued, can be transformational.

“I really feel that the arts enable us to see the human experience better,” said Sharayna Christmas Rose, executive director of MUSE 360. She spoke of bringing young Baltimore actors to African diaspora communities across the U.S. and Caribbean to perform in public spaces and engage with new audiences. Bashi Rose, co-founder of Nommo Theatre, also helps artists reach beyond spatial limitations. Rose works within prisons where, he says, performers must find something inside themselves that can transform their environment into a “space of freedom.”
           
Kalima Young, coordinator of The Baltimore Art + Justice Project, and Nicole King, assistant professor of American Studies at UMBC, share a passion for mapping as a tool to interpret space. Young uses demographic maps to connect local artists to issues they can address and social advocates to artists interested in their causes, in order to promote “stronger, more relevant work that impacts structural issues in this community.” King’s mapmaking centers on storytelling: recording and sharing the cultural history of Baltimore’s Baybrook community.

Inhabiting a space, King reminded the audience, fills it with meaning and turns it into a place. And places have power. “The places we inhabit shape the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves,” said Kevin Griffin Moreno ’96, history, founder and host of Potluck Storytelling.

Final speaker Marvin Pinkert, executive director of The Jewish Museum of Maryland, explored how new stories reshape our thinking about old places, and old stories enable us to think about new spaces. Beyond peeling paint on the walls, what distinguishes an old space from a new one for him is experience—what the building has witnessed and who has inhabited it over time. As far as UMBC’s newest theatre goes, Pinkert shared, “There’s going to be a lot of heart in this space.”

Visit SoundCloud to hear all of the audio clips from “New Space” and the theatre’s inaugural musical performance by Governor Martin O’Malley. 

(9/20/12)

Isaiah 53 (NIV)

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,
he will see the light of lifeand be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Reflection

True healing has come from God. But the healing process that God offers is not what we would often expect or even want. True healing is being humbled and having willful pride crushed, and this true healing can now be the mark and fruit of our lives because Jesus faithfully took that path for us and was crushed for our willful pride. This incredible grace – to be humbled and crushed – is the path to true healing, true revival and true peace.

Response

Do we need real healing of our lives today? Trust in the Lord Jesus who bore our sins for us. Come to Him and ask Him to humble us that we may receive His healing, and be freed to experience and live in the true revival of His Spirit.

A new report from The Education Trust finds that UMBC is among the top colleges in the country for promoting Hispanic student success.

The brief, “Advancing to Completion: Increasing degree attainment by improving graduation rates and closing gaps for Hispanic students,” examined the achievement gap between Hispanic and white students at public and private colleges nationwide, and whether those institutions were successfully working to narrow that gap.

The study found that UMBC ranked 12th among public colleges for improvements in Hispanic students’ graduation rates between 2004 and 2010. Hispanic students at UMBC saw a 21.8-percentage-point increase in their six-year graduation rates, compared to a 3.5 point increase nationally. And UMBC ranked 13th nationally for its progress in narrowing the achievement gap between white and Hispanic students, with the two groups graduating at essentially the same rate.

The full report is available online from The Education Trust.

Rick Bissell, emergency health services, was as an invited panel discussant at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC. The panel discussed public access to timely and valid science-based information in disasters and other emergencies. This topic has risen in importance in recent years following information inaccuracies or withholding in the following incidents: airborne particulates and contaminants secondary to the collapse of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, several “mad cow” incidents in the last decade in which information has been obfuscated, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and various “superbug” infections at the NIH hospital, in which information was not shared with the public, emergency management, or other clinical centers.

These incidents were discussed as examples of the problem, and are not exhaustive. Bissell was one of three panelists, among 16, with an emergency public health and emergency management background. Other panelists represented journalism, food safety, environmental science, public policy, library science, political science, consumer safety, government communications, physics and nuclear proliferation, civil liberties and government accountability.

The Union of Concerned Scientists expects to have a preliminary policy paper available within the next month.

Sometimes, recent grad Roderick Howard II ’10, acting and media communications studies, just isn’t himself.

But, that’s the life of an actor — especially one, like Howard, who portrays multiple roles with the Maryland Historical Society Players. One day he’s Christian Fleetwood, a free black man who fought in the Civil War and received a Medal of Honor for bravery. The next he’s Charles Ball, a sailor in the War of 1812.

Howard loves bringing history to life. He and other MHS Players were profiled in a recent story in the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. Read it here.

For Howard, who has been with MHS since 2011 and who recently took on additional duties as a teacher for school programs, especially at the elementary and middle school level, it is exciting to teach as an actor.

“I enjoy the people I work with; the opportunity to expand my knowledge in American history, especially Maryland history; and the honor to portray a historical figure (Fleetwood) who, hopefully, will become even more of a well-known figure amongst those who consider Maryland to be their home, especially African-Americans,” said Howard.

“I also enjoy the opportunity to interact with visitors of the Maryland Historical Society and audiences of our outreach performances. It’s always a pleasure to hear how much they enjoy our performances and/or tours; how interested and knowledgeable they are with history; and stories about how historical events have directly impacted their lives or their loved ones.”

And the job has proved just as educational for Howard, he says.

“My work there has certainly opened my eyes. As an African-American, I have grown an even greater appreciation for those before me, who proudly and willing fought for the liberties and freedoms of America, despite being denied those same liberties and freedoms in their own country.”

Read more about the Maryland Historical Society Players and their schedule of appearances here.