Today, April 29, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra hosted a “free concert in support of our community” at noon outside its home at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, a short drive from some of the city’s worst looting.

They posted photos and videos to social media throughuot the concert using #BSOpeace, and ended their performance with a quote from Leonard Bernstein: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

In this month’s Smithsonian.com magazine you will find their top picks for amazing small towns across the United States. These towns all have populations under 20,000, and were selected because of their number of cultural and historic attractions, food and drink destinations, and nature opportunities. The article states: “Think of this list not as a ranking but as a menu, with something for every taste—whether it’s country bluegrass, Florida’s white beaches, or Alaska’s blue mountains.”

In February, USA Today asked the public to vote for their favorite art and cultural districts based on a set of hand-picked districts and neighborhoods within the U.S. and the results are in.

The winners in the 'Best Art District' contest category for USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice are as follows:

The original artists of Berlin’s famed Kreuzberg murals have decided to remove their work by painting over the two pieces with black paint. Conceived several years ago by a small team of artists, the murals were painted by Italian street artist BLU and French artist JR. The first murals depicted two figures showing East and West Berlin gang signs attempting to unmask each other, and the other showed a man shackled by gold watches on his wrists.

Station North, one of three Baltimore Arts and Entertainment Districts, has been working to assist the community after last week's protests. Located in the heart of Baltimore and spanning the neighborhoods of Charles North, Greenmount West, and Barclay, Station North is a diverse collection of artist live-work spaces, galleries, rowhomes, and businesses.

Today, USA Today launched an exciting contest that highlights cultural districts. They are asking the public to vote for their favorite art and cultural districts based on a set of hand-picked districts and neighborhoods within the U.S. You have until Monday, March 2 at Noon, ET to vote for your favorite cultural district on the USA Today website below!

In 2014, South Carolina ratified legislation for the creation of cultural districts, and it was signed into law by Governor Nikki Haley. The legislation authorizes the S.C. Arts Commission to grant official state designation to cultural districts. The goals of this program are the following:

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) with the National Endowment for the Arts released a report today measuring the arts and culture sector’s contributions to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), for the second year in a row. This year’s report finds the arts and culture sector representing 4.32 percent of the GDP – a higher percentage than transportation and construction – at $698.7 billion! These numbers are the result of the BEA refining and improving their methodology to create this new baseline that will be updated annually.

Following the retirement of John Bryan this past fall, CultureWorks recently announced that Scott Garka will take the reins as the new President on January 20, 2015. Though Garka does not come from the arts field (he is currently the Senior Director for Consulting Services with Virginia Health Quality Center), he is very active in the arts community as a board member and treasurer for the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen.

October is the month to #ShowYourArt, meet up for Creative Conversations, and celebrate the role the arts and humanities have in shaping and improving our communities - it's National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM)! 

The greatest month of the year is upon us - National Arts & Humanities Month!

As people travelled over this summer and took selfies and photos with their friends, often times public art ends up part of the backdrop - or the main focus of instagram photos and the like, whether or not people realize it.

Our CEO, Bob Lynch, reminds people public art can be found anywhere and everywhere - and the value of public art to a community - in this month's Huffington Post article. 

On September 21^st, more than 400,000 people came out for the People’s Climate March in New York City.  And what could be found in that sea of thousands, carrying messages of fear and hope and action, was art. Ben Pomeroy from Hyperallergic was on the ground documenting the handmade creations—many collaboratively built—that were central to the march, acting as sounding boards and representing the diverse array of voices within the thousands.

Roberto Bedoya, cultural activist and Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, recently wrote on creative resilience in communities of color, highlighting the Chicano practice of Rasquachification as a method of this resilience.  

The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs launched the app "MI Amazing Art Tour" in July, with 209 artworks currently and plans to grow. 

Public Art Network Council member Constance White will be the next Vice President of Public Art at the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Originally from Texas, White earned her BFA in art history from Southern Methodist University and worked for nine years for the Percent for Public Art Program at the Office of Cultural Affairs with the city of Dallas. Most recently she has spent the last eight years as the Art Program Manager for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.