The Baltimore Board of Estimates approved a one-year contract Wednesday that keeps its arts council and festival-planning agency on a short, tight leash.
The 20-page contract approved unanimously by the five-member board will allow the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts to proceed with plans to mount three of its premiere events in the coming months: the Independence Day celebration in July, which will include a tribute to victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Artscape in August and the Baltimore Book Festival in September.
The new contract changes the way BOPA is administered to bring the once-independent, quasi-governmental agency partly under city control.
The contract also imposes several new restrictions on BOPA ranging from a mandated list of public events the festival must mount to quarterly progress reports. And, should BOPA make a serious misstep — as it did repeatedly in 2023 — the document creates a path for the City Council to terminate the contract and defund the cultural group in as little as 30 days.
Justin Williams, the deputy mayor for community and economic development, told the Board of Estimates that the one-year contract “gives us more oversight” over the agency.
He added that “we don’t expect any problems” during the tenure of newly-appointed BOPA CEO Rachel Graham, “but we wanted to have more protections cityside.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and City Council President Nick Mosby also expressed confidence in Graham.
“We are excited by your leadership,” Mosby said. “BOPA tells the story of Baltimore in a really authentic way. We thank you for hitting the ground running.”
After nearly two decades of operating with barely a whisper of controversy, BOPA and its previous leaders were in hot water for one reason or another for part of 2022 and most of last year, beginning with the decision to cancel the 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade with less than two weeks notice. That was followed by a series of well-publicized snafus ranging from an ill-advised attempt to trademark the “Artscape” name — which city attorneys viewed as the potential theft of intellectual property — to botching the planning of the 2023 Artscape, Baltimore’s marquee public event, drawing the ire of everyone from the city’s Jewish community to the institutions located inside the festival footprint.
The new contract, which was approved by BOPA’s board of directors, puts safeguards into place aimed at preventing those mistakes from recurring. The provisions include:
- New language specifying that the City Council “has the right to remove BOPA … as the arts council for Baltimore City at any time” and to repeal the city ordinance that funds the agency.
- The 13-member, interim BOPA board must set aside at least three seats to be filled by city officials, up from zero in the current contract. It was unclear from the contract if those three board members would include or be in addition to Tonya Miller Hall, the mayor’s senior advisor for arts and culture and a current board member.
- BOPA is contractually obligated to mount at least five events in the 2024-25 fiscal year: the New Year’s Eve celebration, July 4 fireworks, Artscape, the Baltimore Book Festival, and the MLK Day parade. The contract expiring June 30 specifies only that the city and arts council must “mutually agree” on a series of public celebrations to be mounted each year. Should BOPA need to cancel one of the five required celebrations because it lacks sufficient funds to mount it — as it axed the MLK Day parade in January, 2023 — it must provide the city with 60 days advance notice in writing and wait for written approval from the city before striking the event from the calendar.
- The $2.73 million allocated for BOPA under the current budget will be disbursed quarterly, as it was this year. Previously, the agency received an annual lump sum. Funds for three months of each fiscal year will be released after BOPA has submitted an invoice for payments as well as a “comprehensive quarterly report” of the previous quarter’s activities and accomplishments.
- Unlike the current and previous contracts, which were for five years, this is a one-year agreement only. Discussions about renewing or extending the contract must begin no later than Jan. 30, 2025, according to the proposed agreement.
- BOPA acknowledges that the city of Baltimore owns the Artscape trademark and agrees not to contest it, or to attempt to trademark any other intellectual property or program that BOPA has created using city funds.
The city’s first public celebration under the new contract will be held next week. Graham told the board of estimates that in addition to fireworks, the event will include “a tasteful tribute to the collapse of the Key Bridge that will acknowledge the contribution of the workers that were lost” as well as the economic impact on the city.
The event will also include “a 250-drone spectacular” and a party celebrating the kick-off of Artscape less than a month later.
Artscape, often described as the nation’s largest, free outdoor arts festival, brought 350,000 visitors to Baltimore at its peak and generated an estimated $28.5 million in economic impact. The 40th-anniversary festival returns Aug. 2-4.
