Howard County Arts Council

Grant awards - to advance and support the Arts, the Arts Council administers the following grant programs: community Arts development, artists-in-education, baltimore city Arts and cultural organizations, creative Howard, organizational development, outreach Howard, and the jim rouse theatre subsidy program. Additional grant programs are piloted and activated from time to time as needed. A volunteer artistic review panel is charged with evaluating all grant applications received from eligible organizations. The board of directors votes on the panel's recommendations and has final approval of the grant awards.

Community services - to foster and promote the Arts, the Arts Council maintains a website that promotes upcoming programs and performances, develops partnerships to advance the Arts, publishes a quarterly newsletter, maintains an active social media presence and online calendar of art events in the County, offers awards and scholarships, and provides various resources, technical assistance, advice and guidance on artistic development and art education.

Art center - to encourage an active and supportive relationship between artists and the public, the Arts Council manages a 32,000 square feet multi-purpose Arts center, which provides affordable studio and meeting space to artists, a black box theatre and dance studio for performances and rehearsals, classrooms for Arts education, and two exhibit spaces for the display of various forms of visual art work.

Special projects - to ensure that the Arts are accessible to all citizens, the Arts Council develops programs that reach out to underserved or new audiences. These programs may be ongoing or one-time pilot projects.

Long reach - in january 2020, the Arts Council was invited by the Howard County government to develop and manage 16 individual artist studios at the long reach village center as part of their long reach rising revitalization effort. In june 2022, the Arts Council held a one-day, free family Arts festival, artreach 2022, as part of this effort. Over 2,000 community members gathered at long reach village center for the artreach festival on june 4, 2022. The festival featured six different bands encompassing artists from the united states, latin america, mali, and togo. Children and adults got to try their hand at a variety of art activities including tie-dye, jewelry, etc. Village center businesses and studio artists opened their doors and offered activities, giveaways, tours and more throughout the day. Artreach featured music, free hands-on or artist-led activities led by 117 visual and performing artists.