As part of his job interview in 1978, Fred Lazarus famously said, “For Maryland Institute to be a great art college, Baltimore needs to be a great city for artists.” Now 35 years later, the Baltimore community can reflect on his many efforts to make it so.
On Friday night, GBCA and its members joined the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in honoring Fred and Jonna Lazarus.
In the early days, Fred helped bring GBCA to life as a convener and an independent voice for the cultural community. GBCA was not alone in benefiting from his vision. Through the Lazarus’ efforts, many arts and culture organizations are now a thriving part of Baltimore. We so appreciate their vision, generous spirit, brilliance, creativity, and style.
Just to make sure they have plenty to do in their first year of retirement, GBCA asked its organizational members to cook up a basket of goodies for the First Family of Baltimore arts. Gifts included incredible, one-of-a-kind Fred and Jonna Lazarus puppets created by Michael Lamason and his team at Black Cherry Puppet Theater that are pictured here:
There were also walk-on roles from Center Stage, a T’ai Chi lesson from Heritage Theatre Artists’ Consortium, a “swag bag” from Single Carrot Theatre, VIP tickets to the MUSE 360 benefit, the incredible opportunity to adopt one of The Walters Art Museum’s treasured works of art, two all-access passes to the 2015 Maryland Film Festival (MFF) and 2014 MFF poster signed by the Post Typography team, and more than we could possibly list here. On behalf of Baltimore’s cultural community, we offer Fred and Jonna our deepest gratitude. We hope they have a blast! Be sure to tune in to MPT’s Artworks on May 1st for the announcement of the 2014 Baker Artist Award winners!
Best,
Jeannie
P.S. Happy birthday, Duke Ellington!
Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance 