|
|
05-Apr-2007
Arts school a valuable asset
A letter to the editor from the Herald-Mail:
Part of the heritage that our community can take great pride in can be found in the rich tradition of the arts. Few communities our size can boast of the caliber of arts institutions such as the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, a dynamic Washington County Arts Council, the Potomac Classical Youth Ballet, the Potomac Playmakers and a beautiful, historic Maryland Theatre to showcase the arts, just to name a few. With such a strong core of fine arts organizations in the downtown, the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts is a natural fit, not only to support the proposed downtown school but ultimately to provide students with an opportunity for an arts career in our community.
The Barbara Ingram School for the Arts was made possible through the very generous donation of the former Henry's Theater by local businessman Vincent Groh in memory of his late wife Barbara. The concept for the school is modeled after the Baltimore School for the Arts, which draws students from a wide geographic region and is known for its excellence in arts and academics.
The Barbara Ingram School for the Arts would provide an opportunity for up to 300 students from our region to pursue an education in academic excellence and the arts. The proposed school would be financed in part through the assistance of the Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) rather than the traditional source of funding through the county's capital budget. Rising construction costs and an ever-increasing share of new school costs being transferred from the state to counties in Maryland have created a need to seek alternate funding sources for our growing community.
The development of the school would offer many additional benefits.
The School for the Arts would add to the development of the downtown arts district and leverage some of the other existing public and private investments in the downtown core. In addition to collaborating with many of the existing art organizations downtown, it is envisioned that the school would partner with the Washington County Free Library and the University System.
The alternate financing approach through MEDCO would supplement the already strained traditional capital funding mechanism of the county while offering some operational savings by partnering with the previously mentioned organizations.
The development of the school should provide some relief to some of the overburdened high schools in our county with its 300 student capacity.
Components of the school such as the "black box" theater, the gallery space and upper terrace would likewise provide a community space that could be rented out for various community based functions during off-school hours.
In summary, the proposed Barbara Ingram School for the Arts provides opportunity to strengthen an already rich arts heritage by offering an excellent arts education for area students. It truly creates a "win-win" scenario for the students, tax payers and downtown revitalization efforts for the arts district.
Tom Newcomer
Hagerstown
Click Here to Search News
|
 |
