Click here for Part I & Part II

Supporting and advocating for Baltimore's diverse artistic community

Margaret Footner is executive director of the Creative Alliance. Founded by volunteers in 1995, the Creative Alliance is community-driven nonprofit organization that works with artists, educators, activists, and community members to host, support, and produce art and arts-based programs throughout Baltimore. Each year, the Creative Alliance organizes and presents hundreds of local events and exhibitions at its galleries and venues such as the historic Patterson Theater. Additionally, the organization is engaged in an array of youth education, residency, outreach, and workshop programming. Margaret spoke with citybizlist about expanding these programs, representing Baltimore’s diverse populations through art, and how opening her own restaurant led her to her position at the Creative Alliance.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Tell us about your programs and buildings. How many galleries and spaces is the Creative Alliance involved in right now?

MARGARET FOOTNER:We have two galleries here. We have our main gallery downstairs, which is heavily curated and is a place for many of our residents to exhibit their work as part of their residency program. We also have the Amalie Rothschild Gallery upstairs. Amalie Rothschild, as you know, was a beloved and incredibly brilliant Baltimore-based artist, and her daughter, Amalie R. Rothschild, contributed to the building of the Paterson, and in her honor, we named this gallery for her mom. And this is our members’ gallery. This is a place where the community and artist members have the opportunity to exhibit in a professional gallery, which might be their first show, or it might be one of many in their career.

Since we’ve moved here, we’ve expanded our youth programs from being summer programs in the local libraries to year-round programs in the schools and libraries in this neighborhood—and also here at the Paterson. These are after-school programs that are serving kids, many of whom do not have art in school, and they are a real important motivator for kids, too. Sometimes, if they know they’re going to have a great time in art class, it spurs them to come to school. Of course, they’re learning, in their art making, all kinds of cognitive and skills that are helping them be successful in school. The arts education piece is really an important part of our mission.

Another part of our mission is to be a part of this community—not just to plop ourselves here and say we’re drawing in thousands and thousands of audience members, but really to be a neighbor and to be a place where the neighborhood can participate, show their work, and give classes.

We’re currently mentoring a really, really interesting group of women who are immigrants from Mexico. Many of them are still learning English, and they’re keepers of traditions related to the piñata and posada traditions of Mexico, so we’ve doing lots of piñata workshops and they’ve been gaining skills in teaching and sharing their skills—not only here, but all around, at Towson, Community College of Baltimore. It’s a sort of entrepreneurial program that’s assisting these women to become a part of this community, and also for us to learn from them. Being representative of the neighborhood and of the city is an important part of our mission, so we are always casting about to see what’s happening in other communities in terms of artists and performers, and partnering with other organizations to bring their folks in and help them be a part of the Creative Alliance. And of course, the Creative Alliance is such a great name because so many ideas and so much of the creative power of this organization just comes from not only the staff who are brilliant, and the board that’s super supportive, but the whole city of Baltimore and beyond, so to be representative of this city is an important part of our mission.

Connect with Margaret on LinkedIn

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