War Memorial Arts Initiative

About the Program

Category: Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

The War Memorial Arts Initiative (“WMAI”) is a program founded in 2015 by the Baltimore City Department of General Services and based out of the historic War Memorial building in downtown Baltimore (101 N. Gay Street, Baltimore, MD). The program seeks to utilize the 1,000 sear auditorium and assembly rooms at the War Memorial as a venue for the performing, visual, and decorative arts. WMAI encourages local artists, musicians, fashion designers, puppeteers, dancers, storytellers and others to share their work with the broader Baltimore community. The program aims to use this facility to honor and serve the veterans of Maryland through artistic expression as well as traditional veterans outreach services. The building is provided for use at little to no cost for artists, performers, and students as a public service to the people of Maryland. The broader goal in this mission is to increase public usage of this public facility by making it accessible to a varied and diverse audience. In this way, the War Memorial honors the veterans of the past by creating a vibrant community for the living.