Supporting Growth: Maryland Hall Stays Rooted While Embracing the Future Through Endowment Fund

An artistic symphony unfolds within the corridors of Maryland Hall – it’s a choreography of sound, movement, and creativity where the cadence of instructors guiding students, the delicate strings of violins, the rhythmic footsteps of dancers, and the percussive sound of potters shaping clay echo through the air.

If you live in or have visited Annapolis, you may have attended a performance, a gallery opening, or even taken a class at Maryland Hall. As it so eloquently states on its website, “Dedicated to Art for All, Maryland Hall stands as the region’s cultural core, actively convening and engaging people of all ages and backgrounds in arts experiences that strengthen community.”

To Maryland Hall Executive Director Jackie Coleman, it’s a place that fosters connectiveness and expression. “Maryland Hall has a powerful ability to make connections happen on a lot of different levels through our art classes, performances, and galleries.”

Knowing that they wanted this hub of creativity to flourish and continue to build community, Jackie and the Maryland Hall board of directors jumped at the chance to open the Maryland Hall Endowment Fund during the Community Foundation’s 25^th Anniversary Nonprofit Endowment Special Offer.

“It was really exciting to participate in the Community Foundation’s anniversary initiative and this helped the board make a decision quickly; they wanted to be a part of it,” Jackie said. “They saw the importance of being able to have and grow sustainable funds that can help if there is a rough time. Also, there’s only so many hours in the day and the administrative help that the Community Foundation offers—managing an endowment—is a plus. It takes the administrative work off our plate.”

Generating awareness of Maryland Hall was also on leadership’s mind when they opened the fund, and she emphasized the opportunity for contributions for the new fund. “The Community Foundation is a voice for nonprofits and having them represent us meant a lot to the board.” she said.

“My experience with Annapolis is that it is very network focused and intertwined in a really positive way,” continued Jackie. “On that note, the Community Foundation gives us a great opportunity to plug into this interwoven network.”

“There’s no mistake in saying that Maryland Hall has grown over the years and it continues to do so. There are a lot of opportunities to strengthen Maryland Hall even more,” said Jackie referring to the organization’s newest addition—the Media Arts Hub.

The Hub is a destination for creatives to learn, create, and express themselves through graphic design, digital illustration, animation, music/audio production, photography, and video production.

“The Media Arts Hub represents the way we are growing—moving to a new way of presenting arts,” she said. “We are trying to align to where the world is going while staying grounded in a building that is 132 years old. It’s an opportunity to keep the roots but change and grow into the future.

“So alongside building the funds, we are trying to be thoughtful about the programming, growing with our community’s desires and interests,” she added. “In the same way that endowments can help sustain us, they can help us grow.”