Arts for Enrichment

Explore the arts with up-close-and-personal workshops, lectures and discussions with our visiting performers! All programs are free and open to the public. Attendance is limited for some events and advance registration may be required.

Martha Redbone photo — Martha Redbone *Photo credit/Craig Bailey*

Martha Redbone
Workshop: Southeastern Intertribal Singing

Saturday, Sept. 16 at 3 PM
FSU Upper Quad

Learn Cherokee and Choctaw Nations music traditions, including Cherokee language call-and-response singing and the incorporation of harmonies. Martha Redbone will also share stories of her family's Kentucky homeland, including personal life experiences about the multicultural background of her Native and African American parents. The workshop will be presented virtually for those who are unable to attend in person.

Registration not required.

Step Afrika! performing — Step Afrika! *Photo credit/Jati Lindsay*

Step Afrika!
Workshop: Introduction to Step Dance

Saturday, Sept. 30 at 3 PM
Atkinson Room | Lane University Center

Explore the basics of step dance with the artists of Step Afrika! Stepping is a percussive, highly energetic art form first developed through the song and dance rituals performed by African American fraternities and sororities. In stepping, the body becomes an instrument, using footsteps, claps and spoken word to produce complex polyrhythms.

Attendance is limited and registration is required.

Main Street Books Window Display

Month of October
Main Street Books | 2 East Main Street, Frostburg

Main Street Books will present a colorful display in its front window, featuring Native American-focused books and other items.

Evergreen Mansion *Photo credit/Courtesy Evergreen Heritage Center*

Indigenous Arts and Culture Celebration

Sunday, Oct. 8 | 1 to 4 PM
Evergreen Heritage Center | 15613 Trimble Road, Mount Savage

Evergreen Heritage Center, which is situated on land once inhabited by the Shawnee Tribe, will host a free afternoon celebration focused on local indigenous culture. The extensive event will feature multiple heritage activities, including a presentation about traditional herbal medicines, a historical display about local Native heritage, a demonstration of traditional firebrick oven cooking techniques and museum tours.

During the event, Maryland artist and educator Maggie Pratt will lead an art and nature workshop that incorporates elements of local native history and myth. The workshop is open to ages 12+; children ages 8-11 may attend if accompanied by adult.

Art and nature workshop participation is limited to 15 and registration is required.

Registration is not required to attend other celebration activities.

Bill Miller posing with flute — Bill Miller *Photo credit/Courtesy of the Artist*

Bill Miller
Workshop: Songs of the Spirit

Monday, Oct. 9 at 11 AM
Clatter Café | 15 South Broadway, Frostburg

With his uniquely authentic perspective, Bill Miller will share the history of traditional and contemporary Native American music along with a demonstration of the native flute and drum. “I am an instrument of peace,” says Miller, “so is the flute, so is my voice, so is my presence, so is my guitar and so is my spirit.”

Registration not required.

Bill Miller with Native American painting — Bill Miller *Photo credit/Courtesy of the Artist*

Bill Miller
Workshop: Three Elements of Native American Art

Monday, Oct. 9 at 1 PM
Clatter Café | 15 South Broadway, Frostburg

Bill Miller’s paintings have appeared in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Chicago’s Trickster Gallery and New York’s American Indian Community House Gallery. He will share a cultural overview of Native America while demonstrating on canvas the use of three traditional elements: function, beauty and spirit. The completed painting will be displayed at Frostburg’s Mountain City Traditional Arts through November to honor National Native American Heritage Month.

Registration not required.

Bill Miller in front of arch — Bill Miller *Photo credit/Courtesy of the Artist*

Bill Miller
Reconciliation and Diversity Symposium: The Red Road to Victory

Monday, Oct. 9 at 6 PM
FSU Adams/Wyche Multicultural Center at the Lincoln School

After opening in song with native flute and offering an examination of his Mohican tribal history and culture, Bill will share his journey from victim to victory, illustrating the “12 feathers of healing,” which model his vision of transformation through reconciliation. He will illustrate the relationship between majority and minority cultures, the ineffectual result of teaching tolerance and assimilation, and how to attain a redemptive culture of understanding and peace.

Registration not required.

Ryan Koons Presentation:
Land Acknowledgement Statements

Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 2 PM
Clatter Café | 15 South Broadway, Frostburg

Ryan Koons, Maryland State Arts Council Folklife Specialist, will visit Frostburg’s Clatter Café to discuss the process of developing land acknowledgement statements. Such statements, which recognize Indigenous peoples dispossessed of their land by settler colonists, are an effective and ethical way to begin to recognize Indigenous sovereignty, to correct the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people’s history and culture, and to invite and honor the truth.

Registration not required.

Maryland Symphony Orchestra *Photo credit/Frostburg State University*

Maryland Symphony Orchestra
Workshop: Trends in the Music World

Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 3 PM
Pealer Recital Hall | FSU Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center

Join Jean Hamilton, Maryland Symphony Orchestra board member, to learn about trends and issues in today’s professional music landscape. The workshop will be presented virtually for those who are unable to attend.

Jean Hamilton retired from the position of Director of the Arts Administration MA/MBA Program of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as Associate Professor Emerita in 2021. She previously served on the faculty of the Shenandoah University Conservatory in Virginia. Her professional credentials include Executive Director of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, General Manager of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, General Manager of the Milwaukee Symphony, Orchestra Manager of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Manager and Artistic Administrator of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. A former Orchestra Management Fellow with the American Symphony Orchestra League, Hamilton also performed as hornist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She has degrees in Horn Performance from both CCM and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a Diploma from the National Centre for Orchestral Studies, University of London.

Registration requested.

Elizabeth Schulze photo — Elizabeth Schulze *Photo credit/Maryland Symphony Orchestra*

Maryland Symphony Orchestra
Prélude with Elizabeth Schulze

Friday, Nov. 10 at 6:30 PM
Pealer Recital Hall | FSU Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center

MSO Music Director Elizabeth Schulze discusses the works that will be performed during the evening’s concert.

Open to all ticket holders.

A Celtic Christmas
Workshop: Introduction to Irish Dance

Thursday, Dec. 7 at 6 PM
Pealer Recital Hall | FSU Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center

Experience the exhilaration of traditional Irish dance! The dancers of Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas lead a high-energy workshop for community members of all ages.

Attendance is limited and registration is required.

Django Guitar — Hot Club of Baltimore *Photo credit/Courtesy of the Artist*

Hot Club of Baltimore
Workshop: Django Reinhardt-Style Guitar

Saturday, Feb. 17 at 3 PM
Allegany Arts Council | 9 N. Centre Street, Cumberland

Bring your guitar and join members of the Hot Club of Baltimore for a hands-on workshop to learn essential techniques of the Django Reinhardt style.

Registration requested.

Masks — Indian Ink Theatre *Photo credit/Courtesy of the Artist*

Indian Ink Theatre
Workshop: Acting With Teeth

Friday, March 1 at 6 PM
Alice R. Manicur Assembly Hall | Lane University Center

Discover the transformative power of mask technique in creating characters. Exercises teach participants new improvisational skills that help them to release joy, find pleasure in failure and experience freedom when approaching theatrical text.

Attendance is limited and reservations are required.

The engagement of Martha Redbone is made possible in part through the Mid Atlantic Tours program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and is supported in part by a grant from the Western Arts Alliance Advancing Indigenous Performance Touring Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The presentation of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra is supported by the Community Trust Foundation’s Iris and Peter Halmos Community Fund and by the FSU Foundation.

Martha Redbone is presented in partnership with Folklore and Folklife Programming at FSU. Step Afrika! is presented in partnership with Department of Student Engagement. The Indigenous Peoples’ Heritage Celebration is presented with support from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Evergreen Heritage Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, Mountain City Traditional Arts, Main Street Books and Clatter Café.

CES is supported in part by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, and receives financial support from the Allegany Arts Council, and the City of Frostburg.