The Chesapeake Arts Center is turning 25, and it's marking the milestone with a gala inside a Baltimore Inner Harbor landmark rather than within its own Brooklyn Park walls. The nonprofit will host “Layers and Light: A Bright Night for the Arts” on October 23, bringing together more than 200 donors, members, community leaders, business executives, artists and supporters for an evening of art, live music, interactive experiences and a silent auction.
The gala's theme, according to Eye On Annapolis, reflects the students, artists, volunteers, donors, instructors and audience members who have contributed to the center's 25-year history. Proceeds and sponsorship support from the night will help further the organization's mission to foster creativity, build connections and expand access to arts education. The evening will also feature visual displays, food and signature cocktails at what organizers describe as a milestone celebration for the nonprofit's quarter-century of work in northern Anne Arundel County.
From Shuttered High School to Regional Arts Hub
The Chesapeake Arts Center's story began well before this year's festivities. The organization was formally established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in January 2001, following a late-1990s renovation that adaptively repurposed the former Brooklyn Park High School building into a regional community arts complex, according to historical background reported by the Severna Park Voice. Local leaders at the time sought to bring cultural and educational enrichment to a section of the county that had historically lacked it.
Today the facility at 194 Hammonds Lane spans 58,000 square feet and includes two main performance venues: the 752-seat Hammonds Lane Theatre, which functions as a professional roadhouse for large concerts and stage shows, and the 120-seat black box Studio 194 Theatre, used for smaller productions and rehearsals, per details published on the center's own site and by Visit Annapolis. The center draws between 50,000 and 70,000 visitors a year, and more than half of its programs are offered free or at low cost alongside need-based student scholarships, according to figures from the Chesapeake Arts Center.
Leadership and Growing Facilities
Executive Director Donna Anderson has led the organization since February 2020, steering it through the pandemic years before receiving the 2023 Arts Leadership “Annie Award” from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County. Anderson previously held executive positions at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and the National Building Museum, according to the arts council's account of her career.
The center's visual art footprint has also grown over the years. It now operates two dedicated gallery spaces: the Hal Gomer Gallery, renamed in 2015 for a former Brooklyn Park High School art teacher, and the Patricia Barland Gallery, which opened in 2022 and was named in 2024 for a prominent donor. Together the galleries stage 15 to 20 free exhibitions annually featuring regional and student artists. In 2020, the center expanded into STEAM education with the Michael Stanley MakerSpace, supported by a $24,250 grant from the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County that funded free hands-on technology workshops offering local youth access to 3D printing, laser cutting, woodworking and ceramics tools.
A Waterfront Setting Tied to a Bigger Anniversary Push
Organizers chose the Baltimore Museum of Industry as the gala's setting. The museum sits along the Inner Harbor inside an 1860s former oyster cannery on Key Highway and was previously ranked Baltimore's top museum in a 2018 Hoodline survey of user reviews. The museum interprets regional industrial labor history inside the preserved Platt & Company cannery building.
The gala caps a year of 25th-anniversary programming for the arts center. This summer, the organization hosted a dual exhibition titled “Legacy & Light,” pairing retrospective works from past CAC artists in oil, ceramics and textiles with contemporary light-based installations and an archival milestone display featuring playbills, photos and posters from the center's history, as reported by BmoreArt. The center also leaned on established fundraising traditions this year, including the 13th annual “Chip in for the Arts” golf tournament held in June, co-hosted with Arundel Federal Savings Bank at Compass Pointe Golf Course to support arts access for underserved youth.
Rooted in a Broader Revitalization Effort
The center's founding also intersected with local economic development policy. In 2001 and 2002, Anne Arundel County enacted commercial revitalization legislation designating an overlay district near the arts center to encourage private investment and corridor improvements along Ritchie Highway, according to a county assessment report. That legislation provided tax credits and zoning flexibility intended to spur development in the surrounding area, tying the nonprofit's growth to a broader push to revitalize a stretch of northern Anne Arundel County.
