Visit Baltimore : Innovation + Job News

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has granted the Walters Art Museum $315,000 for a 2 1/2 year project to digitize, catalog and distribute 105 illuminated medieval manuscripts. Representing diverse Byzantine, Greek, Armenian, Ethiopian, Dutch, English and Central European cultures, this project, entitled Parchment to Pixel: Creating a Digital Resource of Medieval Manuscripts, will allow for the digitization of approximately 38,000 pages of ancient text and 3,500 pages of illumination.

"The aim of this project is to allow access to the museum's collections, free of charge, mirroring in the virtual world what the Walters has achieved at our physical location through free admission," says Walters Director Gary Vikan. "This project further fulfills the museum's mission to bring art and people together."

The resulting digital catalog and library of images will conform to internationally accepted standards and will be distributed to diverse audiences through scholarly and public databases worldwide under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.

"This unparalleled access to little-seen treasures will enable close collaborative study of the materials from locations around the world and across disciplines as well as reduce wear and tear on the codices," says Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books Will Noel. "The NEH has provided another extraordinary opportunity for the Walters to share its resources."

This grant allows the museum to continue its ambitious initiative to create, preserve and make accessible fully cataloged digital surrogates of its manuscripts, an initiative that began in 2008 with an NEH Preservation and Access Grant to digitize its Islamic manuscripts. The museum is digitizing the entire collection of Islamic manuscripts and single pages, which amounts to approximately 53,000 images to be available for public access.

In the western hemisphere, the Walters' holdings of illuminated manuscripts are second in number only to the Morgan Library and Museum and are of a level of quality matched only by the Morgan and a smaller collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum. At the time of his death in 1931, the museum's founder, Henry Walters, left to the city of Baltimore his entire collection of art, including a legendary collection of illuminated medieval manuscripts that is a major national treasure. Between 1895 and 1931, Walters collected around 730 codices. Today, the collection includes some 850 illuminated and illustrated manuscripts and 150 single leaves, ranging in date from the ninth to the 19th century and constituting one of the most significant collections of its kind in the country.


Source: The Walters Art Museum
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Baltimore's biggest festivals brought in major loot in 2009. Artscape, America's largest free, arts celebration and the Baltimore Book Festival, an annual celebration of the literary arts, had a combined economic impact of $30.48 million on Baltimore City, according to a study by Forward Analytics, a Pennsylvania based market research firm

Artscape, which takes place annually the third weekend in July, attracted an estimated 350,000 residents and visitors and had a total economic impact of $25.97 million with $7.02 million in direct impact and $18.95 million in indirect impact. Direct spending by out-of-the area festival-goers generated $350,950 in sales tax revenues for the State of Maryland.

More than 35,000 attendees traveled to Maryland for Artscape and 163,800 came from beyond the Baltimore Metropolitan area. Hotels in the area raked in $257,699, while the city picked up $20,677 in tax revenues. Festival-goers spent $9 million with Artscape vendors of which $3.5 million was spent on art from the exhibitors and $4.3 million on food and beverages.

The Baltimore Book Festival had an economic impact of $4.51 million, of which $1.22 million had a direct impact while $3.29 million was indirect impact. Book vendors earned $651,908 in sales; food and beverage vendors made $620,252; and other retailers gained $42,880 in revenue.

Baltimore Book Festival attendees spent $134,177 at area hotels and generated an estimated $10,108 in tax revenues for Baltimore City.

In 2010, the 29^th annual Artscape festival takes place July 16, 17 & 18 in the Mount Royal Avenue and North Charles Street area of Baltimore City. The 15^th annual Baltimore Book Festival takes place September 24, 25 & 26 at Mount Vernon Place located in the 600-700 blocks of North Charles Street.

Source: Baltimore City Office ofPromotions and the Arts
Writer: Walaika Haskins

As the country's economic woes continue to be felt by the business community, Visit Baltimore has launched two innovative incentive programs in an effort to entice meeting and covention planners to hold their events in Baltimore.

"We realize that times are tough across all industries and we wanted to support the efforts of our meeting planner clients in continuing their professional growth within the industry while at the same time helping them to defray the cost of hosting a meeting in Baltimore," says Amy Calvert, Visit Baltimore vice president, sales and services.

Both plans offer meeting planners who book a new meeting in Baltimore with at least 1,000 room nights before June 30, 2010, for an event that takes place in Baltimore before December 31, 2012, a carrot for coming to Baltimore. Meeting planners will receive a $1,000 educational credit that can be used by the individual planner to maintain membership in an industry association, participate in an industry certification program or attend educational events.

In addition, to assist planners in reducing their meeting's bottom line, several Baltimore hotels are also offering a 4 percent rebate off the master account for new meetings booked before June 2010.

Participating hotels include:
· Baltimore Marriott Waterfront
· Baltimore's Tremonts
· Hampton Inn at Camden Yards
· Harbor Magic Hotels
· Hilton Baltimore
· Hyatt Regency Baltimore
· InterContinental Harbor Court
· Renaissance Harborplace Hotel
· Sheraton Baltimore City Center
· Sheraton Baltimore North
· Sheraton Inner Harbor

The new incentive program is now underway and concludes on June 30, 2010 or on the date on which a total of 50,000 hotel room nights are booked for the downtown Baltimore hotel district, whichever occurs first. Additionally, in order for a booking to satisfy the promotion's 1,000 room night requirement, it must be held before December 31, 2012.

Source: Visit Baltimore
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The ninth Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival put more than $25 million into the city and state's economy according to a recent study by RESI, an economic research and consulting firm located at Towson University. That's more than double the event's economic impact  of $11.2 million in its first year in 2001.

This event, which attracted a record 20,364 runners, marked its seventh consecutive year of 15 to 20 percent growth year over year. Each year the festival attracts more out of state participants, with 40 percent of this year's runners coming from beyond the state's borders compared to 25 percent in its first year. In all, 50 states and 44 countries were represented in the 2009 field.


Visitors = 57,075
Hotels = $5,382,013
Eating = $5,382,013
Retail = $3,799,068
Transportation = $4,432,246
Entertainment = $6,331,780
TOTAL = $25,327,120

"When one considers the economy the last couple of years I think it makes our annual economic impact figure and steady growth even more impressive," says Lee Corrigan, the event's Executive Director and President of Corrigan Sports Enterprises. "Without the unwavering support we receive from city and state agencies, along with our sponsors, the Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival would not exist. It boggles my mind to think this event has generated more than $135M for our local and state economies since we started in 2001, but I know it's a direct reward for all of the hard work thousands of people put into this magnificent day."

The charitable proceeds generated by the 2009 event topped $830,000. Special Olympics Maryland, The United Way of Central Maryland, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Helping Up Mission, Moveable Feast, Parks and People, Sadie's Gift, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, Baltimore Fire Foundation and After School Club, Maryland Center for Arts and Tech, Maryland Institute of Art and Alzheimer's Association are some of the area's benefiting charities. More than $5 million has been raised for charity since the event's inception.

Source: Corrigan Sports Enterprises
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The Port of Baltimore is setting records again, namely an all-time cruise passenger record for one sailing. The record is for most cruise passengers in one calendar year. On a September 19th sailing of the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas, the Port surpassed its previous mark of 104,253 embarked passengers set in 2004 during a year when the Port offered a then-record 60 cruises. Through October 22nd , a total of 125,248 passengers have left on cruises from the Cruise Maryland terminal at the Port of Baltimore.

"This sends a strong message to the international cruise industry that this port, this city, and this state can effectively handle an increased amount of cruise business," says Gov. Martin O'Malley. "Despite an extremely challenging economy, most of our cruises have sailed near maximum capacity. Our area's large population market and our cruise terminal's outstanding location right off Interstate 95 provide us unique advantages."

Through October 22nd , 60 cruises have sailed from Baltimore this year. A ship's total passenger capacity is based upon the number of available staterooms at dual occupancy per room. When a family of four occupies a stateroom, the dual capacity for that room is exceeded.

The Port's 81 homeport cruises in 2009 are expected to have an economic impact of some $152 million in its first year of all-seasonal cruising. In addition to year-round service provided by Carnival, other cruise lines sailing from the Cruise Maryland terminal this year are: Norwegian Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Deilmann. This year, the Port expects about 165,000 passengers to cruise from Baltimore.

Last year, 27 cruises left from Baltimore with an economic impact of nearly $63 million. About 47,000 passengers cruised from the Port of Baltimore in 2008 when two cruise lines offered service. In 2010, the Port will offer a record 92 cruises, including additional year-round service from Royal Caribbean. The Port of Baltimore is the closest East Coast drive-to port from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Chicago. Baltimore is also within a three-hour drive from the New York City metro area. The Cruise Maryland terminal is
only 2.5 miles from Baltimore's world famous Inner Harbor, 10 miles from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and
little more than an hour from three other major airports.

Source: Port of Baltimore
Writer: Walaika Haskins