Baker Artist Awards

The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, a Baltimore foundation with an arts-focused philanthropy, contacted the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA) about helping the Fund develop an annual awards program for individual artists of the region.  GBCA suggested approaching Fastspot about how they might build on the concept of the People’s Design Award Website, created by Fastspot for the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and National Design Week.

A collaboration quickly commenced on how this concept might translate for the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund.  We knew we wanted to make the nominating process for this particular foundation program much more transparent and community-focused, but we had no idea how the artists and community would react. Obviously, we had little reason for concern.

It is clear from the numbers that this type of awards program and online nomination process was something the arts community had long been hoping for—not to mention the success we saw from integrating a “People’s Choice” into the mix. We hope to see other cities and artists’ communities throughout the world adopt and build upon what the Baker Artist Awards Website has established for the Baltimore arts community.