The Baltimore Arts Resistance Mission
Baltimore Arts Resistance or BAR is a non-profit organization working to employ, pay, and promote black artists and bring healing to Baltimore City’s communities. We work to empower artists, change makers, cultural activists and thought leaders make an even deeper impact on their community by creating and fundraising for arts integrated programming, community beautification projects, and youth mentorship programming rooted in the arts.
Cultural Activism is in our DNA
Preceding the founding of Baltimore Arts Resistance the Creatives behind BAR developed a community organizing stronghold known as Queers4BlackLives which worked to organize protest marches to amplify the voices of those fighting for Justice for Baltimore’s Black and Queer community. At each activation, special attention was given to highlight the importance of Art, joy and hope. That ethos is carried through each and every program run by the Baltimore Arts Resistance to this day. Art, joy, hope, and social justice are the cornerstone values of Baltimore Arts Resistance.
Why We Do What We Do
A study by Black Lives In Music revealed that the majority of Black artists and music professionals have faced racism and discrimination in their careers having experienced direct or indirect discrimination, overt racism and micro aggressions.
Battling assumptions about what music they should be making and a lack of opportunities are regular occurrences. 40% of artists said they had felt the need to change their appearance, rising to 44% for Black women, who also face an average of $550 per month lower earnings than their white counterparts. Black women and people living with disabilities registered highest in terms of impact on their mental health, and overall more than 1/3 of those in the study believed their mental health had declined since starting a career in music.
The study exposes how 88% of Black music professionals agree there are barriers to their career progress, while just 49% have music-related qualifications compared with 69% for white artists. The time for change is now.
