The Berlin Arts and Entertainment District and Berlin Main Street recently received grants from the Worcester County Arts Council to add live music to local events.
Attendees peruse the offerings at the Berlin Farmers Market on May 19. Thanks to a recent grant, live music could soon become a part of the festivities.
Charlene Sharpe / Bayside Gazette
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
A new round of grant funding is expected to help make sure live music remains a part of popular Berlin events.
The Berlin Arts and Entertainment District and Berlin Main Street recently received grants from the Worcester County Arts Council. A $3,000 grant will ensure the Edelweiss Band once again performs at Berlin Oktoberfest while a $1,500 grant will pay for live music at the Berlin Farmers Market.
“Nothing makes an event better than live music,” Ivy Wells, the town’s economic and community development director, said. “Plus it helps our local musicians and creates a vibe downtown that can’t be matched.”
The Worcester County Arts Council typically offers two rounds of grant funding each year. In this latest round the Berlin Arts and Entertainment District received the funding needed to continue live music at the farmers market through September while Berlin Main Street got the funding to support the entertainment at Oktoberfest.
Wells said her department relies heavily on grants to support projects in Berlin. A $500 grant from the Worcester County Arts Council will be funding a new “Random Acts of Art” project that will have Happy Now Creations sporadically leave bits of art throughout town.
“It’s similar to Banksy,” Wells said. “You’ll never know when it’s going to pop up in our Arts and Entertainment District.”
She said her department was in the process of applying for more façade grant funding from the state. While she’s out of funding for the popular grant program now, she’s hopeful to receive a grant to be able to once again offer the program to local property owners in January 2025.
In addition to other funding applications she’s working on, Wells said she’s trying to get another Community Safety Works Business District Grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Last year, the town received $76,300 for security cameras, barricades and modular vehicle barriers.
“This time we applied for lighting funds so we could add historic lampposts to Pitts Street and William Street,” Wells said.
Wells noted that the town had recently received confirmation from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development that Berlin would be receiving its entire $500,000 strategic demolition grant for the Heron Park demolition project now that work was underway and in line with the original grant application.
“We had to show proof we were continuing with the project and things were moving ahead,” she said.