I shared this letter with people today:

Dear friends and colleagues,

I will be leaving the Maryland State Arts Council as Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts on August 22. When I began working at the Arts Council seven years ago, I shared a vision of helping to build a program for folk and traditional arts that would bring to Maryland some of the elements of programs that I admired in other states and to build an infrastructure that would truly serve the communities and individuals that sustain traditional arts and culture. I have been blessed in this endeavor by extraordinary support and partnership from some remarkable people, particularly my dear friend and collaborator Elaine Eff. As so many of you know, our partnership has been a celebration of realized possibilities, and a source of personal joy. In creating Maryland Traditions with Elaine, I have had the precious opportunity to learn from this incomparable public scholar and work with her to create a state program that affirms and empowers the value of community tradition, the craft and effort of disciplined creation, the distinctive and unique voices of real people living meaningful cultural lives from one end of this state to the other. Elaine and I have complemented each other in a truly collaborative way, and I am crazy about her and so proud of the work we have done together. Thank you Maryland Historical Trust and the National Endowment for the Arts for your vision in making this possible.

Our relationship has borne fruit in partnerships and local programs of the highest quality led by incredible colleagues. We have created an apprenticeship program that brings inspiration, resources, and visibility to our most gifted and unique traditional creators. A project grant program broadens our community of collaborators and catalyzes wonderful work. Perhaps most personally satisfying, our gatherings and showcases bring people together to connect with one another, to learn and be dazzled, and to rediscover the deep wellsprings of authentic creation and humanity to be found in our traditions. It is so gratifying that our most recent Maryland Traditions Showcase on June 14th was awarded a Best of Baltimore commendation by Baltimore Magazine, a farewell gift.

It has been a privilege to have had the chance to create Maryland Traditions. So, too, has it been a privilege to have worked as a staff member at the Maryland State Arts Council. State government is often perceived as impersonal, ineffective, and unwieldy. There may be reasons for these perceptions, but my colleagues at the Arts Council write a different script. I have come to deeply admire and value my colleagues. You are talented and hard working people who work with enormous integrity. You are also fundamentally decent and good people and I will miss working with you so very much. We have had the great fortune of working under great bosses in Theresa Colvin and the late great Jim Backas, and in serving with a community of Councilors and department liaisons led with grace and passion. I have also been blessed with the support and help of some great young people who have served formally and informally as interns. You make me hopeful for the future.

You know the high regard I hold for all of you, and the deep appreciation I have that you are able to see how important it is to care for our traditions .

I will also miss working with the panelists and the organization staff of grantees who make our Grants for Organizations program such a solid and effective sustainer of culture. No more phone calls about budget revisions and site visits! I have celebrated and mourned with many of you, and worked hard to translate our bureaucratic needs to the realities of arts and cultural administration. In the process I have come to know and respect some dear people. I have enjoyed your company. It may be that what I will miss most of all is the panel meetings we had. More than a simple exercise in assigning ratings, these became like seminars in cultural policy, great and stimulating chances to reflect on what matters in the arts, in public folklore, and in non profit management.

I have benefited so much from the incredible community of folklorists in the MidAtlantic. The meetings of the Middle Atlantic Folklife Association have been sources of path breaking education and inspiration and collegiality and joy, models for how retreats and conferences should be. I’ll miss going to these meetings as the MSAC folklorist, but you can bet I will not miss these meetings!

Ultimately, though, what I will most of all is the rare gift I have had of the chance to help those who create and sustain traditions through their art and their lives. What is the spark that makes us all in our different ways tap into these fathomless streams of human creativity and authenticity? To have tried and in some small way to have helped further this effort makes it all worthwhile.

But it is time to move on. Maryland Traditions will live on and thrive, and I am thrilled to imagine what our community of communities will do in the upcoming years. My successor will be a lucky person to work with all of you! And in whatever way emerges, I plan to remain part of this, appreciating and nurturing the good work you do.

I have taken a position as a half time assistant professor at Goucher College in the Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology. I was drawn to this opportunity because I love to teach, and because I feel like I have something to say about public culture and cultural work, something that has grown as a result of my work with all of you. Together we are discovering new ways that the most precious elements of our shared life can be better sustained and helped to thrive. This good news deserves to be shared, and the tools we have discovered to help need to be understood and refined. This is worthy work and I will do my best to undertake it.

This transition also opens up space for me for new opportunities. I love collaborating on projects, crafting new initiatives, sharing what I know, what I can do, and what I think. Let me know if you could use my help.

With gratitude and love to all of you,

Rory