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Welcome to CONNECTIONS, GGP’s e-newsletter designed to provide information, ideas and communications about downtown Columbia and its future. In each edition, we hope to stimulate conversation about the redevelopment of our community as well as provide facts, give updates and announce events and more.
We hope you find it interesting and informative. Please feel free to let us know what you think by emailing us at info@columbiatowncenter.info.
For Toby, theater is more than bright lights and intricate choreography. She believes that it is particularly important to engage children with the arts at a young age, while their mental and physical skills are still developing. At that point, children avoid anti-social behavior, develop coping skills and build self esteem, thus transforming their lives and enriching the community. That’s why it is so important to Toby to see downtown Columbia’s redevelopment efforts come to fruition; she wants to see many more people, both adults and children, included in what cultural arts and activities have to offer.
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| James Rouse on Columbia |
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| “In the role as developer, we find that we have two main opportunities with regard to the arts. First, is to present art so that it can be seen and heard and felt in places that are beyond the walls of the museum and private collections; to bring art to the marketplace, to the community, to public squares, to plazas, in ways that cause it to bring to light a sense of beauty, challenge, discovery; and second, to provide a platform in public places where budding artists can perform, stretch, grow, become great.” |
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From Greg Hamm
As you heard from Toby, Columbia has a rich tradition in the arts. Much of that tradition stems from her close relationship with Jim Rouse, who shared with her the belief that listening to music, painting a picture or learning a new dance deeply enriches the lives of children. Learning through the arts connects children to something bigger and fosters their intellectual curiosities.
We have the unique opportunity to fulfill Toby’s dream of supporting a world-class children’s theater in Merriweather and of attracting other cultural amenities. The math is simple. New residences, restaurants, shops and other activities will attract people downtown and will create the vibrancy necessary for the arts to flourish. This is what the community wants downtown, and we want to help make it happen.
Together we can transform an already-special place into something so much more. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at info@columbiatowncenter.info.
Greg Hamm
Vice President, Master Planned Communities
General Manager, Columbia
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One of 12 teachers in Harlem, New York, selected to work with the "All Day Neighborhood School Project," Toby helped First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt realize her dream—to motivate and stimulate disaffected, under-privileged inner city youth to learn in a different way. It was there that they discovered that using creative dramatics as a teaching tool will intellectually stimulate children!
Toby’s Dinner Theatre has received more than 50 Helen Hayes Awards including two for Toby herself for Outstanding Director of a Musical (1998 and 2003).
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| Toby Orenstein on the Arts in Downtown Columbia
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| “This is the perfect place for a big arts center. Museums, children’s theater, outdoor theater….where it would be accessible to all children.” |
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| And did you know?
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In August of 2004, the Howard County Citizen Advisory Panel on Merriweather Post Pavilion was convened by then-County Executive Jim Robey. Its findings were published in late 2005, and the following was part of the Executive Summary of the Final Report:
“…the Panel came to envision Merriweather as the key component in the County’s long-term ability to meet future requirements of the arts community in Howard County. It anticipates that a series of smaller enclosed venues could be constructed, and potentially privately financed, on the eastern portion of the property. These facilities would not deter from the overall open-air operating capability, but would position Merriweather as a center for the arts, education and culture on a very diverse operating platform. It would be an important cultural force with a regional impact.” |
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| Calendar of Events
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Date: May 14, 2009
Time: 7 p.m.
Event: Planning Board Public Work Session on ZRA 113 and the downtown Columbia General Plan Amendment
Location: County Offices, Tyson 2 Room, 8930 Stanford Blvd., Columbia |
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