March is Women’s History Month, and to mark the occasion, the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts will host its first Women in the Arts event Monday at 6 p.m.

The headliner for the inaugural celebration is Sony Artisan Photographer Me Ra Koh, who went from homelessness and once checked herself into a psychiatric ward in her teens to working with Disney, the New York Times and more, two decades later.

According to Maryland Hall Executive Director Jackie Coleman, Koh had long been scheduled to speak at the high-school-turned-arts-center, and Hall management felt that the presentation was a perfect opportunity to create an event that reinforced a passion for providing art for all.

Aside from Koh’s keynote speech, the event will have a performance from the all-female Songbird Collective, an art exhibit focusing on mind and care curated by previous Maryland Hall artist in residence Annika Marthinuss, Latin dance teacher and author Barbara Bernstein, and other special guests from the community. There will also be food, a bar and networking opportunities.

Coleman said this idea of “art for all” is often discussed at every level of management and visitor. She said part of that is expanding the types of art offered, which in the past meant introducing things like Latin dancing or pottery. These additions have been successful, with Coleman saying the dancing in particular sometimes gets more of a turnout than the classical dancing the hall had before.

“We’re not just a ballet, and we’re not just an opera or a pottery studio. We’re all types of art,” Coleman said. “Sometimes it’s good to stretch people and have different offerings that might be out of the box, but I think a lot of it is checking in with our community and finding out where there’s interest. … One of the things we try to do regularly is to revisit: Okay, what is it today? What is art for all today? And are we there?”

She said that the Hall aims for art for all in traditional areas of diversity like gender and race, but also in age and ability.

The Hall’s schedule is packed both before and after the event. This weekend sees performances from the Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre on Saturday and the U.S. Army Band on Sunday. Next week, the Hall will be host to many of the showings of the Annapolis Film Festival.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at maryland hall.org.

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