By WESLEY CASE | The National Endowment for the Arts announced last month new guidelines and the elimination of Challenge America, a grant program that supports underserved groups and communities — moves that falls in line with President Donald Trump’s plan to reshape federal arts policy.

Now, Baltimore Center Stage, Maryland’s state theater, says it will refuse to comply with the NEA’s new guidelines — which state that applicants “will not operate any programs promoting ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’” or “gender ideology” — at the cost of its own potential federal funding in the future.

Under the new guidelines, the NEA is encouraging applicants to create projects that honor the upcoming 250th anniversary of the country’s adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

The LGBTQ community services organization Baltimore Safe Haven announced it intends to expand its services in a recently acquired building that it’s currently renovating at 806 North Collington Avenue near the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

“The new facility, named the Mary Lynn Washington Building and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Community Hub and Resource Center, is set to open soon, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing mission to create safe and inclusive spaces for all,” a statement released by the group on Dec. 30 says.

“The expansion would not have been possible without the generous support and commitment of our community donors,” the statement says.

A report by Baltimore’s WMAR 2 TV news says the building’s rooms will accommodate two dozen people “who need transitional or permanent housing and will include clinical resources under the same roof.”

The TV news report says Baltimore Safe Haven’s founder and CEO, Iya Dammons, completed the purchase of the building over the Christmas weekend but neither the news report nor the Safe Haven statement disclosed the building’s purchase price.

“We extend our deepest gratitude to [Maryland State] Senator Mary Washington, Congressman Kweisi Mfume, Mayor Brandon Scott, Borealis Philanthropy, the Astraea Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, MOHS, COC, and MDH,” the statement says. “Their unwavering support has been instrumental in bringing this vision to life,” it says.

“The new community hub will serve as a one-stop resource center, providing expanded clinic services in collaboration with the University of Maryland, including mental health and wellness programming,” according to the statement.

A separate statement on its website says Dammons, a transgender rights activist, founded Baltimore Safe Haven in 2018. The statement says the group has previously expanded its services since its founding to provide housing services for members of the LGBTQ community facing homelessness and housing insecurity.

“The organization has also developed a wide range of programs and services focused on mental health support, physical health coordination, workforce development, legal support, advocacy, and community building.”

In July 2023, Safe Haven opened a D.C. office and drop-in center at 331 H St., N.E. that Dammons said would seek to provide services for the LGBTQ community, especially people in need, like the services provided in Baltimore.

BY TIM PRUDENTE | A Bethesda real estate investor nabbed Kevin Spacey’s waterfront Baltimore mansion at auction last month for a bargain, only now he has a problem.

Spacey, he said, has not given up the house.

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.