A place to celebrate home

Sandy Spring Museum on June 9 will break ground for the construction of a Cultural Heritage Hub, a new space designed to provide a creative home for underserved and underrepresented traditional artists, many of whom are immigrants and/or people of color.

The project is the first capital expansion of the museum since 2007.

The groundbreaking will be held 5-7 p.m. at the museum, 17901 Bentley Road. The public is invited to attend.

Guests will include State Sen. Craig Zucker (D-Dist. 14), Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At large) and Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At large), and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Dist. 8), who is a major supporter of the project.

The event will begin with speeches and a performance by Meki’s Tamure Polynesian Arts Group. Also available will food trucks and locally-made beverages.

The Cultural Heritage Hub was designed with the input of local folk artists. Sandy Spring Museum provides space in its multifunction room and library for traditional artistic activities such as Viernes de Plena, monthly bluegrass jams, and weekly Thai classic music and dance rehearsals. The Hub will expand those possibilities with indoor studio space and an outdoor amphitheater.

“The Cultural Heritage Hub fulfills our mission of social equity,” says Allison Weiss, museum executive director. “We partner with artists who have moved here from all over the world. None of the artists with whom we partner have their own facility for sharing and preserving their cultural heritage. I’m thrilled we can provide this space to traditional artists for free.”

Sandy Spring Museum serves as the state-designated Regional Folklife Center of Montgomery County, one of only eight such centers in Maryland. Montgomery County is the most demographically diverse county in the state and one of the most diverse