+ By Vicki Meade + Photos courtesy of Nyia Curtis of Eye Opening Photography
“What? Get out of here!” photographer Paul Gillespie recalls blurting out when April Nyman, president and CEO of the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County (ACAAC), phoned to announce that he’d won a 2025 Annie Award. “I was shocked,” he says. “I had no idea I’d even been nominated.”
Launched in 2000, the Annie Awards recognize those who contribute in lasting and inspiring ways to the arts in Anne Arundel County through creative work, leadership, education, or support. Over 25 years, nearly 200 people have received what’s become the county’s most prestigious award for artistic achievement.
Some winners are more familiar names, such as J. Ernest Green, music director at Live Arts Maryland; some are still emerging, such as artist Comacell Brown; and some stay behind the scenes, such as McShane Glover, an arts booster and former agent for musicians. They represent exactly the mix of talent and achievement that the Annie founders envisioned.
Writer Nadja Maril, who in 1999 served on the ACAAC board, remembers when then chairman Bill Keuthe suggested developing a county-wide arts award. The board wanted a way to promote the fledgling nonprofit, which its first president, Carol Treiber, built from a tiny county department. “As soon as Bill floated the idea, I loved it, because, back then, no one had any idea what the council was,” says Maril. As head of the marketing committee, she suddenly had a powerful way to raise the group’s profile, broadcast news about local creatives, and inspire struggling artists.
Keuthe, an arts admirer and retired businessman, is quick to note that he borrowed the concept from arts awards in Philadelphia. “I brought it to Carol and the board, and someone at the table burst out, ‘We could call it the Annies!’”
People nominate candidates via an online application, along with reference letters and supporting materials. The original award categories were Arts Patron, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Literary Arts, Arts Education, and Lifetime Achievement. Later, Arts Leadership and Historic Arts were added, as well as Arts Maverick (the award that Gillespie won). Winners are selected by experts from outside the county.
The actual award features the Annie logo (designed by the late artist Gerard Valerio)—a bold capital A swept by a bright red crossbar. Gillespie, known for photojournalism, portraits, and fine art images, keeps it on his desk, “where I can look at it every day,” he says. “I think about how awesome the Arts Council is and how awesome my wife, Jennifer, is. Because she’s who nominated me.”
Alison Harbaugh, photographer, filmmaker, and cofounder of ArtFarm Studios, a venue for classes and events, is one of only six Arts Mavericks so far—those with a fresh, innovative approach to the arts. “It’s super cool. I love being a Maverick,” she says. “This [2021] award put a little wind in my sails and let me know we’re doing good stuff and should keep going.”
“I want more people to know about this award,” says Ramocille Johnson, a musician and choral director who won for Performing Arts in 2021. Her choirs and combos have performed gospel and pop music at churches and colleges, and she’s taught hundreds of students. “Some people don’t understand how important art is. It’s integrated everywhere, it’s woven into our lives—even a TV commercial is art. Furniture design is art,” she says. “Music gets taken for granted, but it’s like breathing. Art uplifts a community and binds it together.”
In 2023, the Arts Education award went to Netanel Draiblate, founder of the Annapolis Symphony Academy, which was launched in 2018 so that youngsters from diverse backgrounds can study music and benefit from group practices. “We do orchestral music, some pops, and it’s great because many of these kids weren’t exposed to classical music in their homes,” he says. “We lend them instruments, if needed, and we have donors who help out.” Draiblate, violinist and concertmaster for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, says he’s thrilled with the award, “because it gives our program a boost and tells us we’re having an impact.”
In 2002, Green’s first thought upon learning he’d won for Performing Arts was, “I’m not sure I deserve this,” despite leading the Annapolis Chorale since 1984, creating the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, performing internationally, and working with world-renowned conductors and composers, including Marvin Hamlisch. In 2012,Green had the rare experience of winning a second Annie, this time for Lifetime Achievement. “Does this mean I’m done?” he joked at the time. He then thought of all the creative work ahead of him, such as recently conducting a choral piece sung to the music of tuned wineglasses.
Brown, raised by a grandmother who, as he says, “loved me to death” but worried for his future, says that winning the Visual Arts award in 2021 helped his grandmother accept his departure from banking to build a career as a graphic designer and muralist. “All the hurdles I’d had, and there I was, on stage at age 35 with much older icons. I felt, well, maybe I’m not so far behind.” He sat near Lifetime Achievement award winner Gerald Valerio and Vince Leggett, author and founder of Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, who won for Historic Arts. Both are now deceased. “I was so touched that, when Valerio’s name was called, he tapped me and said, ‘You’re going to win this award, one day.’”
Valerio’s daughter, Kris Shock, is now keeper of her father’s award, along with that of her late mother, actor and director Sharie Valerio, who won for Performing Arts in 2003. “I’m so proud of them both, and really glad for dad, who died not long after the ceremony,” says Shock. “He’d done so much pro bono [work] for the county over decades, including the SPCA logo.” He also designed US Naval Institute and Johns Hopkins University Press, publications for National Geographic and Smithsonian Institution, and historic publications such as photographer Marion Warren’s Bringing Back the Bay.
Previously, the annual Annie Awards ceremony was held at various venues across the county. Now, it’s at Maryland Hall. The free event starts with a brief performance showcasing local arts—maybe a brass quartet, choral group, or ballet. Then the honorees file into seats onstage. One by one, each nominator explains via recorded video why they chose that winner, who then walks to the podium to receive the award. Afterward, everyone is invited to a lively, well-stocked reception.
Like pebbles dropping in a pond, the Annies create ripples. Awardees share their energy, and the community discovers artists they might otherwise overlook. At the 2025 presentation, on October 15, the Performing Arts award went to the go-go band Pock3t, a peppy ensemble of teens who couldn’t stop grinning onstage. As the nominator (and a band member’s grandmother), Phyllis Tee Adams, told the group in her video, “The world is awaiting all your gifts and talents.”
