Talbot Arts welcomes Amy Blades Steward as the president of the county arts council board, effective July 1.
Amy is an Easton native with a BA in English/Communications from Hood College in Frederick. In 1999, after returning from working on the Western Shore in historic preservation, she began work in health care marketing at MGW School of Nursing and eventually Shore Health System.
She founded Steward Writing & Communications, a boutique freelance writing firm in Easton, providing marketing, writing, and editing services for non-profit and for-profit companies and local governments. Her non-fiction articles – covering the arts, the environment, tourism, health care, and social services – have appeared in national, regional, and local publications for over 30 years.
Amy has helped numerous clients tell stories of help, hope, and compassion for those less fortunate across the region. She graduated from the Shore Leadership Program, Class of 2005, and received the Alfred Knight Award in 2001 for media placement and a 1996 Telly Award for a nursing school video. She is active in St. Mark’s United Methodist Church and has served on the boards of Character Counts Mid Shore, Maryland Life magazine, Talbot Partnership, and Channel Marker. She is the past president of Talbot Community Connections, having served on the board since 2011. She currently serves on the marketing committees of For All Seasons and Talbot Hospice.
Amy resides in Easton with her husband, Eric. Her two grown sons both benefited from Arts Council Summer Scholarships to study what turned out to be their chosen professional fields.
Amy succeeds Nancy Larson, who supported the organization in various board roles. As president, she guided the organization through two challenging pandemic years. Among many of her accomplishments, Nancy helped to launch the University of Maryland Graduate School of Music Community Outreach program at Easton Middle School and Easton High School to expose students to classical music. Talbot Arts expanded its summer scholarship program to include middle school students this year.
For more information about Talbot Arts, visit talbotarts.org.