Commissioner Interview: Steven Skerritt-Davis
MD Two Fifty spoke with Commissioner Steven Skerritt-Davis about his background in ballet and how it affects his perspective on supporting the Maryland arts community, his hopes for the 250th in Maryland and how the arts are important to feeding our souls.
MD Two Fifty Commissioner Steven Skerritt-Davis, Executive Director of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) was not a traditional college student. At age seven, he became involved in ballet and danced throughout his childhood. During his senior year of high school, he was an apprentice dancer with a professional company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before moving to New York to dance for the American Ballet Theatre.
Skerritt-Davis explained that “ballet is a privileged space in the arts,” explaining that he was fortunate to work in well established and well- funded companies with labor unions, where he felt supported in his artistic career.
After his retirement from ballet, he attended Brown University as a Resumed Undergraduate Education (RUE,) student, an application pathway for students who had a delayed or interrupted education. With a major in sociology, he focused on philanthropy and nonprofit studies, where he learned the impact of grants on organizations.
Post graduation, he worked for the New England Foundation for the Arts, where he worked on the National Dance Project, a program that provided support to contemporary dancers in the U.S. He moved to Baltimore when his husband pursued a PhD at Johns Hopkins, and worked at a nonprofit theater in Rockville.
In 2017, he joined the staff of the Maryland State Arts Council. When asked what he wants Marylanders to know about MSAC, he said that access to the arts has many benefits to health, well-being, and longevity, and he shared his belief that the arts feed our souls. He sees the arts as an avenue to service, and he emphasized that public and private support are crucial for the arts to thrive . According to Skerritt-Davis, “we have a uniquely strong arts sector in Maryland because it has been well supported by public funds for decades.”
In discussing his role on the MD Two Fifty Commission, Skerritt-Davis shared that he hopes the Commission can fulfill what Governor Wes Moore outlined in his Executive Order, establishing the Commission. He hopes the commemoration will showcase our diversity in Maryland and will allow Marylanders to learn something about themselves and the nation as we approach the semiquincentennial. He shared that he attended public schools and appreciates the teachers who instilled in him nonpartisan American values, which everyone should be able to stand behind.