BOPA’s leader pledged to ‘dim the lights’ on Baltimore’s outdoor arts festivals. Now the city feels left in the dark.

The head of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts once pledged publicly to “dim the lights a little” on Baltimore’s beloved outdoor arts festivals. City residents will find out next month what that means for Artscape, a supersized extravaganza that has been the centerpiece of the city’s festival season for four decades. When Donna Drew Sawyer, BOPA’s chief executive director, unveils the details of the 2023 Artscape at an Oct. 20 news conference, it will cap an at-times intense battle over the future of the festivals that has been fought in government offices, at public meetings and behind the scenes for the past six months.