Crisfield A&E District wants new logo

Contest winner gets $500 and logo on billboard

For the Crisfield-Somerset County Times

CRISFIELD — Have an eye for art or design? Want to try for $500? Then the Crisfield Arts and Entertainment District (CAED) Project wants you to enter its logo design contest.

CAED has been using an emblem created by artist Deborah Howard Sorenson before the district was officially recognized last year by the state. The design to be selected later this winter will be used on two billboards on U.S. 13 which will direct visitors to Crisfield’s A& E district.

Logo entries must include the text “Crisfield Arts & Entertainment District” and be a least one foot square with a 600 dpi resolution.

The logo must also reflect the heritage of Crisfield.

Submissions may be emailed to arts@crisfieldcityhall.com by 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 31 and include an entry form and waiver, available at Crisfieldarts.org.

Maryland State Arts Council approved a $2,500 Technical Assistance grant for two billboards which will be placed on the north and southbound sides of U.S. 13. CAED is the non-profit founded to assist with the fundraising and management of the district and will provide the matching funds for thisgrant. The grant allows the signs to be in place March through June. Also in the news, the CAED Project is partnering with other Crisfield organizations to develop a marketing plan with BEACON, The Business Economic and Community Outreach Network, of the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University, to ensure that the maximum value is received for all marketing funds.Crisfield’s A& E district is roughly 97 acres and encompasses both sides of Main Street from the armory to the City Dock, the streets between West Main and including Somers Cove Marina, and both sides of Maryland and Richardson avenues up to the Crisfield Library on Collins Street.

The benefits of being in the district include:

• property tax credits for new construction or renovation of certain buildings that create live-work space for artists and/or space for arts and entertainment enterprises;

• an income tax subtraction

modification for income derived from artistic work executed and sold within the districts by “qualifying residing artists”; and

• an exemption from the Admissions and Amusement tax levied by an “arts and entertainment enterprise” or “qualifying residing artist” in a district.

The district was officially active as of this past July. For more information visit Crisfieldarts.org.