The Nine Muses Award

The nine muses award celebrates and honors our muses—our nine charter members. The award was created, developed, and initially funded by our first chapter—the Baltimore Chapter of the Pierians Inc. This award not only honors the women who passed the love of art to hundreds of women from 1958 through the present, but it promotes their collective dream of having school-aged children in their communities exposed to a variety of arts during their school-aged years.

This award will be granted to a 501 C3 organization that impacts the future of our children through the conduct of programs and initiatives that provide exposure to the arts to school-aged children in our communities.

Since the 1980s we have seen the systematic removal of arts education from public school curricula in urban areas. This has affected students disproportionately in underserved urban areas. The decline in arts education necessitates that we focus on supporting groups that are assuming the responsibility of exposing and developing artistic talent and appreciation in the communities that we serve. Exposure was one of the enduring beliefs of Annette C Johnson, our Founder; she recognized that not every child would become a great artist, but that every child and adult should have some regular and reoccurring art experience that exposes them to the arts in their communities.