LA PLATA — A Waldorf nonprofit that teaches art to hundreds of children a week, often in borrowed rooms, is asking the state for $585,650 toward a permanent home, and Charles County commissioners have put their name behind the request.
Commissioners on Oct. 20 approved a letter supporting the Neighborhood Creative Arts Center’s legislative bond initiative, a state capital grant request the group presented to Charles County’s state delegation the week before. The vote was by voice, with Commissioner Ralph Patterson absent. The letter commits no county money.
Georgia Bonney, the center’s founder and executive director, told commissioners the money would help create a permanent arts and learning campus in an existing building at 11680 Doolittle Drive in Waldorf, near Post Office Road. She said the nonprofit serves more than 250 children a week and more than 3,500 residents a year.
From borrowed rooms to one address
Bonney said the center has operated for more than 13 years without a home of its own, moving among space borrowed from churches, a community center and the College of Southern Maryland. Because it depends on other organizations’ rooms, she said, it cannot run programs before about 4:30 p.m. or on weekends.
She said many of the children it serves are neurodivergent, that the center partners with local early-childhood programs and that no child is turned away for cost. The Doolittle Drive site, she said, sits among Title I schools, which would cut down on the transportation barrier that keeps some families from programs. The building would give the center about 6,800 square feet, she told the delegation.
The center has been looking for a building for some time. A 2024 online fundraiser organized by Bonney sought $150,000 to establish a dedicated children’s center for the nonprofit.
A question about location
Bonney tied the request to the county’s Public Arts and Cultural Master Plan, which was presented to commissioners in December 2025. She told the board that only 8% of residents who answered the plan’s survey said the county has enough art spaces and that a new county arts center was their top arts priority. She also asked for a seat on any advisory group the county forms on arts spaces.
That drew caution from staff and one commissioner. Acting County Administrator Deborah Hall said the county’s Recreation, Parks and Tourism department is studying a possible arts and entertainment district around a lake and the surrounding property in Waldorf, but that the idea has not been fully developed and no advisory committee exists yet. She said the plan would come before the next board of commissioners.
Commissioner Gilbert Bowling said he supports the goal but was wary of endorsing a specific address for what he understood could become a county capital project before the board and planning staff decided where an arts center should go. Staff and the board then clarified that the center is an independent nonprofit seeking state money for its own building, and that the request does not commit county funds.
Another commissioner asked whether the effort resembled arts work under way in Leonardtown in St. Mary’s County and said the county should learn from it rather than reinvent the wheel. Bonney said she was not familiar with the St. Mary’s project.
What happens next
Legislative bond initiatives are sponsored by members of the General Assembly and reviewed by the Department of Legislative Services. According to the department’s guide to requesting an LBI, sponsors can file requests starting Dec. 1, the budget committees typically vote on the bond package in March or April, and approved projects take effect June 1. Grantees must own the property or hold a lease of at least 15 years, or bring the owner in as a co-grantee, and must show other committed funding and certify any required match.
Bonney said the delegation asked about the building’s size, how long the center has operated and how many people it serves. The 2027 General Assembly session begins in January.
The letter was one of several items before commissioners that morning, a session that also included an update on the county’s sidewalk and shared-use path requests and approval of a $400 water and sewer bill credit for customers in need.
