The Cultural Arts Committee (CAC) was organized March 16, 1981, as a coordinating committee of cultural arts events in Union Baptist Church. The committee has the responsibility for planning a well-rounded schedule of cultural programs, drawing upon local, as well as national talent. 

The Black Church has been the primary audience for Black artists, especially those who were young or untested in the larger community. Union Baptist Church wished to continue this tradition. Since our beginning, the Cultural Arts Committee has brought a wealth of diverse talents to our church and the Baltimore community in the area of vocal, instrumental, visal and literary arts.

Some of the celebrated artists who have performed are: David Hurd, organist; Richard Hobson, baritone; Wendell P. Whalum, founder/director of The Wendell P. Whalum Community Chorus; Willliam Dawson, composer/conductor; Samuel Yette, author/lecturer; Mellasenah Y. Morris, pianist and former Dean, Peabody Conservatory; John Kilium, author; and Loring Cornish, visual artist. Our renown church choir and instrumentalists have contributed much to the excellence of the program.

In 2008, the CAC began a series titled, “The Civil Rights Movement: The Church, The Community, The Song.”   The series included Part I, The Civil Rights Movement: The Church, The Community, which was a symposium by distinguished panelists, including Taylor Branch, Pulitzer prize winning author, Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge, Maryland Court of Appeals, George K. McKinney, U.S. Marshall (retired),  and Frances Gordon, Ph.D. and Brenda Bowe Johnson, Ph.D., who were among the first African-American students to integrate Baltimore’s Eastern High School and Western High School respectively. Part II, The Song, presented the internationally renown Howard University Choir in concert. For 2009, the CAC series titled “The Civil Rights Movement: The Church, The Community, The Song,” promises to be equally relevant and stimulating.