VICTORY: Baker approves $18M for Mass Cultural

It’s official! On July 31, Governor Baker signed the FY20 state budget, and with it approved a $2 million increase in state public funding to the creative community through the Mass Cultural Council budget. 

This increase elevates the Mass Cultural Council budget to $18 million, making it the largest state allocation to the cultural agency since 2002. In addition to increasing public investment to the creative community, this final budget includes new language in the Mass Cultural Council line item ensuring that the state cultural agency will be able to continue to provide both grants and services to the creative community. 

This is the first time in five budget cycles that Governor Baker has not vetoed an increase to the Mass Cultural Council budget. In that time, MASSCreative and the creative community organized four successful overrides of Governor Baker's arts vetoes. We’re thrilled that this year we’re able to celebrate an early victory!

We’re grateful for partners and supporters like you, who have reached out and organized others to email their legislators--once, twice, three times--this budget season regarding state public arts funding. It’s with this collective action that MASSCreative can continue our work.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to thank Gov. Baker, you can do so here.

Policy Watch: Advocating for A More Creative Massachusetts

MASSCreative works to advance policies that encourage the creation of art and access to cultural experiences for residents across the Commonwealth. On June 25, MASSCreative’s Interim Executive Director, Emily Ruddock, spent the day testifying for policies to encourage more creativity and artistic expression in the Commonwealth--first, at the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting, and later at the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development. 

In the morning, Ruddock attended the board meeting of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to speak in support of adopting the revised Arts Curriculum Frameworks. On behalf of the Arts for All Coalition, Ruddock encouraged the board to adopt the Curriculum Frameworks as an essential next step in providing young people a quality in-school sequential arts education. The Arts Curriculum Frameworks--which have not been updated since 1999--are the guides used by districts and schools to develop local arts education curricula for each artistic discipline. Over the past two years, the Arts for All Coalition worked with Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff to encourage thorough and relevant curriculum that contributes to a well-rounded education for every child, regardless of school district or zip code. 

In addition to adopting the new Curriculum Frameworks, Ruddock requested the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education support teachers in implementing the new frameworks. Ruddock offered the support and partnership of the Arts for All Coalition in this next phase of work. The Arts for All Coalition includes Arts | Learning, Mass Cultural Council, EdVestors, Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion and the Massachusetts College of Arts and Design. 

Kate Gilbert (left) Executive Director, Now and There and Emily Ruddock, 
MASSCreative Interim Executive Director prep for their testimony.

Next, Ruddock travelled to the State House for a hearing of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development. There she spoke in support of bills to establish the Massachusetts Public Art Program, sponsored by Rep. Mary Keefe and Sen. Adam Hinds. The Massachusetts Public Art Program would invest approximately $2 million a year in the creation and preservation of public art on Commonwealth-owned properties. In doing so, Massachusetts would join every other New England state, along with 23 others, that invest in public art programs. During her testimony, Ruddock was joined by Kate Gilbert, Executive Director of Now + There, an organization that delivers thought-provoking public art projects that advance new definitions of public art. Gilbert spoke firsthand about the democratic nature of public art: everyone can access and appreciate work in the public realm. She also noted the transformational power public art has to spaces and neighborhoods.

MASSCreative Board Member and Executive Director, Worcester Cultural Coalition Erin Williams (left) and
Rep. Mary Keefe of Worcester (right) speak at the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development hearing.

While at the State House, Ruddock also submitted written testimony supporting bills filed by Rep. David Biele and Sen. James T. Welch that would exempt artistic services from the Commonwealth’s procurement process--the process through which state and municipal agencies acquire goods and services. Commissioning and selecting public art requires a very different process than the precise requirements demanded in the MA Public Procurement Act for other goods and services like paper projects and construction projects, where it often goes to the lowest bidder. Cities and towns who want to implement more public art projects on municipal-owned property find themselves hampered by the current procurement bidding requirements. These bills would add artists to a group including architects and photographers that are exempt from the procurement requirements, and would give cities and towns across Massachusetts the necessary policy change to create more public art. The Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition worked to advance these bills and lead the advocacy efforts. MASSCreative was happy to lend our support to this necessary legislation. Learn more about these bills here. 

Creativity Connects: Arts Advocacy Day 2019 
By Stephanie Mckay, Guest Contributor

On March 26, 2019, over 400 artists, arts leaders, supporters, and partners from across Massachusetts gathered for Creativity Connects: MASSCreative Arts Advocacy Day. Stephanie Mckay, MASSCreative Member and Arts Advocacy Day Captain shares her experience: 

Stephanie Mckay, stands in front of the
Massachusetts Statehouse on Arts Advocacy Day

My name is Stephanie Mckay, and I am an educator, recording artist, mother, and graduate student at Lesley University in Arts, Community, and Education. As an educator, I am committed to working locally and internationally with youth to support and empower their voices through art and creativity.

In March, I took the day to attend MASSCreative’s Arts Advocacy Day because I have seen firsthand how the arts empower youth by giving them agency over their lives, by building their confidence, self-discipline, and critical thinking. 

Growing up in the Bronx, I was a shy girl who couldn’t imagine that my voice would matter enough to make a difference in my community. Through music, my chorus teacher Mrs. Ranno gave me a vehicle to express myself and transcend my environment. The arts allowed me to imagine and construct a more complex identity. 

Today, as an educator I am inspired to help young people have access to the same opportunities of self-expression, and to believe they can make their artistic and creative dreams come true.

Stephanie and Jason Rabin of Young Audiences march through
Boston Common during Arts Advocacy Day

When I arrived at Emerson’s Paramount Center for MASSCreative’s Arts Advocacy Day, the theater was buzzing with excitement as attendees connected with friends and colleagues, celebrated arts and culture, and advocated for a more vibrant Massachusetts. 

After honing our advocacy and storytelling skills at the Paramount, I joined fellow arts advocates for an ‘Arts March’ through the Boston Common to the State House. At the State House, arts advocates connected with over 80 legislative offices, telling stories of impact and showing that arts and creativity should be a respected, valued, and expected part of everyday life. 

My experience at MASSCreative’s Arts Advocacy Day was personally empowering and reminded me of the impact of using my voice to advocate for the arts today.

In addition to using my voice to support policies and legislation that will help develop the next generation of artists, I joined MASSCreative as a monthly donor to add my economic power to the movement. I’m excited to see what is next for MASSCreative and remain engaged because of the organization’s commitment to educate new leaders and mobilize people to take action--action which directly results in a better quality of life for families and communities across Massachusetts.

Stephanie and other arts advocates from Medford and
Somerville meet with Rep. Christine Barber

***

MASSCreative is grateful to its grassroots advocates who also invest in our success as individual donors. MASSCreative’s monthly donors select a regular and ongoing giving calendar, taking advantage of a manageable payment plan to provide critical, sustaining support to the organization throughout the year. No amount is too small. Thank you.

Join this special group of donors by signing up for your very own, just right for you, monthly giving plan. Thank you.

Thank you MASSCreative Member Organizations

MASSCreative’s work to build a more healthy, equitable, and vibrant Massachusetts continues to grow thanks to the continued support of our member organizations. Take a look at the current list of MASSCreative Member Organizations and help us celebrate the new organizations who have joined this year! 

Interested in becoming a member organization? Join us!

Congratulating Matt Wilson

L-R: Julie Muraco, Board Chair, Americans for the Arts; Matt Wilson,
Robert Lynch, Executive Director, Americans for the Arts

In April, Matt Wilson announced his departure as Executive Director of MASSCreative to return to the broader movement for social justice. Thanks to Matt's leadership, MASSCreative has grown from a small group of dedicated advocates to a statewide network of more than 400 organizational members and tens of thousands of grassroots arts supporters who work daily to make art and creativity a respected, valued, and expected part of everyday life. 

In June, Matt was honored at the Americans for the Arts Annual conference with the Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award. We congratulate Matt on this national recognition for his political advocacy for artists and the creative sector in Massachusetts. 

Program Director Tracie Konopinski Receives Fellowship to Build Community Through Creativity

MASSCreative is pleased to announce that Tracie Konopinski, the organization’s program director, has been awarded a Creative Community Fellowship by National Arts Strategies (NAS), a Virginia-based organization dedicated to strengthening the arts and culture sector by supporting and educating leaders working in the arts ecosystem.

 As one of 25 fellows in the 2019 Creative Community Fellows New England cohort, Konopinski will spend six months working with NAS, faculty partners from the University of Pennsylvania, and leading practitioners in the field learning ways to deepen community connections through strategic partnerships and other collaborations. 

You can read more about Tracie’s Fellowship here

Meet Our Summer 2019 Interns

Learn more about the members of MASSCreative's summer internship team, and take a look at the projects they have been working on. Interested in a MASSCreative internship? Apply for fall/winter internship opportunities here.

Staff Recommendations: articles to read and activities to attend

Equal access and opportunities for participation

• September 27, 2019: 2019 Essex County Arts & Culture Summit Beverly, MA: This year's event will have a focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Cultural Space Development and plans for the future of ECCF's Creative County Initiative projects
• Artists, Funders, and Disruption in the Public Realm 
• Poetry helped Jerry Beck as a kid. Now he’s taking it on the road with the Poetry Mobile 

Connected communities

• For public art in the Boston area, competing interests and big questions 
• City of Worcester announces completion of first comprehensive cultural plan
• How Public Art can Boost the Pride (and Resilience) of Your Neighborhood 

Access to a well-rounded education for all students

• YolanDa Brown: Music education 'creates more well-rounded people'

Respect and support for the creative workforce and economy

• Boston's Arts Sector Attracts More Visitors Than Sports Games, Report Says 

Happy and healthy people

• September 16-19, 2019: Creating Community Through Arts in Health: 2019 National Organization for Arts in Health Conference in Boston
• Dancing can reverse the signs of aging in the brain