Arts & Culture Questionnaire for the Holyoke Mayoral Candidates

Read the candidates responses here.

Your Personal Connection
We've all had defining moments in our lives. What personal experience with the arts, culture, and/or creativity has had an impact on your life and your view of our community?

Arts and Culture in the City
Holyoke is blessed with a growing mix of arts and cultural organizations. Please name two places where you have had personally significant arts and/or cultural experiences.

Supporting a Diverse and Inclusive City
Can you provide examples of how you do and would integrate the arts, culture, and creative community in ways that would support the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity that makes Holyoke a great place to live?

Arts in Education and Creative Youth Development
Art instruction should be a critical part of education across all academic disciplines as it develops the whole child. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has pledged to update the Commonwealth’s arts education curriculum as well as reporting on access and participation in arts education in schools and districts. What will you do as Mayor to support arts education in the city’s schools and in our community?

The New Administration’s Role in the Creative Community
At a time when the Trump administration proposed dismantling the National Endowment for the Arts and the State Legislature proposed not to increase investment in the Massachusetts Cultural Council, we need local leadership and support for arts and culture here in the city.

How will you address these funding concerns in the following areas?

• What revenue sources will you create or use to increase the city’s financial investment in the creative community?
• How will you modify or expand the city’s current administrative structure to support the creative community?
• What are your arts and culture program priorities and where will the funds be allocated?

An Arts Destination
While Holyoke is growing as a community, the city has yet to fully leverage the strength of our arts, culture, and creative community as a means for branding and attracting residents, employees, and visitors. How would you utilize our community to make Holyoke a place where people want to live, work, play, and visit?

Your Priorities
The start of a Mayor’s tenure often sets the Administration’s tone and priorities. When elected, what actions will you take in your first 100 days to provide support and resources to the creative community?