1. The Role of Arts, Culture, and Creativity
What role do arts, culture, and creativity play in your life, your family, your community? What impact does it have?
Arts, culture and creativity have played many different roles in the life, family and communities relative to Scott Hall. Scott Hall has always been a friend to the arts community and to the freedom of expression and speech whether or not Scott Hall agrees with the subject matter. With regards to arts, culture and creativity; going to an arts museum is always a good excuse to hang out with family. Music has had the most impact on the life of Scott Hall as it usually affects the mood of Scott Hall in a positive manner. Music seems to be one of the few things out there that can unite a community and the planet. Music has always been a big part of the life of Scott Hall from enjoying it to actually creating it; at a very early age Scott Hall would “jam out” to music while strumming a tennis racket or broom and then as Scott Hall became older, Scott Hall began developing a passion for being a video artist and producer and has had the honor and pleasure of recording hundreds of diverse musical acts. Scott Hall eventually became part of a rock band as one of the singers that met regularly on the weekends to “jam out” in order to release the tensions caused by hectic work weeks and to record original music until one fateful day when the PA System was stolen and thus abruptly ending a musical endeavor that may have had much more potential given the talented company that would attend frequently over the course of most weekends in order to exchange and express ideas.
2. Addressing District-wide Issues
What are your priority issues? What role can the creative community play in addressing these challenges? What do you think the creative community can do to address social isolation?
When it comes to the role that the creative community can play in addressing the challenges relating to the priority of issues as well as addressing the specific issue of social isolation; music and videos can be a very powerful tool when attempting to get a point across. There are essentially no limits as to how creative the people of Massachusetts can get during the production and editing process. The main issue that Scott Hall has personally been focusing on during the campaign trail is bringing more awareness to the foreclosure (“Fraudclosure”) crisis that continues to persist throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Videos accompanied by the works of local musicians and artists highlighting the efforts of different groups of activists in preventing many more injustices from occurring can go a long way in explaining how the fraudulent activities of these large banking entities are stifling the economic development throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
3. Arts Education and Programs for Our Youth
Research has shown that arts education increases achievement across all academic disciplines, enhances student engagement, and fosters development of critical thinking and learning skills.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is currently redesigning school and district report cards to include measures for arts education participation. In addition, DESE is updating arts curriculum frameworks for the first time since 1999.
What will you do to increase access and participation in arts education for youth both in school and out of schools?
Arts Education and Programs for Our Youth would provide a greater Return On Investment (ROl) than the egregious amounts of Corporate Welfare currently taking place within our Country. Conglomerates have received billions of dollars in the form of tax credits every year where in many instances the funding goes towards contracts promoting the military industrial complex and the deaths of innocent people. Further evidence of Corporate Welfare was the bailout money being received by large banking entities, but never actually spent towards helping homeowners experiencing injustice as it was allegedly intended. After being bailed out; these same large banks have not skipped a beat as far as scamming hard-working families out of generations of their sweat equity. These fraudulent executives of banking entities need to be placed in jail!
4. The Commonwealth’s Support and Role in the Creative Community
Public investment in the arts strengthens local economies, attracts additional investment, and ensures resources serve the public interest. For the past three years, the Legislature has level funded the Mass Cultural Council, investing $14 million in organizational support for the creative community. In 1988, the Mass Cultural Council gave out more than $27 million in grants, nearly twice what we do now.
At what level would you fund the Mass Cultural Council?
Created by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2007, the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund has granted $110 million in matching grants to help restore the Commonwealth’s most treasured historical and cultural landmarks, and fund visionary capital projects that revitalize our communities. As the Cultural Facilities Fund comes up for reauthorization in 2019, there’s interest to increase the Fund to $75 million for five years, allowing the yearly allocations to increase from $10 million to $15 million and meet the increasing demands of projects.
At what level do you suggest the Commonwealth fund this program?
Honestly, the priorities at the Massachusetts Statehouse are in disarray and it does not appear that the Massachusetts Statehouse is the entity to depend upon for a reliable stream of funding during the foreseeable future. 31 out of the 40 State Senators voted for an emergency pay raise, without even holding a public hearing (so much for transparency), as their first legislative Act of the 190th General Court Session in 2017, they did not make an emergency first vote to aid emergency response units, or to improve upon public safety, or to battle the opioid epidemic, or to repair dilapidating infrastructure, or to enhance existing infrastructure for the sake of reducing traffic gridlock, or to work towards reducing healthcare costs and the costs of prescriptions, or to alleviate the housing crisis, or to prevent a mortgage industry riddled with “Fraudclosure”, or to propose better education legislation, or to protect the rights of the disabled, or to curtail the current level of wasteful spending, or to help the poor, or to relieve the senior population on fixed incomes from overly burdensome tax rates, or to ensure that all of our veterans and widows of veterans are properly accommodated, or to promote arts, culture and creativity throughout communities, et cetera. Instead they voted for upwards of 40% pay raises for themselves depending upon their rank that proportionately affected their pensions as well and this was soon after receiving a 4.19% pay raise at the end of 2016. So with that being said; when it comes to additional funding for the promotion of arts, culture and creativity we need to be inventive, resourceful and imaginative just like the 9th United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan suggested when he said “…To succeed today and in the future, America’s children will need to be inventive, resourceful, and imaginative.” One stat on the front page of the Mass-Creative.org website jumps out at Scott Hall is that “83% of students at risk for dropping out of high school said they stayed in school in order to take art classes”.
5. Space for Artists and arts organizations (For Greater Boston Districts)
Active arts organizations and artists make neighborhoods safer, more welcoming, and improve overall quality of life. Yet, as Greater Boston’s development boom continues, the creative community is consistently being priced out of space to live, create, and present art.
From the eviction of artists at the Piano Factory in Boston’s South End and the EMF building in Cambridge, to the possibility of the Huntington Theatre losing its mainstage home on Huntington Avenue, Boston is in danger of losing the vibrancy and cultural diversity which make the area a desirable place for businesses to move and people to live.
How will you work to ensure artist live work spaces are included in development plans?
How will you encourage the development of affordable rehearsal, exhibition, and performance space for artists and cultural organizations?
Scott Hall has a very strong personal connection to the EMF building in Cambridge and also to the current home of www.WEMFRadio.com in Brighton. Scott Hall has participated in countless internet radio episodes at the aforementioned locations and truly appreciates all of the young activists that are making a positive difference in their communities by engaging the public to become more aware of the varied social injustices taking place throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Scott Hall has heard of many tear-jerking stories of talented artists having their life’s work put on hold or discontinued altogether by having to relocate due to the artificial real estate market bubble that is essentially created by the hyperinflation (additional tax) caused by a federal reserve system printing fiat currency rather than using a gold, silver
and natural resource standard much more likely to preserve the eco-system of Planet Earth.
6. Public Art
Public art helps build vibrant and connected neighborhoods and the arts community plays a vital role in the development of cities and towns. The rest of New England and 22 other states have a Public Art Program, which establishes that public art will be an integral piece of all new state construction. The Legislature is considering The Massachusetts Public Art Program, legislation that would invest approximately $2 million a year in the creation and preservation of public art on Commonwealth-owned properties.
What will you do next session to help get the Massachusetts Public Art Program to the finish line?
Public Art is a great thing that needs to be encouraged, whenever Scott Hall comes across public art Scott Hall will usually record it with a video camera if time permits. Scott Hall will continue to create video productions that include displays of public art in the hopes of compelling others to appreciate and propagate the use of public art.
7. Art and Public Health
Expressive art therapy is a proven and effective treatment to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, help cope with traumatic experiences, decrease depression and anxiety, and aid addiction recovery.
How would you ensure veterans, young people in the juvenile justice system, the elderly, and those suffering from addiction are able to access art and creative therapies?
Ideally, Scott Hall would compel the awareness of the public to access art and creative therapies via the power of music and video detailed in a fashion similar to what has already been answered within previous questions of this candidate questionnaire…
