FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: MARCIA WILLIAMS
MARCIA WILLIAMS (She/Her/Hers)
Photographer in Boston. 2024-2025 Advocacy & Organizing Fellow.
Visual Description: African-American female with clear glasses, wearing a black hijab and black shirt with company logo.
The Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship is a stipended, year-long advocacy leadership development cohort for artivists, creative workers, and emerging cultural leaders to gain the advocacy capacity necessary to achieve an equitable, inclusive, and vibrant creative sector for all in Massachusetts.
Each fellow identifies a cultural policy or creative community issue that they are passionate about changing through grassroots organizing and political advocacy, and then spends their fellowship year working with MASSCreative staff and trainers to incubate strategies to shift these issues.
The 2024-2025 Fellowship cohort is focused on developing projects ranging from creating toolkits to assist rural creative communities with seeking state resources, to improving access to the arts and cultural sector.
MASSCreative is proud to feature 2024-2025 Advocacy & Organizing Fellow, Marcia Williams. Marcia is using her fellowship to develop The Expressive Art “Photography” Studios project, aimed at connecting art and business, educating artists, providing equipment access, and sharing business knowledge in photography.
The Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship is possible thanks to support from the Barr Foundation.
REFLECTION FROM MARCIA:
The Expressive Art “Photography” Studios project aims to connect art and business, educating artists, providing equipment access, and sharing business knowledge in photography. The MASSCreative Fellowship has been instrumental in shaping my plans to achieve these goals in the near future.
The MASSCreative Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship has provided me with a deeper understanding of the key individuals who can help advance my project and connect me with larger organizing bodies. Collaborating with other fellows has been insightful, prompting me to reconsider my own assumptions and expand my network. The fellowship’s programming has facilitated connections with local members, many of whom I have continued to engage with outside of the program.
The lack of affordable and accessible photography studio spaces in Boston is a major barrier for many artists. The high costs associated with renting a studio, equipment, and editing software make it difficult for photographers to sustain a career. To address this need, I propose creating a membership-based community space that provides access to all of these resources in one place.
I envision Expressive Art “Photography” Studios, being able to be equitable long term with accepting donations of gently used photography supplies. Therefore, this will create an environmentally aware mindset on the equipment that photographers use when they start their career in addition this will impact larger corporations who often have a lot of inventory on hand from previous years. This will be a full circle moment impacting artists who need equipment most and the environment. I envision Expressive Art “Photography” Studios achieving long-term sustainability through accepting donations of gently used photography supplies. This initiative promotes environmental awareness among photographers starting their careers and encourages larger corporations, which often have excess inventory, to donate their surplus equipment. This creates a circular model that benefits both artists in need and the environment.
Stay Connected:
Instagram: @photosbymarcia; @expressiveartstudios
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/photosbymarcia
