Boston Globe arts reporter Geoff Edgers interviewed the directors of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Institute of Contemporary Art to find out what they “hope[d] to see from the next mayor of Boston.” The piece ran on the front page of the Globe’s Sunday arts section on October 20, 2013, and it made for fascinating reading.

MFA Executive Director Malcolm Rogers said that he was pleased that both candidates had pledged to hire a cabinet-level cultural officer: “We haven’t always felt there’s been a strong representative within the administration. So to have a cabinet position would be tremendous, if that cabinet post is at the table. The arts, generally, have not been around the table when decisions have been made.”

Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, talked about the contributions the arts have made in Boston: “Part of what we want is for the arts to be made a priority and valued for what they bring. In the introduction to that panel [the Boston Mayoral Candidate Forum on Arts, Culture, and Creativity held at the Paramount Theatre on Sept. 9], what was said was that the arts generate 10,000 jobs, 10 million visitors, and a billion dollars in economic activity. Those are big numbers.”

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Director Anne Hawley talked about the need for cooperation among arts groups: “The cultural sector doesn’t really have a flying wedge in order to really interact with either the city or the state. MASSCreative has been formed as an advocacy, policy push, … We all are very fragmented. We don’t see each other enough.”

You can read the full piece here.

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(Photo Credit: Lane Turner/Globe Staff)