2025 Boston mayoral candidates participate in a forum on arts & culture issues
In the center: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addresses questions about Boston’s arts and cultural sector from Jared Bowen, host of GBH’s The Culture Show. They are seated in front of the set from Company One Theatre’s production of The Meeting Tree. The Create the Vote logo and MASSCreative banner are displayed in the background. An ASL interpreter is seated on the left. Image by Lauren Miller Photography.
BOSTON (7/31/25) - On Wednesday, July 30, 2025, more than 750 artists, creatives, cultural organization leaders, and members of the arts community in Boston registered for this year’s Boston Mayoral Forum on Arts & Culture at the Strand Theatre, on the production set of Company One Theatre’s The Meeting Tree. Organized by the 2025 Create the Vote Boston Coalition, this forum allowed members of the creative community to hear directly from Boston mayoral candidates Michelle Wu, Josh Kraft, and Domingos DaRosa about their policy positions and proposals to support the City’s creative workforce over the next four years. Jared Bowen, host of GBH’s The Culture Show, asked the candidates questions that were submitted in advance by members of the audience. Boston City Council-at-Large candidates were invited to participate in a meet-and-greet with attendees before the start of the formal program.
Audience members submitted questions related to funding and resource allocation, artist displacement and creative space loss, housing and affordability, arts workers and labor, arts education and youth engagement, and how each of their administrations would prioritize and preserve diversity, equity, and inclusion in their policies and programs. Attendees wanted to know how candidates would respond to questions about:
How they would define a thriving arts and culture sector and what metrics they would use to assess progress;
What their plans are for investing in the long-term growth of the sector, including sustained operational support for arts and cultural non-profits; and
What specific funding mechanisms and resources their administrations would
commit to creating and sustaining permanent, affordable creative spaces.
Attendees also submitted questions asking about each of the candidates’ visions for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture moving forward as the City continues its search process for a new Chief of Arts and Culture. The Chief’s position has been vacant since January 2025 when Kara Elliott-Ortega left City Hall after serving in the role for six years.
“For over a decade, MASSCreative has worked with advocates, artists and cultural leaders to ensure candidates running for office understand arts and culture are a priority for voters. These nonpartisan efforts are essential to strengthening our democracy and building elected officials into arts champions.”
As the incumbent mayor, Michelle Wu spoke to her administration’s record on arts and culture, as well as the work they are still undertaking to make Boston’s creative economy more robust, accessible, and inclusive. She stated during the forum that the Boston Family Days program is one of her proudest achievements. She also cited Boston’s recent invitation into the World Cities Culture Forum, Boston Public Art Triennial, and Un-monument as evidence of Boston’s cultural richness.
Wu continued to attribute the creative sector as the way to deliver resilience, inspiration, and action on other issues the city faces. She discussed actions that her administration is taking to include artists and creatives in Boston’s anti-displacement plan, as well as a need for city government to track metrics around artist displacement, creative spaces, and efforts to streamline events permitting. She cited artist displacement as the most urgent issue her administration hears about.
When asked about his arts and culture policy agenda, Josh Kraft shared that he would want to support the sector by ensuring that people feel safe to share their art and their cultures, and would build an administration that would be open and inclusive towards everyone. For specific policy proposals, Kraft said that he would like to work with the Mass Cultural Council to designate a Blue Hill Cultural Corridor to celebrate the history of the Black diaspora in Boston, make arts therapy accessible to residents across sectors and neighborhoods, and that he would respond to lost federal funding by working with private donors and the Massachusetts federal delegation to brace the sector.
In response to what he would look for in a future Chief of Arts and Culture, Kraft responded by saying that he would rely on community feedback to identify someone who would inspire people, be accessible, and lead in “unconventional” ways. Kraft called these proposals a “sneak preview” of his administration’s arts and culture policy platform. When asked about the sector’s inclusion in PILOT, Kraft commented on the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes program, suggesting that we should look at PILOT as a way to increase revenue during tough fiscal times.
Domingos DaRosa was the final candidate to speak with Jared about his vision for the arts and cultural sector. DaRosa criticized a lack of diverse representation in Boston’s arts and cultural offerings and proposed redirecting funding from police overtime pay into schools for, among other things, arts education. DaRosa reiterated throughout the conversation that public education would be a top priority for him and his administration. In addition to the public education system, he expressed a need to invest in the city’s libraries and modify their hours and programming to meet the needs of communities.
When asked about the vacant Chief of Arts and Culture position, DaRosa suggested finding talented candidates from within Boston and that the city would benefit from each neighborhood having its own Chief of Arts and Culture.
“This forum was a really important part of making sure members of the creative community in Boston are engaged in this election and driving the direction of the sector. This is not a time for artists to sit on the sidelines - this is a time for them to flex their political power and advocate for what they need.”
Organized through MASSCreative, Create the Vote is a nonpartisan, statewide program promoting increased civic engagement through the creative community in Massachusetts. Create the Vote launched its inaugural campaign with the Boston mayoral election in 2013. Through the support of the Barr Foundation and partnership with Boston arts stakeholders, the Create the Vote campaign successfully brought the needs of the creative sector front and center for candidates and voters. During a Create the Vote town hall forum, Former-Mayor Walsh publicly committed to appointing a Chief of Arts and Culture for the City to his Cabinet. Since its first season, Create the Vote organizers have partnered with community members in other regions of the state to hold candidate forums around Massachusetts House and Senate races, and statewide races including the Lieutenant Governor’s race in 2022. Create the Vote is a tool for the creative community in Massachusetts to increase voter education, promote voter turnout, and to elevate the profile of creative workers as civic leaders during election cycles.
“Our creative community must work together among all artistic practices, with foundations and funders, and especially with our elected officials where we live and work. We need to amplify our own stories, communicate our own needs, and most importantly, connect the data that shows that our creative sector not only contributes to economic development, but is a large part of the workforce, too. The arts are not just nice to have. They are essential to economic growth, community building, and overall wellness.”
Images from the 2025 Boston Mayoral Forum on Arts & Culture. Photography by Lauren Miller Photography.
The forum concluded with a performance by Regie Gibson, Massachusetts’ first-ever Poet Laureate. The Boston Mayoral Forum was organized by host committee members Abilities Dance, AfroDesiaCity Productions LLC, ArtsBoston, #ARTSTAYSHERE Coalition, BAMS Fest Inc, Boston Art Review, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston Children's Museum, Boston Lyric Opera, Castle of our Skins, Charlestown Rehearsal Studios Tenants Association, Company One Theatre, Dorchester Art Project, EdVestors, Embrace Boston, Expressive Art Studios, GrubStreet, Humphreys Street Studios, MASSCreative, National Center of Afro-American Artists, Photosbymarcia LLC, Roxbury Cultural District, SpeakEasy Stage, Temple Gill, The Annette McCarty Art Studio, The Fenway Alliance, The Network for Arts Administrators of Color (NAACBoston), The Record Co., and Veronica Robles Cultural Center (VROCC). GBH was the exclusive public media partner.
The 2025 Create the Vote Boston Coalition will continue its work through this election cycle by promoting voter education and turnout for the preliminary and general elections.
“The momentum from last night’s Mayoral Forum shows that the arts and culture community is being heard but our work is far from over. As a coalition, Create the Vote Boston is committed to continuing our organizing efforts to ensure that arts and culture remain a priority in the upcoming election and in the next administration. This is a pivotal moment to advocate for equitable investment in the creative sector and the communities it serves.”
Organizers with Create the Vote are holding a mayoral forum on arts and culture in Somerville next on Monday, August 25, 2025 at 6 PM.
WATCH THE BOSTON FORUM RECORDING:
