WHAT DOES CTV BOSTON WANT? 

PRIMARY MESSAGE

• The next mayor of Boston will lead Boston out of the COVID-19 pandemic toward a more inclusive, just, and connected city, and the arts and cultural sector will be central to those efforts. CTV Boston wants a mayor who will invest in arts and culture for all with public funding, actions, and support for racial, linguistic, and gender equity.  

SECONDARY MESSAGES

• We want the city of Boston to invest $20 million annually in the arts and cultural sector through direct grants to individual artists and nonprofits, increased support for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and increased support for Uphams Corner, the city’s only designated arts and innovation district.
• We want the city to integrate arts and cultural recovery into larger pandemic economic development plans.
• We want a mayor who will use their position to champion the needs of the arts and cultural community not only through policy choices but through visibility and patronage. Just as throwing out the first pitch at Fenway is a mayoral tradition, so too should attending cultural festivals and opening nights.
• We want arts funding decisions to consider racial and cultural, gender, universal access and discipline diversity as distribution priorities for grant making.

TERTIARY MESSAGES

Economic

Boston arts and cultural nonprofits lost $376 million in revenue since March 2020. Individual creative workers living in Boston lost $12.7 million in personal income and over 20,000 gigs or contract jobs. Without immediate and sustained intervention, arts and culture across Boston will be irreparably harmed. To ensure every resident of Boston can receive the benefits from a strong arts and cultural community, the next mayor of Boston must pursue the following:

• Increase city support for the arts and cultural sector to $20 million annually by the end of the first mayoral term (2025).
•  $7 million annually for direct grants to individual artists and cultural nonprofits
•  Require the adoption of funding practices that address the historical marginalization of some communities and art forms.
• $3 million annually for the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture operations, programs, and technical assistance
•  Increase investment in Uphams’ Corner as the city’s only designated arts and innovation district.
• Use American Rescue Plan Act local aid to kickstart the increase and prioritize identifying an ongoing city funding stream for long-term sustainability.
• Hire creative problem solvers to realize a new Boston.
• Use American Rescue Plan Act local aid to seed a dedicated percentage of city operating funds for the hiring of artists and creative workers as part of the work within City departments permanently.
•  Integrate arts and cultural recovery into larger economic development plans
• When creating economic development strategies, loan programs and initiatives ensure arts and cultural for-profit and nonprofit businesses, as well as independent creative workers, are eligible.
• Commit city funds to the Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture and other City departments for programs and policies outside of the arts sector that impact the entire creative and cultural workforce.
• Promote a living wage for all work and continue to invest in workforce training and retraining with a focus on industries and populations hard-hit by COVID-19, specifically artists of all disciplines and artist-run businesses.
• Identify legislation or other pathways for improved support for Boston’s gig workers, including access to health care and unemployment. (Mayor’s Office, Office of Economic Development, Office of Workforce Development)
• Invest in the health of all Bostonians by finding opportunities to integrate creative expression into urgent public health issues where the arts can have an impact: collective trauma, racism, mental health, social isolation, chronic disease. (Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development, Department of Health and Human Services, and Age Strong Commission)
• Support mid to late career artists by creating programs to assist artists in establishing estate legacy plans for their creative work, ensuring city elder housing is available for practicing artists and enforcing age discrimination policies across City departments in the hiring and support of mid-to-late career artists. (Age Strong Commission)
• Help all roadway users get to where they need to go and create complete streets by continuing to invest in accessible street improvements - wide sidewalks, bus lanes, and other amenities. Continue to coordinate with the MBTA on improved bus service.  (Boston Transportation Department, Boston Planning and Development Agency, Public Works)
• Protect the entire arts and cultural ecosystem.
• Create dialogue between cultural institutions asked to participate in Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) and the broader arts community, City Council, and the Mayor’s Office to increase understanding of how large cultural institutions operate and how PILOT can be strategically restructured to meet measurable equity and access goals.
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Make Boston more welcoming for artists/arts orgs

Make Boston a more arts and culture-friendly city by increasing space for the creation and presentation of art, streamlining permitting processes, and removing barriers for holding cultural events. To build an accessible, creative city the next mayor should support:

• Create the Cultural Community Benefits program: a new allocation from private development in Boston to support the preservation and creation of accessible cultural spaces through capital granting. This includes technical assistance for developers and nonprofit cultural partners.
• City acquisition of accessible space for creative use.
• Create a position in the Boston Planning and Development Agency for creative and cultural space planning.
•  Embed arts and culture in city planning as a part of understanding neighborhood identity, assessing the communities' cultural needs, and prioritizing cultural community benefits.

Diversity

Everyone who lives in Boston has the right to experience creativity and culture, express themselves creatively, and see their culture reflected in artistic expression. Due to the systemic racism laid bare, most recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic, BIPOC entrepreneurs and artists working in the cultural sector have not had access to the same resources, including capital and networks as their white peers. To close these opportunities gaps, the next mayor of Boston must:  

• Commit to antiracism and anti-oppression systems in the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture programs and grantmaking and City Hall.
• Expand arts education content, instruction, and professional development that amplifies narratives of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color and is representative of the student population.
• Ensure city arts funding considers racial and cultural, gender, universal access and discipline diversity as distribution priorities for grant making.
• Recruit artists and creative workers to partner in antiracism and anti-oppression efforts and outcomes for the City of Boston.
• Allocate funding for anti racism and anti-oppression trainings for the arts and cultural sector.
• Require the adoption of funding practices that address the historical marginalization of some communities and art forms.
• $3 million annually for the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture operations, programs, and technical assistance
• Increase investment in Uphams’ Corner as the city’s only designated arts and innovation district. 

Education/youth

Boston needs to increase funding and program support for arts education in Boston Public Schools and access to creative youth development programs across the city. To develop the next generation of leaders in Boston through arts and culture, the next mayor of Boston should:

• Commit to fully funding the four arts education access goals outlined in the Boston Public Schools Arts Education Policy, ensuring every student has access to quality, sequential arts instruction. 
• Enable the provision of the required arts courses (126 hours of arts classes in grades 9 through 12) included in the BPS’ newly adopted MassCore graduation requirement by 2026.
• Hire more certified arts teachers to provide instruction in every high school.
• Support and expand continued Boston Public Schools investment into external arts partnerships for arts education as well as across content areas.
• Expand arts education content, instruction, and professional development that amplifies narratives of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color and is representative of the student population.
•  Engage practicing established artists living in the city of Boston to mentor, nurture and inspire future artists.
• Develop professional development opportunities for teaching artists.
• Build an equitable pipeline to creative jobs
• Fund a youth jobs program for Boston teens at arts and cultural organizations and businesses.
•  Incentivize work-study partnerships between higher education institutions and arts and culture organizations and businesses.
• Equip public libraries with dedicated “arts use” computers, design software and maker tools across the city that students can use to sharpen their graphic design and audio-visual production skills.
• Prioritize investment in accessible spaces for youth arts engagement efforts including spaces for youth to perform and commune.

• Develop and fund space partnerships program between artists, cultural organizations and city-owned buildings (including libraries, community health centers, firehouses and schools) 
• Develop creative and cultural co-working spaces and co-storage spaces that leverage the assets and audiences of the creative community for placekeeping and neighborhood development efforts
• Working with the Department of Neighborhood development and the Boston Planning and Development Agency continue to invest in affordable housing, deepen affordability levels, and increase access to existing City programs such as first-time homebuyer and loan programs through targeted communications and assistance to creative workers.
• Ensure all city public elder housing is available to practicing established artists and is supportive of those artists who live in it.
• Make it easier for city-owned buildings and properties to be utilized by our sector.
• Permanently eliminate event permit fees for arts and cultural activities.
• Reform licensing, permitting, and regulations that impede creative expression and cultural participation, including but not limited to liquor and food licensing.
• Centralize the event permitting process across departments to make it more accessible and equitable.
• Review the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy process to increase the use of alternative or temporary spaces for creative work.
• If police detail is required, provide city funding for any arts and cultural events through 2024.