To the MA Creative Community: 

I’m writing to let you know that I’ll be leaving MASSCreative at the end of June. 

As one of MASSCreative’s first employees, I cannot tell you how amazing it has been to watch our movement grow over the past seven years. 

Together, our coalition of artists, member organizations, community organizers, arts and cultural leaders, educators, students, and arts advocates have:

• Increased state investment in the creative community through the Mass Cultural Council budget and Cultural Facilities Fund by over 80%.
• Strengthened grassroots organizing and advocacy through a 50+ member Leadership Council, 400 Member Organizations, and a spirited Youth Arts Action initiative.
• Strengthened the collective advocacy voice of the creative community through hundreds of online actions, annual #ArtsMatterDays, dozens of regional trainings and gatherings, and bi-annual Arts Advocacy Days at the State House.
• Elevated arts education in conversations and policy decisions about access to quality public education.
• Engaged hundreds of candidates and thousands of voters through MASSCreative’s annual nonpartisan, public education campaign Create the Vote.

None of this would have happened without people like you choosing to add your voice to something larger than yourself. That work, of course, will continue and expand. Over the next two months, you can tune in to MASSCreative’s COVID-19 Virtual Policy & Action Updates. And Emily and I will be launching a new version of Create the Vote to increase voter awareness about the importance of advocating for artists, arts, culture, and creativity as well as increasing voter participation and turnout.

Come July, I’ll be reflecting on what comes next. Yes, I know it’s weird timing to leave a job I love for the unknown in the middle of a global pandemic. But the seeds for this move were planted last year when I participated in National Arts Strategy’s Creative Community Fellowship. It was life-changing to spend so much time connecting and strategizing with other artists and arts leaders around the country about the ways through which community connections can be deepened through art, culture, and creativity. Through that experience, I realized how much I value and enjoy working with young people and I know that will be integral to what I do next. And if I’ve learned anything during this public health emergency, it’s the value of being intentional in how we live and work. 

In the meantime, please reach out if there are ways that we can collaborate to advance the work of the creative sector.

Onward,

Tracie Konopinski
Program Director, MASSCreative

[email protected]rg
856-266-7555
[email protected]