Move4ART

Mattapan Cultural Arts is launching a new art space for community arts and showcase events!  Mem Nahadr is set to launch our showcase series this September.  Details to soon come.

New England Foundation for the Arts j(NEFA) ust launched its latest iteration of the online directory and data source for New England's creative economy, called Creative Ground .   Here's how NEFA explains it:                 "CreativeGround spotlights the rich range of creative people and places at work in the six New                              England states. This free online directory includes profiles for cultural nonprofits, creative businesses                  and professional artists of all disciplines." Now, if you were already registered via MatchBook, and later CultureCount, your profile has likely survived, though some data might have been lost.  So you might want to check and update your profile there,.  If you're an artist, an arts organization, or in any way involved in the creative econom...

      In early November, a group of six finalists were chosen to develop public art proposals for  the Dudley Square Municipal Center .    Since then, the artists have been hard at work on their proposals, and they will be presenting their conceptual designs to the selection committee on  January 20th and 21st  from  6-8pm   in the Community Room at Central Boston Elder Services.        Each short-listed artist will have twenty minutes to present their concepts for the Wall Design Project or the Outdoor Sculpture Project. The chosen artists will develop their designs for installation at the Dudley Municipal Center in November 2014.    Presentations are free and open to the public The Wall Design finalists are  Best Dressed Signs ,  Cyrille Conan , and  Napoleon Jones-Henderson .  The Outdoor Sculpture finalists are  Christopher Puzio ,  Madeline Weiner , and...

When the Fairmount Indigo Corridor Collaborative brought its community "visioning" process to Mattapan last December, the forum was packed.   The Collaborative's Community Action Group (CAG) gathered residents, urban planners, architects and developers around six work tables in the community room at the Mattapan Branch Library ; replete with maps, markers, clips, and questions to prompt the work ahead. The table-sized maps were drawn from the  City of Boston's Fairmount Indigo Planning Initiative  launched in February 2012  to take advantage of the MBTA's expansion of commuter rail service.  The CAG's facilitators wanted to know what kind of "transit-oriented development" Mattapan residents envisioned along the Blue Hills/Cummings corridor. Biggest surprise was how many people there voiced a desire for a more robust nightlife in Mattapan.  Turns out, there was no need to convince anyone that Mattapan would benefit from having a cultural arts ce...

The ICA/Boston 's Barbara Lee Foundation Theater  filled quickly for the "Cultural Planning Learning Session" after lunch on Novembe 18th.  After giving props to MassCreative 's Create the Vote campaign, the BCA 's Veronique LeMelle set the stage for the afternoon's presenters:   Julie Burros, Director of Cultural Planning for the City of Chicago , spoke from a practical perspective about Chicago's Cultural Plan and the need to develop a strategic plan that can carry cultural policies forward through multiple city administrations; and Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Senior Advisor to the Arts and Culture Program at the Kresge Foundation and an Obama appointee to the National Council on the Arts (NEA), who spoke from the perspective of one grounded in research. Dr. Jackson's overview of her key findings (summarized below) are drawn from her reflections on how urban planning research about arts and culture has progressed in recent years. (Hi...

Even if you missed it, you can thank The Barr Foundation for sponsoring "A Day of Learning and Networking for the Greater Boston Arts & Culture Community" at   ICA Boston  on 18 November 2013.        The day began with an illuminating presentation by TDC 's Susan Nelson--" Beyond Breakeven:  Why Capitalization Matters ."  Review it and you'll immediately see why the word "illuminating" is not hyperbole.        Key takeaway for us?  The "misalignment" between the measures on which arts organizations all too often rely, and the kind of ongoing market research that keeps capitalization matters in mind.        This fundamental disconnect then leads to a series of double binds for arts organizations: break-even analyses tend to focus on the success of funded projects as opposed to annual operating budgets;  arts organizations, not wanting to appear weak--i.e., "unfundable," effectivel...