Mass Cultural Council Institute: Full Schedule

Thank you all for participating in the Mass Cultural Council Institute – Unleashing the Power of Culture - on March 17th. Five hundred of you came from cities and towns across the state to meet your colleagues, learn from others and understand your importance as an economic driver in your communities. What incredible energy you brought with you and we here at the Mass Cultural Council are so inspired by the work that you are doing day in and day out to weave the Power of Culture into the fabric of your communities. Thank You!

9:15am EDT

Coffee and Breakfast

Saturday March 17, 2018 9:15am - 10:00am EDT
Atrium

9:15am EDT

Registration/Networking/Resource Fair

Saturday March 17, 2018 9:15am - 10:00am EDT
Atrium

10:00am EDT

Unleashing the Power of Culture, with Anita Walker, Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council

Saturday March 17, 2018 10:00am - 10:30am EDT
Ballroom North Center

10:45am EDT

All Together Now!

Diversity, equity, inclusion. We use these words as we strive to become more diverse, yet many leaders are uncertain about the steps needed to turn dialogue – and intention – into action. There has never been a more relevant time to think about our efforts. We want to get it right, but how? The desire to increase diversity can translate into the reality of an environment that enables people of different backgrounds to succeed, and varied, mission-advancing perspectives to be heard. This session will highlight information and tools to help leaders make the changes that will lead to more diverse, inclusive, and equitable communities.

Speakers

Charles G. Baldwin

Program Officer, UP, Mass Cultural Council

Charles G. Baldwin is the Program Officer for the Mass Cultural Council’s Universal Participation (UP) Initiative, which provides resources for organizations seeking to develop inclusive and equitable tools for policy development and community engagement. For 15 years Charles was... Read More →

David Howse

Executive Director, ArtsEmerson

David C. Howse is a recognized speaker and commentator on the arts and socialintegration, and for over a decade has been a leader in the nonprofit arts andculture sector. In his role as Associate Vice President of the Office of the Arts atEmerson College and Executive Director of... Read More →

All Together Now Resource pdf

Baldwin pptx

Saturday March 17, 2018 10:45am - 11:45am EDT
Meeting Room C/D

10:45am EDT

Artists as Partners

That creative hum you hear in the background in every city and town in the Commonwealth? It's an artist at work. Forging partnerships with artists in your community is integral in championing and investing in cultural experiences that enrich people's lives. Equitable partnerships that increase understanding of how to work together, tackle stereotypical thinking, take creative risks and trust that the results will be more than you hoped for.

Speakers

Laura Baring-Gould

Artist

Sculptor Laura Baring-Gould creates large-scale public sculptures, epic ephemeral installations, and small intimate objects that create wonder in the palm of a hand. A love of universal shapes, as well as a fascination with elemental materials that include bronze, honey, salt, beeswax... Read More →

Peter DiMuro

Executive Artistic Director, The Dance Complex

Peter DiMuro is a career-long choreographer, director, arts-engager and performer. Highlights include a 15-year relationship as collaborator with and artistic director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and his current roles as Artistic Director of the Boston-based Peter DiMuro/Public Displays... Read More →

Rashin Fahandej

Research Fellow, MIT Open Documentary Lab

Rashin Fahandej is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, and educator. Her projects center on marginalized voices, personal histories, and possibilities for public participation and collaboration. Fahandej is a research fellow at MIT Open Documentary Lab and a former Boston Artists-In-Residence... Read More →

Leslie Ferrin

Owner and Director, Ferrin Contemporary

Leslie Ferrin is founder, director of Ferrin Contemporary and co-owner with Sergei Isupov of Project Art, Cummington, MA. Ferrin Contemporary began in 1979 in Northampton Mass as Pinch Pottery, as an artist coop gallery and studio. 40 years and 6 locations later, Leslie Ferrin, is... Read More →

Cherie Mittenthal

Executive Artistic Director, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill

Cherie Mittenthal received her MFA from the State University of New York, Purchase College and a BFA from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. She has been the Executive Director of Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill since 2002 and last year became the Executive... Read More →

Artists as Partners Resource pdf

DiMuro pptx

Mittenthal pptx

Baring Gould pptx

Fahandej pptx

Saturday March 17, 2018 10:45am - 11:45am EDT
Meeting Room E

10:45am EDT

Breaking into City Hall

Where do I go to get the permit for my public event? Who should I contact to invite the select board to an event? Does the Mayor know what we are doing? Working with municipalities to help move your cultural agenda along can be difficult, but knowing the right approach and who to talk to can make a world of difference. This session will give you tips and tools to better navigate City/Town Hall, and get you working more collaboratively with your municipal officials.

Speakers

Joseph Curro

Chair, Board of Selectmen, Town of Arlington

Joseph A. Curro, Jr. is Chair of the Arlington Board of Selectmen, on which he has served since 2012. During his time on the Board, Curro has: authored bylaws pertaining to street entertainment and establishment of a Poet Laureate; worked on the establishment of the Arlington Cultural... Read More →

Liz Hartsgrove

Consumer Affairs Supervisor, Town of Barnstable

Elizabeth (Liz) Hartsgrove is the Consumer Affairs Supervisor for the Town of Barnstable; creating Park Happy, the Gateway Greeter program, Discover Barnstable Program, and works with numerous organizations that seek permitting assistance with events held in the Hyannis HyArts and... Read More →

Greg Liakos

Communications Director, Mass Cultural Council

Greg Liakos has served as Communications Director for the Mass Cultural Council since 2004. Part of the agency’s senior staff, he manages long-term, broad-based advocacy campaigns for the nonprofit arts, humanities, and sciences. He leads Mass Cultural Council’s communications... Read More →

Linda Tyer

Mayor, City of Pittsfield

Linda M. Tyer was inaugurated as Mayor of the City of Pittsfield in January 2016, and is the first mayor to be elected to a four-year term in the city’s history.Mayor Tyer’s depth of understanding comes from her cumulative experience honed from her work in law firms, school systems... Read More →

Breaking Into City Hall Resource pdf

Tyer pptx

Curro pdf

Saturday March 17, 2018 10:45am - 11:45am EDT
Meeting Room B

10:45am EDT

Telling Your Story and Making it Count

Who knew? Your city/town has so much to share with the world. It is rich with arts, culture and history, but how do you let people know? The power of evaluation is key to unlocking these treasures. Counting, surveying, and researching will give you the tools you need to tell your story, increase public awareness and empower your community to celebrate its uniqueness. This session will help you identify the necessary information you need to tell your story and promote your city/town.

Speakers

Pacey Foster

Associate Professor, Management, UMass Boston

Pacey Foster is Associate Professor of Management at UMass Boston. He received his Ph.D. from the Wallace E. Carroll School of Management at Boston College and his research focuses on social networks, and economic and regional dynamics in the creative economy. In 2016, Professor Foster... Read More →

Lee Heald

Director, AHA! New Bedford

Since 2007, Candace Lee Heald has served as the Director of AHA! New Bedford’s 2nd Thursday FREE Art and Culture Night. AHA! is the longest continuously funded grant for place-making and the creative economy from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and continues to have one of the... Read More →

Käthe Swaback

Program Director, Raw Art Works

Käthe Swaback is a visual artist, art therapist, and arts administrator with an M.A. in expressive therapy. Käthe joined the core team of Raw Art Works to develop RAW Space in 1994 with the mission to "ignite the desire to create and the confidence to succeed in our youth." As program... Read More →

Matt Wilson

Executive Director, MASSCreative

Matt Wilson is the Executive Director of MASSCreative, the statewide advocacy voice for Massachusetts’ arts, cultural, and creative community. Since its founding in 2012, MASSCreative has grown to more than 400 organizational members with 25,000 individuals taking part in public... Read More →

Telling Your Story and Making It Count Resource pdf

Telling Your Story Creative Youth Development Resource pdf

Foster pdf

Heald Lee pptx

Wilson pptx

Swaback pdf

Saturday March 17, 2018 10:45am - 11:45am EDT
South Ballroom

10:45am EDT

What's Your Agenda?

Have a cultural plan? An arts agenda? What is the vision of your municipality? Having an agenda for arts and culture planning helps support the cultural sector in your community. It deliberately includes arts and culture programming in the strategic plan for a community and gives it a level playing field. This session will talk about the creation of cultural plans, and how cities and towns have developed and rolled out these plans to benefit their communities, both economically and creatively.

Speakers

Julie Burros

Chief of Arts and Culture, City of Boston

Julie Burros is the Chief of Arts and Culture for the City of Boston, a cabinet level position reporting directly to Mayor Martin J. Walsh. The Arts Cabinet includes the Boston Public Library and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. She leads Boston Creates, the cultural plan... Read More →

Jennifer Raitt

Director, Planning and Community Development, Town of Arlington

Jennifer Raitt is the Director of Planning and Community Development for the Town of Arlington. For the past 22 years, she has worked in the fields of Housing, Community Development, and Planning to advance a range of initiatives from creating affordable housing in urban and suburban... Read More →

Erin Williams

Cultural Development Officer, City of Worcester

Erin Williams is a playwright, theater director, dramaturge, Cultural Development Officer for the City of Worcester and Executive Director of the Worcester Cultural Coalition. The Coalition is a unique public private partnership which shines a spotlight on the creative activity produced... Read More →

Whats Your Agenda Resource pdf

Raitt Jenny pdf

Burros pptx

Williams pptx

Saturday March 17, 2018 10:45am - 11:45am EDT
Junior Ballroom

12:00pm EDT

Lunch

Saturday March 17, 2018 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Ballroom North Center

1:15pm EDT

Regional Meet & Greet

Come meet others working in the cultural sector in your area. Network and share information, find out what your colleagues and peers are doing in neighboring communities, partner on programming, share resources and come away ideas on future connections and collaborations.

Saturday March 17, 2018 1:15pm - 1:45pm EDT
Ballroom North Center

1:45pm EDT

A Sense of Place

A sense of place describes our relationship with places, expressed in different dimensions of human life: emotions, biographies, imagination, stories, and personal experiences. All of us have a place we call home, a place we work, places that we have memories of--a community. When arts and culture are at the center of placemaking, we create community.

Speakers

Jennifer Audley

Chair, Montague Cultural Council

The welcoming and enthusiastic arts community in Turners Falls inspired Jen Audley to put down roots in Franklin County a decade ago. She came to Western Mass from Cambridge, where she'd organized neighborhood block parties, pursued interests in art-making and local history, and helped... Read More →

Gregory Jenkins

Executive Director, Somerville Arts Council

Gregory Jenkins is the Executive Director of the Somerville Arts Council. His professional experience includes arts education, public folklore, and community based programming. Since 2005 he has spearheaded a cultural economic development initiative in Somerville's Union Square.

Aviva Kapust

Executive Director, Village of Arts and Humanities

Aviva Kapust is the Executive Director of the Village of Arts and Humanities (the Village), a multifaceted organization dedicated to community revitalization through the arts. Kapust joined the Village in 2010 as programs director, and previously worked as an art director and creative... Read More →

Giles Li

Executive Director, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

Giles Li is the Executive Director of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), a family-centered social service agency with locations in Boston and Quincy.Giles was named the winner of the statewide 2017 Excellence in Leadership award from the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network... Read More →

Celina Miranda

Executive Director, Hyde Square Task Force

Celina Miranda is Executive Director of Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF), a youth community development organization located in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Celina is deeply committed to HSTF’s mission: to develop the skills of youth and their families so they are empowered... Read More →

A Sense of Place Jenkins Resource pdf

A Sense of Place Resource pdf

Li pptx

Audley pdf

Miranda pptx

Kapust pdf

Jenkins pdf

Saturday March 17, 2018 1:45pm - 2:45pm EDT
Junior Ballroom

1:45pm EDT

Amplifying Youth Voices

Our youth have tremendous capacity to be a visible and audible part of developing safe and thriving communities throughout the Commonwealth. Are you tapped into young people? Are they included in the decisions you make about programs that are designed to serve them? Join this session, moderated by the outspoken and wonderful literary performer Regie Gibson, to find out more about organizations that are youth-led, including youth members of a local cultural council. We all have a voice. How we use it is what matters.

Speakers

Tal Dassau

Youth Member, Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council

Tal Dassau is a sophomore at Acton-Boxborough Regional High school. She enjoys computer programming, reading, and writing. For her young age she has achieved a multitude of accomplishments in academics and sports. Academically, Tal has earned high honor roll consistently for the past... Read More →

Natalie Dawn

Youth Member, Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council

Natalie Dawn is a sophomore at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and is a youth member of the Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council. She is part of her high school’s yearbook club and the InterAct club. In her free time, Natalie enjoys reading, gardening, and cooking. She also volunteers... Read More →

Regie Gibson

Literary Performer

Literary performer Regie Gibson has lectured and performed widely in the U.S., Cuba & Europe. Regie has performed with and composed texts for the Boston City Singers, the Mystic Chorale and the Handel+Haydn Society. He’s been published in Poetry Magazine, Harvard’s Divinity Magazine... Read More →

Dawry Ruiz

Independent Artist; Youth Member, ZUMIX

Dawry Ruiz is a local Boston artist who uses the mediums of rapping, spoken word poetry, filmmaking, and photography. He uses his experiences of being a person of color in America and his ideas of going against the grain as inspiration for his art. He has previously interned in Communications... Read More →

Sunanda Sahay

Chair, Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council

Sunanda Sahay, an Acton artist, is the chair of Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council for 4 years and a member for almost 6 years. She has been the recipient of several MCC grant awards for her Indian Traditional Art, Apprenticeship award and the Gold Star award for her Cultural outreach... Read More →

Madeleine Steczynski

Co-Founder and Executive Director, ZUMIX

Madeleine Steczynski founded ZUMIX in her home in 1991, engaging young people in music and creative technology, and giving them safe space to escape escalating city violence. Together with teen council, staff, and board, she has grown ZUMIX from a kitchen table project into a vital... Read More →

Amplifying Youth Voices pdf

Ruiz pptx

Sahay pptx

Saturday March 17, 2018 1:45pm - 2:45pm EDT
Meeting Room E

1:45pm EDT

Building on a Foundation

You have ideas, an agenda, and a plan. Now you need to focus on how this work becomes a visible part of your communities’ everyday experience, not just for now, but for years to come. What does it take to develop, grow and maintain an arts and cultural agenda over time? Hear from people doing this work who believe in the remarkable community social and economic benefits of arts and culture. This session gets to the heart of sustaining an arts agenda, and will help you think more tactically and broadly about who to collaborate with in your community to achieve your goals.

Speakers

Gary Roberts

Chair, Medford Arts Council

Gary Roberts is a higher education administrator and an active volunteer for several arts and cultural organizations in the Boston-area. He currently works at the MIT Sloan School of Management as the Director of Faculty and Research Services. Gary has served as the chair of the Medford... Read More →

Margo Saulnier

Arts & Culture Strategist, City of New Bedford

Margo Saulnier is an experienced creative professional and educator who is committed to making arts accessible to all. She is currently the Arts and Culture Strategist for the City of New Bedford and a lecturer in the Music Department at Northeastern University's College of Arts... Read More →

Laura Zabel

Executive Director, Springboard for the Arts

Laura Zabel is the Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts, which operates Creative Exchange, a national platform for sharing free toolkits, resources, and profiles to help artists and citizens collaborate on replicating successful and engaging community projects. An economic... Read More →

Building on a Foundation Resource pdf

Zabel pdf

Saturday March 17, 2018 1:45pm - 2:45pm EDT
South Ballroom

1:45pm EDT

It’s About People!

Organizations large and small go through growing pains, and managing the process can be overwhelming. Transitions and partnerships are key components to the success and sustainability of organizations. This session will give you practical information on how to manage transitions, create a plan and communicate that plan to the necessary parties to ensure a smooth hand-off.

Speakers

Meri Jenkins

Manager, Cultural Districts Initiative, Mass Cultural Council

Meri Jenkins is Manager of the Massachusetts Cultural Districts Initiative, and co-Manager of the Community Initiative, programs of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the state arts agency. The programs are designed to promote the use of cultural assets in economic and community... Read More →

Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción

Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Ph.D., is the CEO of IBA-Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, a community development corporation dedicated to empowering and engaging individuals and families to improve their lives through high-quality affordable housing, education, and arts programs. Through... Read More →

Maya Townsend

Founder, Lead Consultant, Partnering Resources

Maya Townsend, founder and lead consultant at Partnering Resources, helps individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in our networked world. She helps leaders create resilient strategy, find opportunities in complex ecosystems, and influence change. Maya is co-editor of Handbook... Read More →

It's About People Resource pdf

Townsend Calderon pptx

Saturday March 17, 2018 1:45pm - 2:45pm EDT
Meeting Room C/D

1:45pm EDT

Lights, Camera, Action!

Are you longing for the spotlight? Acting your heart out and still not getting attention? Attend this session to understand how to create the impact you intend, make people sit up and take notice, and take action to support your work. Reframe your approach, rethink your tactics, and leave feeling refreshed.

Speakers

Jose Nieto

Creative Director, ThinkArgus

Jose leads creative development at ThinkArgus, with a focus on branding, art direction, and content creation. Before joining ThinkArgus, Jose was principal of SquareZero, an award-winning graphic design studio specializing on cultural, publishing, and education clients, and principal... Read More →

Nieto pdf

Saturday March 17, 2018 1:45pm - 2:45pm EDT
Meeting Room B

3:00pm EDT

Closing Session

You’ve spent the day at the Institute, come share highlights and discuss what the next chapter will be once you flex the Power of Culture in your community.

Saturday March 17, 2018 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
Ballroom North Center