Power of Culture Blog
LCC Member Nano Interview – Sept
Shining a light on the vital work of Local Cultural Councils in our cities and towns
Carolyn Cole, Special Projects Manager
“We recognize that our vision demands complete communities – including every context within the transect, and inclusive of all people.” – The Congress for the New Urbanism
Mass Cultural Council was chosen to present at this year’s CNU33: Examining the Resilience of a Region on our collaborative, cross-sector approach to redesigning the Cultural Districts Initiative.
This national conference is hosted by The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), a nonprofit organization and community of interdisciplinary professionals that help create vibrant and walkable cities, towns, and neighborhoods where people have diverse choices for how they live, work, shop, and get around.
CNU is a coalition of urban designers, architects, planners, developers, and engineers who coalesced more than 30 years ago, to create New Urbanism – a movement for reinvestment in design, community, and place.
CNU New England honored our Cultural Districts Initiative (CDI) with their 2023 Urbanism Award, as an initiative that contributes to the region’s walkable, sustainable, and equitable environment; and that demonstrates excellence and courage in enabling social diversity, economic equity, and cultural inclusivity.
The Cultural Districts Initiative embodies many New Urbanist Principles, leading to this award and recognition from CNU, offering alternatives to patterns of design and development that have been shown to inflict negative economic, health, and environmental impacts on communities.
Last year Mass Cultural Council embarked on a redesign of the CDI with an aim to creatively re-strategize community and economic development initiatives in existing centers and diverse districts, further pursuing these Principles. Was CDI generating the most positive, inclusive, and sustainable local impact for the Cultural Districts themselves and the communities within which they were located?
Presenting on Cultural Districts at CNU33 was remarkable because the arts were being centered in a space where urban designers and planners, architects and developers, transportation and community development champions, and policy reform advocates alike, were exploring systemic solutions to increasing livability.
It is a notable example of what the Agency is striving to achieve through our advancement work to position the arts and cultural sector as a visible, recognized resource and an essential partner in problem solving across sectors.
It is important for culture and creativity to have a presence in spaces like that of CNU33 – with its diverse representation of professions and sectors – reinforcing the interconnectedness between culture and community vitality in a tangible, ongoing way.
Attendees to our CNU session received credits toward continuing education, so our teachings from that day were a part of their learning journey as they progress through other professions and areas of work.
Our session Massachusetts’s Cultural Districts Initiative: Reexamining Policy, Purpose, and Process for Greater Impact, focused on our PROCESS rather than our PRODUCT.
Redesigning CDI involved more than two dozen state and quasi-governmental agencies, offices, and organizations – across multiple sectors – that collaborated to reexamine the existing CDI statutory policy and establish accessible resources and services to support the further development and sustainability of our Cultural Districts and the communities that preserve them.
This process set out to:
We’re looking forward to unveiling the results of our CDI redesign process with the roll out of the program’s newest iteration in the coming weeks. For now, we hope to See (N) You at next year’s conference!
