Working to invest financial, programmatic, and informational resources equitably.
Our field’s highest honor for a state arts agency demonstrating innovative and exceptional efforts to support and advance DEI in its state (Image: Mass Cultural Council Executive Director Michael J. Bobbitt receives award with Deputy Director, Dave Slatery and Director of People and Culture, Cathy Cheng-Anderson.)
A quarterly report on our anti-racism work, including internal and external steps we are taking. (Image: Child participates in Brand Out with C1, an event hosted by Company One Theatre.)
Agency invests in NAACBoston’s Mentorship & Sponsorship Program 2.0 (Image: 2022 Mentorship & Sponsorship Program participants laughing.)
We are pleased to partner with the Co-Directors of Arts Connect International (ACI) on launching the Cultural Equity Learning Community 2.0 (CELC 2.0), an asynchronous anti-racism course, this summer. CELC 2.0 was developed by ACI to support our arts and culture ecosystem — and its leadership — in progressing equitable practices.
Mass Cultural Council is providing financial support for up to 1,000 Massachusetts artists and cultural sector leaders to attend this training series in FY23. (Image: graphic collage of the CELC educators.)
They received the ESC Nonprofit Impact Leadership Award for committing to advancing racial equity and increasing support for under-resourced organizations. (Image: Mass Cultural Council Chair Nina Fialkow, Mass Cultural Council Executive Director Michael J. Bobbitt, ESC President Julie Crockford, and Mass Cultural Council Vice-Chair Marc Carroll.)
A new round of LEAD and Innovation Fund grants to UP Designated Organizations awarded through the Universal Participation Initiative. (Image: Kinetic Light performance at Jacob’s Pillow in 2018. Photo: Hayim Heron.)
A quarterly report on our anti-racism work, including internal and external steps we are taking. (Image: ‘Wakpa’ Wheatpaste Mural at Tufts University Art Gallery. )
This legislatively-mandated, one-time relief program was established by the MA House Asian Caucus. (Image: Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy in Malden.)
A quarterly report on our anti-racism work, including internal and external steps we are taking. (Image: Drawing class in an Armenian Museum gallery)
A quarterly report on our anti-racism work, including internal and external steps we are taking. (Image: Dot Art participant holding a rock painted with the words “You are beautiful as you are.”)
These four engagement enthusiasts are help the Agency form new relationships and surface unmet community needs. (Image (l-r): Tran Vu, Erika Slocumb, Erin Genia, and Ana Masacote )
Working closely with our Executive Director, this new team will work – internally and externally – to advance the Agency’s equity, access, and inclusion goals. (Image, left-right: Catherine Cheng-Anderson, Director of People & Culture; Charles G. Baldwin, Access & Inclusion Program Officer; Cheyenne Cohn-Postell, Equity & Inclusion Program Officer.)
With the release of our first-ever Racial Equity Plan, Mass Cultural Council commits to doing the ongoing and long-term work of being both a racially equitable and anti-racist Agency. (Image: Racial Equity Plan cover, featuring a still image from the film “Drip Like Coffee” by Anaiis Cisco, Mass Cultural Council 2021 Film & Video Finalist.)
The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) released In Pursuit of Equity: Four Case Studies of State Arts Agencies, a report that describes how state arts agencies in four states—California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and South Carolina—have integrated equity principles across multiple aspects of their work. (Image: Cover art for In Pursuit of Equity)
Mass Cultural Council invested $130K in nonprofit media outlets to spotlight cultural nonprofits dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Image: Maria Mitchell in Terry Jenoure’s MY BRONX, commissioned and presented by Eggtooth Productions.)
Designed to help mitigate risk and inspire creative approaches to barrier removal, the Universal Participation Initiative’s Innovation Fund has awarded $3,000 grants to 27 UP Designated Organizations that fully embrace accessibility systems and ideals. (Image: Young person tie-dying as part of a Gnome Surf program.)
Bobbitt, currently the Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA, will officially join the Agency on February 1, 2021. (Image: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.)
A summary of what we heard at our Fall listening sessions.
Recent events fomented a growing movement for racial equity and justice. Mass Cultural Council took this moment in time to embark on a restart and refocus of our work as it relates to racial equity. (Image: Youth performing at an Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) event.)
In a step to address pay gaps and inequity in the cultural sector, Mass Cultural Council is pleased to announce that we have updated HireCulture.org, our creative employment site used by more than 1,500 organizations, to require salary in appropriate job categories. (Image: web site banner image.)
In August 2020, staff and the governing Council began a series of cultural competency trainings with Multicultural BRIDGE. (Image: Multicultural BRIDGE logo.)
The Universal Participation (UP) Initiative presents the 2020 UP Award to Abilities Dance Boston. The UP Award is a $10,000 prize presented biennially to an organization that realizes the four core principles behind the UP Initiative in an exemplary manner.
Instead of a traditional, in-person awards ceremony, this year the celebration became a five-part, livestreamed event generously hosted by HowlRound. The sessions honored UP Designated Organizations; included musical performances by Precious Perez, The Tempest in ASL, and Me2/Orchestra; and modeled Universal Design practices within virtual spaces. Sara Minkara was the keynote speaker. (Image: Abilities Dance Boston performance featuring Artistic Director Ellice Patterson. Photo: Bill Parsons.)
Our interagency partnership, Card to Culture, expands to include Massachusetts Health Connector, launching the ConnectorCare Card to Culture program. Through this program, all 204,000 ConnectorCare card members in the state can enjoy access to a new benefit: free or dramatically reduced admission prices to more than 130 cultural sites statewide. The partnership is the first of its kind in the country for a state-based health insurance exchange. (Image: The admissions desk at the Clark Art Institute, one of the Card to Culture participating organizations.)
The Universal Participation Initiative receives the 2019 LEAD® Community Asset Award at the Kennedy Center’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) Conference. (Image: Mass Cultural Council’s Charles Baldwin and Anita Walker with Betty Siegel, Director, Office of VSA and Accessibility at The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the 2019 LEAD award ceremony.)
Universal Participation Initiative provides professional development grants to attend the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) conference put on by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (Image: Lew Michaels, Neil Gordon, and Betty Siegel receiving the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 2018 Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD®) Community Asset Award.)
EBT Card to Culture celebration marks 250,000 admissions for low-income and working families to Massachusetts cultural organizations. (Image: Left to right: Mass Cultural Council’s chair, Nina Fialkow; Commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance, Jeff McCue; Mass Cultural Council’s Executive Director, Anita Walker; Massachusetts First Lady Lauren Baker; Boston Children’s Museum President and Chief Executive Officer, Carole Charnow.)
