Power of Culture Blog
So Many Traditions, So Little Time
Reflections of a state folklorist
Dawn Heinen, Digital Communications Manager
Check out these episodes of Creative Minds Out Loud, Mass Cultural Council’s podcast:
In late 2019, we spoke to Doneeca Thurston, the newly-named Director of Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts. The 29-year-old Lynn native said her new role felt like a homecoming. She shares her vision for how the museum can be a champion for its majority minority community and ensure that local artists feel respected and celebrated.
Improbable Players uses theater performances and workshops to address addiction, alcoholism, and the opioid epidemic. The troupe is comprised of actors who are themselves in recovery from substance addiction. Their former Executive Director Andy Short shares what it means to do destigmatizing and prevention work in schools.
“Theater people, we love to believe that the theater changes the world. And oh, it does,” he says.
Dell Marie Hamilton is an artist, writer, and curator. Her work uses the body to investigate questions about personal memory, citizenship, history, and gender. Last fall, she shared what it’s like to have a creative practice in an era of toxicity, and emphasized the importance of self-care and continually learning from other artists.
Dr. Deborah Buccino and Adrien Conklin, BSN RN of MACONY Pediatrics discuss the addition of social prescription – prescribing cultural engagement as a protective, healthy habit – to their collaborative care work in the Berkshires.
“We can give prescriptions for medicine. We can give prescriptions to see a neurologist. But we can also give a prescription for something fun to do with your family. And that’s just as important as some medicines or referrals,” Conklin said.
Dr. Buccino said their participation in CultureRx social prescription has also meant getting to know patients more as people, instead of just their physical bodies. “It does a lot to combat physician burnout.”
