Since 2017, Matthew Siegal, the first full-time executive director of LexArt, has been on a quest to revive and rejuvenate the role of arts and craft into community life in Lexington. After a 33-year career in museums, culminating in 19 years with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Siegal is using his experience to evolve LexArt from a local art/craft nonprofit with an 80-year history of relying on volunteers to survive, to a thriving resource for arts regionally. “Trying to make the case for the primacy of the arts, and in particular, the primacy of the act of making, and the vast possibilities of making art/craft in a shared environment is a tremendous challenge,” Siegal said. “Art holds such great promise for self-discovery, as therapy, as solace, to communicate and to glean insights, I just want to scream it in the streets.” Changes implemented during Siegal’s tenure include opening … [Read more...] about CRAFTING CHANGE: NEW LEXART PROGRAMS EXPAND ORGANIZATIONAL REACH
Community
LINKING ART AND ORGANIZING: GROSSINGER STILL BELIEVES ARTISTS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
Author Ken Grossinger believes that art doesn’t just reflect the world but can help change it. In his inspiring and informative book, “Art Works, How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together,” The New Press, 2023, Grossinger suggests that in the service of social movements, organizers use artists, artists create art, museums and art institutions engage with and promote these coalitions, and that funders, foundations and philanthropists support them. The book isn’t meant to be a history of activist art, instead, it widely samples cooperative partnerships furthering justice for Black people, women, labor, immigrants, farm workers, the environment, the incarcerated and others. Music is a potent mover and shaker. Grossinger cites many examples from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s to Black Lives Matter. Harry Belafonte’s songs and the money they made helped support … [Read more...] about LINKING ART AND ORGANIZING: GROSSINGER STILL BELIEVES ARTISTS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
MANSHIP ARTS ECHOES LIFE’S EXPERIENCES: NET WORKS CAPTURES GLOUCESTER’S FISHING COMMUNITY
Historically, Gloucester, Massachusetts, has been a source of inspiration and contemplation for artists, as they delve into the layers of history woven within its landscapes, oceans and collective memories. From May 10 through Memorial Day, the Manship Arts and Residence (MARS) program presents “The Net Works,” a multisensory installation that encapsulates the narrative of Gloucester’s fishing community. Since 2020, the MARS program has served as a sanctuary for writers, visual artists, scholars and scientists, providing a dedicated space for self-discovery and creative exploration for both local and international communities. Among the current program’s residents is Erika Senft Miller, a German-born and Vermont-based multidisciplinary artist who has been engaged as an artist in residence for the past four years. Senft Miller is renowned for her immersive, site-specific work, which … [Read more...] about MANSHIP ARTS ECHOES LIFE’S EXPERIENCES: NET WORKS CAPTURES GLOUCESTER’S FISHING COMMUNITY
DON’T F WITH FAB!: PRESERVING AFFORDABLE SPACE IN SOMERVILLE
Amidst over 2 million square feet of cultural space in the Greater Boston region, there are two unsung heroes in the city of Somerville that aim to preserve and create arts space. In 2019, Somerville adopted a Fabrication District along with an ACE (Arts and Creative Enterprise) requirement when developing. The spirit of the Fabrication District is to preserve these usually 100-year-old-plus former industrial buildings as artist and creative communities for affordable individual artist workspaces. In Somerville, these are Joy Street Studios, Miller Street Studios, Vernon Street Studios, Milk Row Studios and Washington Street Arts Center. Meaning: Somerville, known for being big on arts, saw how the region was changing, and chose to do what it could to keep artists working in Somerville. In the Fabrication District, owners may only develop up to four floors, ultimately de-incentivizing … [Read more...] about DON’T F WITH FAB!: PRESERVING AFFORDABLE SPACE IN SOMERVILLE
“A COMMONPLACE FOR DOING”: MANCHESTER’S MOSAIC ART COLLECTIVE BUILDS COMMUNITY
Manchester, New Hampshire proves to be a difficult city for artists but has the potential to be one of New England’s most accommodating. Stocked with mill buildings lining the Merrimack River and a downtown filled with newly emptied office spaces, the “Queen City” is a cynical gentrifier’s dream. But there are those who argue that fostering a home-grown artistic community would offer a more durable investment than the promises made by fickle tech companies, who come and go with each market bubble. The demise of the New Hampshire Art Institute has been a major blow to the city’s art community. Founded in 1895, the Institute’s final decade was a tumble of failed incorporations and break-in-case-of-emergency tactics, ending in a complete merger with New England College in 2019. It was announced in the spring of 2023 that the Manchester cam- pus — centered around the century-old Emma B. … [Read more...] about “A COMMONPLACE FOR DOING”: MANCHESTER’S MOSAIC ART COLLECTIVE BUILDS COMMUNITY
CHANGE ARRIVES IN BOSTON SOWA: FOUNTAIN STREET TO CLOSE; BEACON MORPHING INTO SHOWUP
There are great seismic shifts in the realms of the arts presently, and many of them are taking place in the Boston area. It is no secret that the creative economy is the foundation and cornerstone for the building up of once difficult and avoidable parts of the city into thriving and desirable destinations. The SoWa Art + Design District is one of those areas. The last 20 years have seen infinitesimal changes, and the momentum keeps growing and morphing, both reflecting trends in creative output as well as maintaining a bottom line of recognizable gallery structures. When Marie Craig and Cheryl Clinton brought Fountain Street to Boston in 2017, it had already had six years under their care in Framingham, in a large space in a converted mill building that rapidly fell out of code to the point that the gallery and the artists whose studios were based there were forced to move. It was … [Read more...] about CHANGE ARRIVES IN BOSTON SOWA: FOUNTAIN STREET TO CLOSE; BEACON MORPHING INTO SHOWUP