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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 membership to the public, hiring studio managers, expanding opportunities for artists to enter juried gallery shows, and developing relationships with other arts, cultural and service organizations. And it’s working.
Siegal understands the value of art and craft to humans. After graduating with a degree in ceramics, he fell in love with glass blowing and was a working artist for eight years before moving into the museum world. One significant challenge as LexArt’s first executive director has been the contrast between organizational cultures in a world-class museum and an insulated and restricted local arts organization. While there has never been a residency requirement for membership at LexArt, there were some structural hoops that had to be jumped through to access the well-equipped studios for ceramics, metalsmithing, weaving and woodworking and a culture of volunteerism that was frankly, mandatory. Revising the mission and membership structure at LexArt to be outward looking and welcoming to all are pillars of the evolution of LexArt.