Episode 50: Mission-Driven Commercial Development Afoot in Roxbury

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Edmund Barry Gaither, Director of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, says this moment in Roxbury is “a moment of becoming.” He discusses work underway by Elma Lewis Partners and the recently-designated Roxbury Cultural District to use economic development to gift a community with a first-rate cultural and educational institution by 2020.

Edmond Barry GaitherEdmund Barry Gaither is Director of the National Center of Afro-American Artists and its Museum Division, and Special Consultant to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. At the National Center of Afro-American Artists, he developed its museum from a concept to its present operation with collections representing the visual arts of the black world, and an exhibition record of 45 years. At the Museum of Fine Arts, he has served as Adjunct Curator for 11 exhibitions since 1970, as well as administering the long-standing collaborative relationship between the National Center and the MFA.
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Episode 49: Youth Community Built on Firsts

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Julie Lichtenberg, Director of The Performance Project, and Artistic Director of First Generation Ensemble, discusses their approach to creative youth development work, including their commitment to inclusion and peer mentoring.

The Performance Project’s First Generation brings together young adults ages 14-23 for intensive artistic training, leadership development, and inter-generational mentoring. Forming an artistic ensemble, the First Generation youth create original multi-lingual physical theater performances based on their discoveries.

Julie LichtenbergJulie Lichtenberg, cultural activist, theater and visual artist, has worked in community settings as a teacher, performer, and director, incorporating visual art and physical theater since 1980. She has taught graduate and undergraduate visual art, performed with Beholders Puppet Theater, studied physical theater with Tony Montanero, Sigfrido Aguilar in Mexico, and collaborated with Teatro Mito y Realidad in Chicago.
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Episode 48: Cultural District as Framework for Unifying Community Vision

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Wrapped inside the cozy neighborhoods of a leafy mill town in Boston’s Metro West, Maynard’s downtown is a dynamic micro-city. Tim Hess, an architect and former chair of the Maynard Cultural Council, shares the journey undertaken to create what is now Maynard’s Assabet Village Cultural District.

Tim HessTimothy Hess, AIA, CNU-A, SEED
Tim Hess is a member of the Maynard Cultural Council, and chaired that group through state designation of the Assabet Village Cultural District. His place-making approach helped to shape the framework and goals for the District, identifying four place-assets of particular civic value to its identity and cohesion, and outlining a series of special events meant to initiate cycles of exploration, imagination, planning, and investment in those places. Continue reading “Episode 48: Cultural District as Framework for Unifying Community Vision”

Episode 47: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education

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Lois Hetland is a MassArt professor and among the nation’s leading scholars on the value of arts education. She discusses her research into the Studio Habits of Mind, eight dispositions that students develop through meaningful education in the visual arts.

Lois HetlandLois Hetland, Ed.D., is Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Art Education Department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Senior Research Affiliate at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Trained in music and visual arts, she taught elementary and middle school students for 17 years.  Currently, she is co-authoring Studio Thinking in the Elementary School, expected in 2018; co-authoring a chapter on a participatory evaluation of Art21 Educators (conducted 2010-2012); and working with ABT Associates to evaluate nine partnerships among community arts organizations, universities, and schools in Wisconsin and Alaska, funded by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation.
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Episode 46: Museums in the Face of Changing Communities

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New England has the largest per capita concentration of museums in the country. Dan Yaeger, Executive Director of the New England Museum Association, speaks to the health of the region’s museums and the systemic challenges museums face to diversify their staffs and boards.

Dan YaegerDan Yaeger was named executive director of New England Museum Association in April, 2010. His passion is to strengthen capacity in museums and build skills in the leaders that serve them. Dan has a 20‐year history with museums, most recently as the director of the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts. He has developed communications programs for the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, Peabody Essex Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Currier Museum of Art, Old Sturbridge Village, John F. Kennedy Library, and Plimoth Plantation among others. Continue reading “Episode 46: Museums in the Face of Changing Communities”