Community Development – Page 2 – Creative Minds Out Loud

Episode 35: Rooted in Arts, Activism, and Social Justice

Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Ph.D., is the CEO of IBA-Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, a community development corporation dedicated to empowering individuals through education, workforce development, and arts programs. She shares IBA’s holistic approach to youth development and how the arts unleash the collective power and voice of the young people they serve.

Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Ph.D., is the CEO of IBA-Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, a community development corporation dedicated to empowering individuals through education, workforce development and arts programs, and to creating vibrant affordable housing communities. Through her leadership, IBA has become the largest Latino-led nonprofit organization in Greater Boston.

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Episode 32: When Community Service is Hardwired Into a Museum

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Fitchburg Art Museum is experiencing a renaissance. Director Nick Capasso describes how their commitment to community service – through organizational culture, programming, and partnerships – strengthens and grows the creative ecology of the city.

Nick Capasso Nicholas Capasso, Ph.D. is Director of the Fitchburg Art Museum, a community-oriented museum in Fitchburg, Massachusetts with art historical collections, changing exhibitions of regional contemporary art, and educational and community outreach programs. Prior to his appointment at Fitchburg, Capasso was Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, a museum of contemporary art in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
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Episode 30: Museum EBT Card Program Opens the Door a Bit Wider

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Carole Charnow, President and CEO of the Boston Children’s Museum, shares how since 2012 the museum has provided reduced admission to visitors with an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, the first program of its kind in New England.

Carole Charnow. Photo by Bethany Acheson. For over 30 years, Carole Charnow has led cultural non-profits in the US and the UK, overseeing over 100 professional theatrical and opera productions, and hundreds of community-based music and arts education programs and events.

Charnow was appointed the President and CEO of Boston Children’s Museum in 2010 and has leveraged her relationships to transform the Museum’s cultural programming. Under Charnow’s leadership the Museum won the 2013 IMLS National Medal, the nation’s highest honor conferred on museums and libraries for extraordinary service to the community, presented by First Lady, Michelle Obama at the White House.
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Episode 29: Arts Center as a Platform for Community Development in Chinatown

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Giles Li is Executive Director of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), a social-services organization serving the community since 1969. He shares how BCNC uses the arts as a tool for community development, most recently in the creation of a new arts center. He says that right now Chinatown’s identity is maybe “stretching a little”, and hopes the new arts center can be a place where the entire community can feel they truly belong.

Giles Li is the Executive Director of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and has been at BCNC since 2006. With more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Giles has a proven track record of direct service, advocacy work, and management experience. Having grown up locally in an immigrant family, he has a life-long connection and commitment to the community in and beyond Chinatown.

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Episode 27: Projecting & Reflecting on Cultural Heritage

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Susan Chinsen, Establishing Director of the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), says film festivals can be powerful tools to engage the public and spark important – sometimes tricky – conversations. She discusses a key goal of BAAFF – to build community amongst Asian Americans by providing a forum to gather, connect, and take pride in their shared heritage and experiences as their stories are told on the big screen.

Susan Chinsen received a BA from Tufts University in American Studies with a focus on Media and Asian Americans. In 2013, she joined the Chinese Historical Society of New England as the Managing Director, focusing on documenting, promoting, and preserving the experiences of Chinese in the region – with a primary focus on Boston’s Chinatown. She is the establishing director of the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), a project of Asian American Resource Workshop, seeking to use
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