MASSCREATIVE WELCOMES 11 ARTS AND CULTURE LEADERS INTO THE 2024-2025 FELLOWSHIP
Image features 2024-2025 Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship cohort members during their orientation at the Worcester Public Library in November.
BOSTON (12/5/2024) - On Friday, November 22, 2024, MASSCreative welcomed 10 individuals into the 2024-2025 Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship during an in-person orientation at the Worcester Public Library.
The Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship is a stipended, year-long advocacy leadership development cohort for artivists, creative workers, and emerging cultural leaders to gain the advocacy capacity necessary to achieve an equitable, inclusive, and vibrant creative sector for all in Massachusetts. Each fellow is expected to identify a cultural policy or creative community issue they are passionate about changing through community organizing and political advocacy.
Through research, peer feedback, and training from experienced organizers, artist leaders, and advocates nationwide, fellows will develop plans to address their identified challenges. Fellows receive a $5,000 stipend to acknowledge their advocacy leadership and to compensate for time spent on fellowship activities, in addition to other financial and technical assistance to implement their projects. This program is possible thanks to support from the Barr Foundation.
“The arts and creativity are essential for thriving communities. And communities across Massachusetts benefit from strong arts advocacy that is responsive and representative of the rich ethnic and cultural diversity of our state. Though Massachusetts has historically lagged other states in funding and advocacy for the arts, MASSCreative has been changing that story and, with the Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship, is catalyzing new leadership to build on that momentum.”
MASSCreative is committed to cultivating creative advocacy leadership within each sector, creative discipline, zip code, and community of Massachusetts. This year’s cohort includes individuals with diverse lived experiences and connections to the creative sector who have demonstrated a commitment to increasing support and resources for artists, creatives, cultural nonprofit organizations, and creative for-profit businesses in their immediate communities.
On October 30, 2024, MASSCreative graduated its second class of Advocacy & Organizing Fellows. Over the past year, the 9 individuals in the recent cohort worked closely with MASSCreative’s Director of Organizing and Fellowship architect, Richeline Cadet, as well as Diane Gordon of Diane Gordon Consulting, to develop project goals, designs, and implementation plans for communities spanning between Cape Cod and Western Massachusetts. 2023-2024 fellows developed plans to increase access to funding and opportunities for trans, gender-diverse and Queer & Trans People of Color in public art venues, use performance mediums to illustrate the housing and cultural displacement crisis on Cape Cod, and to build a statewide advocacy framework to disrupt the loss of creative maker spaces and communities.
“Conversations about cultural policy are changing for the better in Massachusetts, and it’s because we have more members of the sector who are advocating year-round and in coalition for these resources. The Advocacy & Organizing Fellows will support this work as strong local and regional advocacy leaders who are focused on directly addressing the cultural policy issues that their communities are facing.”
Fellows from the 2023-2024 cohort were invited to participate in the recruitment and selection of new cohort members as peer reviewers. MASSCreative extended offers to 11 individuals and they all accepted, resulting in a 13% acceptance rate for the program. These 10 individuals reside in the following regions: Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard; Central Massachusetts; City of Boston; Greater Boston; Greater Springfield; Hampshire County; and North of Boston.
The new cohort includes members of cultural nonprofit organizations, creative for-profit businesses, community arts practitioners, individual artists, creative workers, teaching artists, and film and multimedia arts creators. Some fellows are employed as individual artists, while others have worked in government or quasi-governmental agencies. 82% of fellows reside outside of the City of Boston. 64% are individual artists or creative workers. 46% identify as genderqueer, nonbinary, or trans. 55% identify as disabled. And 37% have spent fewer than five years working in the sector.
“I am proud of this incoming cohort and the ways that they are already showing up to learn and grow from each other. It’s my hope that this fellowship will inspire and support them so they can each increase their impact in their communities.”
MEET THE NEW ADVOCACY & ORGANIZING FELLOWS:
Abigail Abbott (she/her/hers), Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of New Dawn Arts Center, Inc. Abigail joins us as a community artist from Central Massachusetts, who will use this experience to create a toolkit for rural creative communities in Massachusetts to seek funding and support from local government.
Anastaci Pacella (she/her/hers), Co-Executive Director of The Cordial Eye. Anastaci joins us as a community artist from the Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard region, who will use this experience to promote community-centered public art policy that reflects the diversity of her region.
Christine Brown (she/her/hers) is an Administrative Assistant at MassDevelopment. Christine joins us as an individual artist from Central Massachusetts. She will use this experience to focus on converting vacant real estate in Downtown Worcester into community arts spaces.
corine “coco” rosenberg (they/themme/theirs), teaching artist and assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. coco joins us as an individual artist from the City of Boston, whose project will focus on creating accessible arts programming for youth and disabled individuals within public spaces.
Erin Ryan Heyneman (they/them/theirs), Commissioner of the Melrose Commission on Disability, and Garin Boyd (he/him/his), Founding Commissioner and Secretary of the Melrose Commission on Disability and steering committee member of the Melrose Creative Alliance. Erin and Garin join us as individual artists from North of Boston, whose collaborative project will focus on improving disability inclusion in Massachusetts’ arts and culture ecosystem.
Karen Krolak (she/her/hers) is the co-artistic Director of Monkeyhouse. She joins us as a member of an arts or cultural nonprofit organization from Greater Boston. Her project will focus on improving civic literacy for artists, with particular attention to members of the disability community.
Krystle Brown (they/them/theirs), independent artist based out of Salem. Krystle specializes in multimedia and community arts and will focus on combining their public art practice to create a space that informs Salem residents about the overlay districts and the historical precedent of housing creation in Salem.
Marcia Williams (she/her/hers), owner of Photosbymarcia LLC. Marcia joins us as an entrepreneur and creative for-profit business owner whose project will focus on preserving creative maker space within the City of Boston.
Sunny Allis (they/them/theirs), freelance creator. Sunny joins us as an individual artist specializing in film and multimedia arts in Hampshire County. Their project focuses on making their television show affirming gender-diverse students available to school administrations and educators.
Yolanda Yang (she/her/hers) is the founder of Behind VA Shadows. She joins us as an individual artist specializing in community arts and public art in Greater Boston. Her project will address the inequitable treatment of frontline staff in Massachusetts’ creative sector by providing an independent community art platform.
Learn more about MASSCreative’s Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship below.
