Join Mass Cultural Council’s Creative Youth Development BIPOC Alumni Council on May 20 from 6-7:30pm (ET) for a night of healing, creation, and connection. We invite alumni from CYD organizations from around the country to create with us. As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, the Alumni Council wants to reflect on the importance of using one’s art as a way to prioritize the investment of one’s mental health. They hope for young artists to reconnect to their own artistic practices and to make connections with one another that go beyond this evening.
A Youth-Led Virtual Forum on Building Community and Healing through Art Making
March 19, 2021, 3:30-5pm
A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers and students to pivot to remote learning. In response, Mass Cultural Council began facilitating bi-weekly CYD Community Meetings to support the field during this new reality. We also co-hosted a series of forums on Remote Learning in Arts Education and Creative Youth Development alongside EdVestors and the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
Name: Maria Doreste Velazquez Organization: Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs and Boston Public Schools Years in the Field: 10+
What do you do at the Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs?
During the past eight years I have been a piano, ensemble, and early childhood instructor as well as a new course developer. I have also presented several workshops and lectures at Arts Better the Lives of Everyone (ABLE) conferences as well as facilitated professional development opportunities for music educators around the state and internationally. I have also had the pleasure to be the music specialist at The Edison School in Brighton where I teach general music and coordinate the instrumental program. Continue reading Nano-Interview with Maria Doreste Velazquez of Berklee College of Music→
Youth performing at an Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) event.
What would racial equity look like in Massachusetts’ cultural sector? What can artists, cultural workers, and organizations do to help dismantle systemic racism? How can Mass Cultural Council support the sector in achieving racial equity?
While systemic racism has been a part of this country for 400 years, recent events have fomented a growing movement for racial equity and justice. Mass Cultural Council is taking this moment in time to embark on a restart and refocus of our work as it relates to racial equity, and we want to hear from you.
This Spring we hosted a series of “Culture Chats,” to highlight the power of culture through resilience, adaptation, agility, and innovation.
These conversations offered a break from the gloom of the Coronavirus, a little bit of sunshine to remind us that the arts and culture are alive and well, if not necessarily in the theaters and venues where we’re used to finding them.
On the Mass Cultural Council’s podcast, Creative Minds Out Loud, we spoke with Kim Dawson, Director of Advancement at ZUMIX. A venerable creative youth development organization in East Boston, ZUMIX works with a largely immigrant community to better equip its youth to be able to navigate the world once they have graduated out of their programs and high school. Dawson shares how they are expanding their opportunities for workforce development to help youth gain the skills they need to be paid well to do something they really love.
On the Mass Cultural Council’s podcast, Creative Minds Out Loud, we spoke with Marquis Victor, Founding Executive Director of Elevated Thought. He believes that art is a form of liberation, and that young people – once they have access and exposure to art – are able to build a foundation of self, expand their minds and eyes to identify issues in their communities, and use art to surface creative solutions for those issues.
Youth performing on stage at the Wang Theater for Express Yourself’s 2019 end-of-year production. Photo by Käthe Swaback.
Today our governing Council voted to distribute federal CARES Act funds received by Mass Cultural Council to 74 Creative Youth Development (CYD) organizations statewide. Creative Youth Development programs foster creative expression while supporting core social and emotional skills, engaging young people of all ages as empowered agents in their own lives. As a practice, Creative Youth Development draws from the belief that culture plays a major role in the growth of creative, productive, and independent-minded individuals and thriving communities. After the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, these programs will be more vital than ever to the vulnerable youth and families they serve. Continue reading Federal CARES Act Funds to Support CYD Programs Across MA→
Name: Maria Doreste Velazquez
This Spring we hosted a series of “
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