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As a year full of disruption and uncertainty draws to an end, we are reflecting on the bright spots in our work - the moments that helped us connect with our communities and uplifted emerging opportunities for how our work can continue to grow.
2025 brought bittersweet changes to our team. We said farewell to a stalwart member, Abbey Judd, who moved to Philadelphia over the summer, and we welcomed two new staff, Nubes Chen (Arts, Culture, and Humanities Planner II), and Lourdes Alvarez Silva (Assistant Director). Nubes and Lourdes joined Lafayette Cruise (Arts and Culture Planner II), and long-standing team members Lindsay Randall (Senior Humanities Specialist) and Dr. Annis Sengupta (Director).
We also celebrated new beginnings for former colleagues: Archana Menon, former Arts and Culture Fellow, joined the City of Newton as their Associate Director of Cultural Development, and Abbey Judd, former Senior Arts and Culture Planner, joined Art Reach in Philadelphia as Project Manager for Community Assessment Studies. We are excited to see how they continue to grow in their careers!
This year we witnessed growing opportunities to connect our work across sectors and strengthen connections between climate resilience, community engagement, and creative practice. We brought three artist teams into the Lower Mystic Cool Communications project. Artists partnered with municipalities and local collaborators to enhance communications about extreme heat, making it clearer, more culturally relevant, engaging, and grounded in lived experience. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency reached out to the department to learn more about creative placemaking for heat resilience and arts-based engagement practices. Following those conversations, Dr. Sengupta presented to the EPA Sustainable Communities Action Network on arts engagement strategies and partnered with the APA Arts & Planning, Technology, and Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Divisions to share insights from the Cool it With Art guide during the webinar Hot Topic: Reimagining Heat Hazard Mitigation Through Art and Technology.
These conversations emphasized the role of arts, culture, and storytelling to bring meaningful, engaging, and cultural resonant planning and engagement strategies to climate planning efforts.
Across projects and partnerships, connections and community were the common thread. The role of public art as a source of community connection, prosperity, and resilience was the topic of Dr. Sengupta’s, keynote address to the APA Washington State Chapter Conference. We are grateful to have been part of the Governor’s Cultural Economy Advisory Council, which released its final report in April. We are excited to see the growth in opportunities to increase communication, community, and connection across the sector.
The team has been also hard at work building partnerships and connections with municipalities. In collaboration with MASSCreative, Mass Cultural Council, we co-hosted the Arts Day at the State House. Dr. Sengupta testified with MASSCreative Executive Director Emily Ruddock before the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development in support of the Creative Space Act (H.3587/S.2334) and the PLACE Act (H.3592/S.2332). And a Boston Globe editorial referenced MAPC’s work on creative workspace loss.
Our team, joined MASSCreative, the #ArtStaysHere Coalition and others to co-host Somerville’s Mayoral Forum on Arts and Culture. We released a Phase One memo summarizing findings from research into existing tools and processes in Somerville that could support the goals of a cultural trust. Based on these findings, the memo outlines a strategy for Somerville to establish a cultural trust to support the development and preservation of creative workspace with accountability to the creative community. We are looking forward to engaging Somerville’s arts community in that work in 2026.
We are also proud to have brought an esteemed panel of arts leaders to MAPC’s Fall Council Meeting to reflect on the value and impact of our region’s creative economy These platforms helped advance community-centered cultural planning and raised visibility for issues facing artists and cultural spaces in the region.
We are grateful for these bright spots to guide our work into the New Year, and we hope the holiday season brings you rest and reconnection.
Cheers!
MAPC’s Arts and Culture Team
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