With both of Newton’s long-time State Representatives retiring at the end of 2024, local groups have sponsored debates and forums with the three candidates in each district running for their House seats. Generally, their debates have focused on health care, education, housing and development, and public transportation. But MASSCreative — which has been promoting candidate forums in races for open seats to build political support for state funding of the arts — approached Adrienne Hartsell, Director of the Newton Cultural Alliance (NCA), Emily O’Neil, Executive Director of the New Art Center, and Sachiko Isihara, Executive Director of Newton’s Suzuki School, to propose a CreateTheVote Campaign forum in Newton.
In 2017, prior to the creation of the Allen Center, the Newton Cultural Alliance sponsored a forum to hear Ruthanne Fuller and Scott Lennon speak about the arts.
All agreed that the Allen Center, home of the NCA, was the appropriate venue for a candidate’s discussion about arts and culture.
At the same time, the hosts were in agreement that the forum should be moderated by Rep. Khan, whose support and advocacy for the city’s art scene predated her election to the House thirty years ago. Expressing their gratitude to Rep. Khan, Ms. O’Neil told Fig City News, “We need our Legislators to actively support arts and culture.” Rep. Khan “decided on a tutorial format, as a way to pass on the important knowledge….in her years in the State House, ” Ms. O’Neil said.
The forum offered Rep. Khan an opportunity to demonstrate that “working together makes the case for the importance of a coalition which now includes churches in the area which can provide performance space, and soon the West Newton Cinema.” She echoed MASSCreative’s belief that “arts and culture support equity, diversity, and accessibility.”
Sachiko Isihara, a founding member of the NCA, told the audience and reiterated to Fig City News, “Collaboration is the name of the game,” underscoring a theme of the CreateTheVote forum. Collaboration at the local level strengthens their appeal to the state, she said, noting that “So much happens at the state level.”
Ms. Isihara commented that while many artists in Newton have “day jobs,” they are also serious artistic amateurs and depend on local and state support of artistic performance opportunities. (Ms. Isihara trained as a concert pianist; Ms. Hartsell played the cello with a number of local ensembles; and Rep. Khan trained with the Boston Ballet.) Among the issues she and others raised at the CreateTheVote forum was the need for more and larger performance spaces offering more opportunities for greater access to music, dance, drama, and cultural diversity.
According to the MASSCreative’s website, the “creative sector” is an economic driver, yielding more than $27 billion in value to the economy, a point underscored at the forum. Emily Ruddock, MASSCreative’s executive director, noted the wide range of non-profits and arts and culture-related businesses (such as the New Art Center, the Suzuki School, and the NCA) in local communities enhance community life. Ms. Ruddock told Fig City News that working with local groups helps to expand legislators’ political vision, thereby making all forms of creative expression more available to artists and community members.
Ms. O’Neil credited MASSCreative with helping “organizations like ours to stay abreast of important advocacy work in the Legislature to advocate for the creative economy. …We all want to build a creative and thriving arts community in Newton and the Commonwealth.”
While the Legislature appropriated $26 million for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which in turn provides grants to artists and local projects, Rep. Khan told the audience and future legislators that legislative funding for the arts was the result of broad-based, dedicated lobbying. Moreover, she warned, “it takes a long time to get bills passed, and requires persistence.”
