AI-generated transcript of Spotlight on Medford - Ep2

[Michael Marks]: Hello and welcome to another edition of Spotlight on Medford. I'm your host, Michael Mox. I'm standing here at Channel 3 Community Access located at Medford High School. Anyone interested in producing their own show, come on down. You know, I have two great guests on tonight. I have Gary Roberts from the Medford Arts Council, he's the chair, and Jim Silva, who's a community activist and also the founder of SMADO, South Medford Residents Together. You know, we got together a while back and created a small working group of citizens interested in forming an arts collaborative in Medford. a committee to explore the creation of an arts center in Medford. The committee includes leadership of some of Medford's largest art organizations, including Caché, the Medford Arts Council, and Medford Arts Center and Corp., better known as MACI. Among the locations being reviewed is the building formerly known as the Hegner Center, located at 15 Maple Park Ave. next to Gillis Park. which was reacquired by the city of Medford back in 2016. So sit back, grab your popcorn, and enjoy the show. Hi, and I'm very excited to have my two guests on tonight who are representing the Arts Collaborative Method, which is a new collaboration of a group of concerned citizens who are interested in the arts in the community and that would like to see an arts center come to fruition in our community. My two guests, one is Gary Roberts. He is the chair of the Method Arts Council and has been so for the past five years. And I also have Jim Silva here, who is a community organizer and someone that's been very active in the South Medford neighborhood with the creation of SMARTO, which is South Medford Residents Together. So I'd like to thank both my guests. Mr. Silva.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, Mike.

[Michael Marks]: Mr. Roberts, let's start off with just telling us a little about your involvement in the arts community and anything else you'd like to share with us regarding your community involvement.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great, thanks. So, I'm the chair of the Medford Arts Council. This is a group that's been around since 1980. We're the city's cultural council, so our primary function is to serve as grant makers for the community. We receive money from the state and the city. This year, we granted out $53,000 to 52 projects for Medford's kids, seniors, teens. Some of our grantees that we tend to award funds to are the Medford Public Library, Cachet, which is one of the members of the Arts Collaborative, some of our schools, other community groups, Medford Historical Society, et cetera. You can learn more about the Medford Arts Council on our website. You can find it easily online at medfordartscouncil.org. We also have a great Facebook page and Twitter account, and we've just started an Instagram account as well. So people can follow what we're doing there.

[Michael Marks]: That's hot. Seems like you're very active and involved in the arts. That's great to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just can't resist saying that we were the 2016 Cultural Council of the Year for the state of Massachusetts. Congratulations. In recognition for all of our community work. Right now we are actually conducting a community input survey online so people can access that survey through our homepage of our website. Every year we like to reach out and find out what people's ideas are, what the needs are, so that we can be responsive in our work.

[Michael Marks]: That's excellent. That's excellent. And Jim, tell us a little about what you've been doing in the community.

[Jim Silva]: Absolutely. Well, I started Self-Method Residents Together organization about 12 years ago. What we do is we advocate for people's needs in the community. We work for public safety issues from crime to resident parking to traffic mitigation, bus stop moves. We look at what the needs are from traffic light signaling to crime, trash, all of this infrastructure issues. And we work with the city council as well as the administration to sort of work these problems out. And it really has built a community of people. Again, we're in sort of a connected environment, but there's a lot of disconnect. So this really gives people an opportunity to voice their opinion, to work together, to advocate for each other, and build a community.

[Michael Marks]: I know firsthand being involved in some of those initiatives that you have been very successful with SMARTO in bringing and confronting some of the issues that face your particular neighborhood. And to be quite frank, I'd like to see that done citywide because I think it's been a great initiative and very successful. in getting some needs within the community addressed that sometimes otherwise would be overlooked. So I appreciate your effort. I know also, we won't get into it a lot, the Green Line Extension has been, you're on the committee now, and maybe if you could just give a minute or two about where we stand with the Green Line Extension.

[Jim Silva]: Absolutely.

[Michael Marks]: I'm on the working group.

[Jim Silva]: I'm the Ball Square representative for Medford. And what we're doing currently is we're in a construction phase. clearing phase. We're actually the liaison between the GLX project team and the community. We advocate for their needs. We ensure that they're updated from construction to pest control to any kind of issue that may impact their homes. We're working with the city. We're working with the Green Line. We're making sure that people are following through and that everybody's notified effectively.

[Michael Marks]: That's great. We all know transportation is key. It's the reason why people move to communities and I'm thankful for your effort on that. I know it's all volunteer, both volunteer positions and on behalf of the community. I want to thank you because I know a lot of time and effort goes into it, and it's all behind the scenes. It's not like being a member of the council when you have FaceTime all the time. People say, oh, look what he's doing. These are volunteers that are behind the scenes, actually the backbone of the community. So I want to thank you both. Let's talk a little bit about the, which I mentioned at the beginning, this new arts collaborative method, which I believe was initiated for the fact that we're looking to create an arts center, a home for the arts in the community, which I believe, and I know you both do, is long overdue. So maybe if you can both give me a quick rundown of how was this created, why was it created, the who, what, when, where, why of where we're at now with the creation of an art center in the community. Maybe we could start off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great. So the Medford Arts Council is joined by Jim and Smarto. CACHE in Medford, CACHE stands for the Coalition for Arts, Culture, and a Healthy Economy. They're the organization, the non-profit that sponsors Circle the Square series in the summer. The Arts Across Medford month of arts in October. The Mystic River celebration typically happens in September and lots of other important things are primary. cultural calendar in Medford is operated out of the Cachet website, so if people are ever looking to find out where they can check out something interesting to do, I really encourage them to look at the Cachet website, which they can also link to from the Medford Arts Council website. Another organization represented in the arts collaborative working group is the Medford Arts Center Incorporated, which is known by its abbreviation, its acronym MACCI. And so we have the president of that group involved, the president of CACHE involved, the chair of the Medford Arts Council involved, and a couple of community artists as well.

[Michael Marks]: That's excellent. And maybe if you could just outline what the need is in the community for an arts center, why would a community seek out space for arts, and how does arts impact the community?

[SPEAKER_00]: Great. So the Medford Arts Council, we can't do our work without knowing what people want and need. That's one of our primary functions is to collect information, to do outreach, to be out in the community, We go to community events, city-wide events, we're represented, we're conducting surveys, as I mentioned earlier. And I would say one of the constant themes in my work is the need for an arts center. You were actually a member of, a participant in a summit that we had in the council chamber in the fall of 2015. There were over 80 people from, it was an open public event. 80 people showed up representing 40, more than 40 different community groups. And one of the dominant themes of that event was the need for a home for the arts. In the work that I do when I collect, you know, the Medford Arts Council email, and dominant question I get is, where can I go to show my work? Where can I go to see the work of Medford artists? Where can I find workspace to create my things, to rehearse? Where can I go to take classes? So right now there is no answer for that in Medford.

[Michael Marks]: So, Jim, if you could just tell us a little bit of how you got involved and what you envision in an art center. What do you think an art center would be like?

[Jim Silva]: Well, I got involved because I'm a community organizer and I'm really interested in building a community or building community. This is such a great opportunity to bring people together. And again, there's a need for this. In other communities and surrounding communities, everyone has this interest in developing this particular resource. It's appealing. It's a place where people want to go to. It's a place where you bring people together. And that to me is, that is building a community. And that's part of the makeup of a good community.

[Michael Marks]: So the general idea is for arts, but it's also a place where you can meet neighbors, make friends, and do a lot of things, not just the arts. So it's really a collaboration of not just arts, but drawing a community together.

[Jim Silva]: And again, it's keeping it here, it's keeping it local. We don't have to travel elsewhere. We can be part of this process. The scene can be developed here with people that we know or become friends with. So it's really going to be a center. It's going to be a center of the community where people can come and learn and express themselves. And that's really important.

[Michael Marks]: So I don't want to date myself, but back some years ago, when the issue came up, when there were a number of artists that were looking for space in the community, at that time, they said, let's look for an art center in the community. And at the time, we were moving from our old neighborhood schools to the centralized schools. And one of the buildings that were no longer being used as a school, the Swan School, was targeted as an art center. And there was a collaboration back at the time between some of the art groups and also local community access. That happened to fall down and never came to fruition. But I think what's happening now is there's a renewed interest. And from what I heard, that there were several sites in the community that have been looked at where we can have not only administrative offices, which I'm sure, Gary, you would appreciate, having a place to hang your hat and call the Method Arts Council, but also a place that could have workshops and trainings and performances and art exhibits. And I know one site that really piqued the interest of this new arts collaborative method was the Hegna Center, which is right next to Gillis Park, if anyone's familiar. And that, for many years, was not in city control. The city deeded out the building some time back for a purpose of helping people with developmentally disabled people in the community and outside the community. And it was just recently within the last two years that the city retained the building back. And I think it was a great opportunity on its location, its parking availability, and overall space that I believe would make a great, great area for an art center. And I know we've done a tour of the building, and I would like to hear what you perceive we can do with the building and how we can include that building as a piece of the neighborhood.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what I've seen of the building and the floor plan in our conversations in the arts collaborative working group meetings, I believe that there's a lot of potential for a very flexible, multi-purpose space that can accommodate a range of different services, provide different kinds of spaces for people to meet, for people to be artists, for people to be audiences. for people to do their work. You know, let's not forget, most artists are small businesses unto themselves. And so, you know, we believe that this facility has a real potential to accommodate all of, not just the artists, but the community needs that we've identified so far.

[Jim Silva]: That's great. Jim? And the brilliant part of this is back in the day when Swan School was looked at, there really wasn't a lot of communities that had art centers. We have the benefit of working with some of our neighbors and seeing how they, what purpose they had, how they were able to get and inspire people to come on board to develop this particular property. So that's what we're looking at as well. We have this resource that maybe we didn't have 15 years ago. So I'm very excited about that possibility, and we're doing a little bit of discovery within our group to see if we can guide the city, if we can suggest what other communities had done to develop their own art center.

[Michael Marks]: Has there been any formal outreach by any of the groups regarding surveys or information or feedback from the community in regards to what the community would like to see if we did implement an art center?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned earlier that the Medford Arts Council is currently conducting an online survey, which can be accessed through our website. This is a free, anonymous survey. And we're asking about a range of community needs. Again, our grant making, we're looking to collect this kind of information so that we can be responsive to those kinds of suggestions. We've this year decided to include a couple of questions concerning an art center in general, so it's not specifically focused on the Heckner facility itself. We're going to be running this online survey through the end of April, and we're still very much interested in collecting as much information from Medford citizens and the surrounding communities as we can. Right now, I would say I looked in advance of today's show at our current results, and 65% of the people who have completed the survey have indicated that they are in favor of Medford having its own arts center. And then another 32% are interested in that. It's a very significant trend that I expect will continue. I think that's a very positive sign of the community interest and desire for this. We've also been asking for the kinds of activities that people would like to see in an art center, regardless of whether it's this particular facility or any, and started to categorize that. We've talked about many of them already. People are really interested in being able to take classes on their own, to have their children be able to take classes there, to take classes with their children, to attend performances, to rent studio space, to see exhibits there. to hear lectures, watch movies, so we believe that an art center in the way that they're designed these days really could accommodate a wide range of cultural activities.

[Michael Marks]: And just to get to the point where there may be people that say, you know what, that's great to have an art center, but I'm homebound and I can't get out there. Are there any ideas that you know of that do community outreach and bring the arts out to the community, maybe in local parks or somewhere that may be more reachable to people that may not be able to get to a site?

[Jim Silva]: Well, the potential is there. I mean, again, this is being developed as we proceed. It's the input from the community. It's the value of what people see and what we can do with that value. So nothing is in stone. So anything's available. Again, that's why we need to have folks' input. We need to, for them to be supportive, we need to have their ideas. And we can just develop this as we go along.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to also let people know that the activities of the participating organizations so far really are trying to get arts and culture and humanities out broadly into Medford, every neighborhood, for every population. segment. So over the last two years, the Medford Arts Council has granted over $8,000 to the Medford Arts Center, to MACI. For MARV, this is the repurposed school bus that you may have seen already. You certainly will see more of it. MARV stands for Medford Arts Resource Vehicle. And we believe that that's just an amazing asset and a tremendous idea. We're really investing a lot of seed money in that project, and I just think it's going to be a fabulous citywide resource. I can't also neglect to mention the amazing work of Cachet in these activities, these public, free public events in the summer, in particular, in the early fall, primarily in Medford Square. And, you know, those are events that we also fund every year that attract and serve thousands of community members. So the last thing I would say is an initiative of the Medford Arts Council begun a couple of years ago is to bring more public art throughout the city. So very soon we hope to announce the launch of a small fundraising campaign to bring a work of public art to McDonald Park. We're very interested in finding out opportunities to bring more murals around the city. So we think there's tremendous potential to make it a more interesting, beautiful set of spaces where we can all live, work, and play.

[Michael Marks]: I mean, I've even noticed on the electrical boxes throughout the community, art displays in the electrical boxes, which I think adds so much to a community. I know back last year and the year before, Mackie was doing what they call art bombs, which they put yarn around electrical lights and so forth. And just the addition, it makes it look like, you know, someone's there, someone cares. And I know I had the chance to go to Lowell back a few years back, and I think it's something that you talked about, Gary, about how they took a park that was in a drug-infested area and built a small performance stage and really took back the park from which was considered a downtrodden park and residents didn't want to use it, they were fearful, and created with wrought iron and a small wooden stage at a minimal cost. And I said, you know what? We don't have those type of parks, thank God, that are drug infested, but it would be nice to use some of the open space we have to invite people right in the neighborhood to get involved with the yachts, and at a minimal cost. And I really would like to see that concept someday implemented, and I know you probably both would like to see the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're definitely interested in making more of our open spaces venues for arts and cultural activities. The city of Medford is really blessed with our parks and playgrounds and the greenways surrounding the Mystic River. It's a distinctive asset that Medford has that surrounding communities don't have as much of. or as high-quality spaces. So, you know, you mentioned the example of Lowell. I think there are several communities around the state that are trying to open up the recreational spaces that traditionally have just been set aside for athletics and incorporate more types of arts and cultural activities alongside them. You know, murals alongside the fencing. areas where you can have performances in open spaces. People want that. It's an attractor. It just fosters community. Physical activity has tremendous social and personal well-being benefits.

[Jim Silva]: It really is amazing because it does bring people out and you get to know your neighbors and you get to know your community. And you start to feel part of a process. And you get people involved. If they're involved with art, they're involved with other issues. And that's significant. That's the brilliance about Medford. It's such a blank slate. It can be anything we build it to be. It's just getting people involved and excited about the possibility. And art does that.

[Michael Marks]: So the next question naturally would be, we have a need for an art center in the community. We have several locations that we're looking at. And I guess the big question is, how would we fund an art center? What's the next steps? Do we go through studies, feasibility studies? Jim, I know you're an organizer in the community. I know that you were one of the members on the creation of the dog park behind the, McGlynn School on River Bend, and you were one of the people that led the drive to go out and find private funding through the Stanton Foundation that paid for a good majority, if not all, of the dog park. And what do you see your experience in that? and going forward with the art center. How are we going to move this forward? Naturally, funds are tight in the community, and there's a lot going on. We have a lot of projects, as you're probably both aware. So how do we make this happen, and what are the next steps?

[Jim Silva]: So I think what we're looking at is within our organization that we have set up, we have people who are actually looking at how other art centers were funded. We're seeing what resources are available. We're seeing how we could change from districting to private entities, what will provide this seed money. The other thing we're trying to do is we're bringing it out to the community, make people aware that there is a possibility. And that in itself helps because people are interested, they want to be involved, and they are somewhat philanthropic in that respect. Sometimes when you have these situations, when things are developed, somebody hears about it and has that information and can come forward, guide you through the process as well. I think a lot of folks who are in city government are excited about Having a center like this, because it really does put Medford in a different context. It becomes a more vibrant place to be. It attracts folks. So all of these things together, it's really about communicating. It's really about keeping people informed. And again, having people have some input into the process.

[SPEAKER_00]: The members of Arts Collaborative Medford have been reaching out to professionals who do feasibility studies, who have helped communities create and fund their own art centers. And so we're learning what the components of a proposal should be. The Arts Council, the Medford Arts Council is prepared to apply some of its discretionary funding towards covering the costs of those kinds of services. We would like to make a case to the city in the coming weeks so that we can have a sense of whether this particular facility is one that we should look further into. In the meanwhile, we're creating a new website, acmedford.org. It's a work in progress. We have an FAQ that we're going to be posting this weekend. Jim, do you want to say a little bit more about how people can give us information that way?

[Jim Silva]: Absolutely. It's currently up. It's under construction. But there is a link into an info mailbox. So if anyone has any questions or suggestions or want to be part of our process of email list, et cetera, we're doing an update as we go along. We'll have some Once we have the full Monty, we'll be able to provide people with information, but people should at least sign up for information at this point. So at acmedford.org, you'll be able to get an info and be part of the mail list. That's great.

[Michael Marks]: You know, I can't say enough. I want to thank you both for your involvement in the community. And really, I think this is a worthy initiative and I appreciate your volunteerism in moving this community forward that we all love and care for. And I think this is going to be a great asset when it does come to reality. And again, I want to thank you both. Thank you for putting it out there. Thank you for all your support. Thanks for your time. Medford has a large and dynamic arts community, with numerous individual artists and more than 25 arts and culture organizations. The Medford Arts Council funds more than 60 cultural programs throughout the city each year, and Caché's online arts and culture calendar featured over 600 events in Medford in 2017. And yet, the arts currently have no physical home in Medford. There is also a lack of space in the city for holding arts-related events and displaying the work of our artists, and organizations rely on temporary and borrowed spaces. An arts center could serve as a hub for the arts and method, and provide much-needed space for art classes, art exhibits, performances, art studios, and administrative space for art organizations. Arts and culture are important to building a strong community. Not only do the arts contribute to the attractiveness and livability of a city, they contribute directly to the strength of the local economy by supporting both our artists and our local businesses. In addition, arts education enhances student performances across all disciplines. helping to build motor skills, language, problem solving, and critical thinking skills in students. For more information, please visit www.acmethod.org. I want to thank my two guests tonight. I want to thank Gary Roberts, the Chair of Method Arts Council, and I want to thank Jim Silva, who is a local organizer, and also the creator of SMARTO, South Method Residents Together. I want to thank them for all their civic-minded involvement in the community, and I want to thank you, the viewing audience, for tuning in once again for Spotlight on Method. I thank you for your viewership, and we'll see you next show on Spotlight Method.

Michael Marks total time: 13.01 minutes total words: 2031