[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. All right. Thanks so much for joining me today. If you don't mind just introducing yourself with your name, pronouns, and a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Regina Parkinson. My pronouns are she, her, and I am the executive director of Arts Collaborative Medford. Thank you so much for having me.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right. Thank you. So if you could just answer the question that we ask everybody on the podcast, which is, what is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what do you like to eat there?
[SPEAKER_01]: What a lovely question. My favorite place currently is Deep Cuts and they have a Greek falafel wrap that I'm obsessed with.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh yeah, I went there recently for a drink. It was great. I hadn't been to the new space yet, but it was lovely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm loving it. I mean, it's right up the street, and so it's just a really great place to grab a drink after work with friends. It's been really nice. They're so chill.
[Danielle Balocca]: Nice. OK, so I'm hoping that we can talk a little bit about Arts Collaborative Medford. I know we had Laurel Siegel on, what feels like forever ago. But when she talked about the planning for this place, and it was very much still in, I think, the hopes for Medford, but you've come a long way since then. So I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about what you're doing here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, major shout out to Laurel for getting us here at all. It's very exciting that we are in the actual living stage of this place where it's taken on a life of its own. So we were able to open our doors in January of this year. And so we're on month five of operating to some extent. And right now, our main focus are studio artists and getting some workshops up and running and having events in our main gallery space.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for people who don't know, you guys are on Mystic Ave, right? 162 Mystic Ave. We face Mystic Ave. It's a really fun little neighborhood. It's changing very quickly. So our neighbors are Atlas Liquors, and then we are also attached to the same building as Theory Wellness.
[Danielle Balocca]: Um, yeah, so you said you're currently a space for artists and it sounds like there's a community component. So definitely that's something that we like to kind of talk about on the podcast is how, you know, I think we're always interested in, um, you know, sort of making a more diverse, inclusive, um, community here. And so I wonder if you could share kind of what your hopes are in terms of an impact on the, on the city of Medford.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely. Our mission is to be welcoming and accessible, and we mean that in every word, every way of those words. And we're always open to expanding what we mean by that. So most of the job that I've been doing and my board has been doing very graciously is talking to as many people as possible because I don't think you can build a community space without knowing who your community is. So it's been absolutely lovely and wonderful to be having those conversations and figuring out sort of the needs that are answered to some degree or can be answered better and how this space is gonna be able to fill those needs. Yeah, what have you been finding out? Well, um, people love books. That's one thing. So, um, the library is new in our city and Sam Sednick over the library is doing such a wonderful job with their programming. And so we have had conversations just about their maker space and what they're able to host, what we're able to host. We're also finding a lot of demand for adult programming in the evenings and on weekends, things that people can come and do. There's a really big need to learn, and that's really awesome. We're going to be trying to kick off some kids programming. There's always a need for that. I see birthday parties in our future. Interactive things, I also have a desire to get more musicians in here. We happen to have a space that is really welcoming to sound. And so it's not just the visual arts, which I think I'm trained in, and we can get into that, but it's also, it's every medium under that larger umbrella of what arts and community can be. So music, literature, and all the visual kind of components.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, you kind of just like it was a good lead in there. But can you tell us a little bit how you got into this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I would love to. I first moved to Medford directly out of college, which was UMass Amherst. And I moved into my brother's apartment on Princeton Street in Medford. And I had a degree in art history and was like, I'm going to use this. And worked at Diesel Cafe, shout out Diesel Cafe, and started curating on the walls of the cafe pretty quickly. and figuring out that I could help local artists. And so that's just been my through line ever since. So we're going on like 14 years now of that. I continue to do that in different varying capacities. I did leave Boston for a little while to like spread wings. And that led me to some really great opportunities, one of which was living in New Orleans for a few years. And I think that's a really rich cultural environment that if anyone has a chance to get into, I recommend. And being there really made me feel like this was my home. So I came back and I got a master's degree in nonprofit leadership. And I worked at the South Boston-based nonprofit Artists for Humanity for about three years in a capacity of exhibitions and art sales. and then I came over here when this opportunity arose and it felt like it was perfectly poised both for Arts Collaborative Medford and for me to take on this next kind of journey of the Medford art scene together. Wow.
[Danielle Balocca]: I also went to college in the Pioneer Valley, so yeah, familiar place. It's wonderful. Yeah, great. So, yeah, I guess I'm wondering like how, you know, like it's really nice to hear about kind of what you're bringing here. If there's any kind of like mark that you want to kind of put on this or how you're how you're bringing all that experience and knowledge to arts collaborative medford yeah i because of
[SPEAKER_01]: what I've done in the past and I can talk a little bit about an example. I just really value putting the artist first and I have a very much style of listening and that before leading. And so that's what I'm going to continue to do here. When I was in New Orleans with a good friend of mine, we started an arts fair that was a reaction to what we saw happening in New Orleans and in the larger global art scene, which is it's big blue ticket items. It's people that aren't original to New Orleans coming in and nothing's affordable, nothing's accessible for artists who are actually trying to make a living, and so we created a fair where we paid our artists to come into the fair. Everyone got paid. For some people in there, it was their first time making money off their art, and it was really just about empowering and lifting those artists up specifically. And I'm just, I'm all about locality. And I think that it starts at home and you lift up the people at home and then you see what happens from there. And you do that with network and connection and listening and empathy.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh yeah, that sounds like a real crossover between art and non-profit leadership, like you're saying. I really appreciate that perspective. Yeah, and can you tell us how artists that have their studios here, how does that work? How are you getting them? What's that like for them?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'll give a shout out to Susan Altman, who is our current board president and did a lot of the legwork before I even arrived in this role to find amazing artists to kind of kick off what I call our first cohort of artists. So we currently have eight artists. in Medford, from Medford, have been in Medford before, or very close by. So everyone is a local artist. And they are all different mediums and all different levels of how they go about their work, but they're very active. And so we have a pretty active cohort of artists right now that will continue to expand and grow. And it's kind of yet to be seen exactly what happens, but that's the exciting part because we get to decide, they get to decide, all of us together. And it's been really fun getting to know them and starting some programming with them.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and you mentioned like relationships with the library. Are there any other kind of like stakeholders in Medford that have been like helpful in supporting your work?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, absolutely. I would say Tufts University right off the bat, Rocco DiRico over there and working with the School of Museum of Fine Arts. So next Friday, the 24th, we will have the School of Museum of Fine Arts Graphic Novel Club here with nine original graphic novels. And we're so excited to start building partnerships like that with the school, so that those artists know that this place is accessible to them. We also, I've talked to Event Them, which is another great event spot in Medford. Shout out to V. Theory Wellness has been wonderful. I mean, we're really here because they wanted us to be, and that feels really special. And they're getting to know the community too. So there's a lot of people involved in town that are making this possible.
[Danielle Balocca]: And so if somebody is listening to the podcast and they're like, I want to check that space out, what do you recommend to them?
[SPEAKER_01]: We are open for public viewing hours Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. I also recommend keeping an eye on our website. and our social media platforms because we have events that happen outside of those hours. Those things can be workshops, they can be public events that are free, and we love for people to come in and drop by. Um, anytime I'm here, the doors are open, so you can always shoot an email through that website form and just let me know you want to pop in, give us a call and I won't bite. Great.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Thank you. And, uh, we can put some of those, some of that information in our show notes for people. Um, is there anything else that you want to make sure that we know about?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that if you're listening to this and this is really exciting for you, I would love to talk to you. We're still growing and we're at a capacity where we're taking in as much input as we can. So if you want to attend a workshop and there's something you want to see on our calendar, if you have a skill that you want to share and you want to teach people how to grow a garden in their backyard. If you are a musician and you want to play here, I could go on and on. But if this is resonating with you, definitely reach out. We want to make sure that this place is of the community and for the community and by the community. And so we're doing all we can to make that possible. And you are definitely a huge part of that.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I'm wondering if there's any other kind of special opportunities for for Medford or local artists.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I actually am really excited about one that we're going to be announcing pretty soon. We've been working on it. It's possible you've heard about it, but there is a woman named Louise Muster-Choate who was involved in this project since 2017. She passed away in 2020, but this wouldn't be here without her. So we've built a scholarship in her name under the premise that we're going to give that money to artists to be in our space for free. So in the next couple weeks, we'll be launching the application for that and I'm hoping to fill one to two spots with emerging local artists who are in need of a space and wouldn't be able to afford it on their own. And they'll be in here totally subsidized off of her name, which is a really, really nice way to honor her.
[Danielle Balocca]: That sounds like a nice tribute. I'm also wondering about other ways for the community to contribute to a place like this. So do you take donations? Do you do fundraising?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, we do all of that. If you are in a place to give, we are so grateful for your support. please reach out and we would love to find a way to cultivate that with you. If you are someone that has lots of art supplies in your basement and in your closet that you're not using, you can hand those over too. That's another announcement I'll be making to open that up. If you're a local artist and you have small pieces you want to sell, I have these beautiful glass display cases that I fill with local works from Medford artists that are under $200. Come bring that by. So there's a lot of ways for people to give, not just monetarily, but also their time. And we would love to meet you and talk about it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you so much. Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman. Music is made by Hendrik Irenys. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites!