"Boston Creates" to hold town hall on June 2

Mayor Martin J. Walsh today announced the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture will hold the Boston Creates Town Hall on June 2, 2015 at English High School in Jamaica Plain. The Boston Creates Town Hall is the first large public event in Boston’s cultural planning process, designed to create a blueprint for arts and culture in the City of Boston. The community is invited to attend and share their opinions and ideas about the City’s cultural priorities.  Attendees are encouraged to register for the event in advance at http://bostoncreatestownhall.eventbrite.com.

Boston Creates will engage residents, visitors, and stakeholders to help local government identify cultural needs, opportunities, and resources and to think strategically about how these resources can help the community to achieve its cultural goals. The process will create a ten-year plan to prioritize, coordinate, and align public and private resources to strengthen cultural vitality over the long term.

“Boston Creates is an opportunity for everyone in the city to share their vision of how arts and culture fit into our future,” said Mayor Walsh. “We encourage everyone to come to the Town Hall to help us build upon the cultural assets of our City, and be a part of the plan that will position Boston as a municipal arts leader.”

The Boston Creates Town Hall will kick off the community engagement process.  It will be followed by interviews with individuals and groups to lay out a comprehensive map of Boston’s cultural assets, including its variety of arts organizations, festivals, and public art locations. Community Engagement Team Members are still needed for this process, and individuals interested in volunteering can apply at www.bostoncreates.org.

“Boston Creates depends upon community participation for its success,” said Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture for the City of Boston. “We need to hear from as many voices as possible so we can create a plan that represents the unique identity of the city.  Over the next year, we will be reaching out to audiences across Boston, and the Town Hall is the first step.”

In partnership with the City of Boston, the Barr Foundation and the Klarman Family Foundation have provided the funding necessary for the cultural planning process. The Cultural Plan is expected to be complete in June 2016. For more information, visit www.bostoncreates.org. Social media users can engage with the process on Twitter using #BostonCreates or by following on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ArtsinBoston