Arts + Policy

Boch Center getting back on its feet

Federal aid finally arrives, helping with reopening

By Josiah Spaulding Jr. Arts and Culture 0 Comments Jun 30, 2021

MASSACHUSETTS’ CULTURAL economy stands among the industries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent lifting of coronavirus safety restrictions means arts, entertainment, and cultural institutions can finally begin the difficult task of rebuilding audiences. This requires significant financial investments of financial capital and time, but there is hope. After 14-plus months of quarantine and(...)

Rebuilding the arts sector without a vow of poverty

COVID-19 provides opportunity to rethink the way arts are funded

By Lily Robinson Arts and creativity 0 Comments Jun 29, 2021

LIKE MANY CREATIVES, Vanessa Calixto works in the arts to fill her heart and in another field to fill her bank account. It’s a tradeoff she accepts to do the work she loves, directing the Worcester-based creative group El Salón. El Salón is a group of organizers and creatives that creates spaces for BIPOC (Black,(...)

Mass Reboot: The arts sector

COVID caused a cultural depression in the state

By Bruce Mohl Arts and creativity 0 Comments Jun 24, 2021

THE BOCH CENTER and the Dorchester Art Project are arts organizations from very different worlds, but both were hit hard by COVID and are now struggling to find their way back to some sense of normalcy post-pandemic. The Boch Center, with its massive Wang Theater the setting for major touring theater productions visiting Boston, shut(...)

Now not the time to hike PILOT payments for arts organizations

The creative economy faces enough challenges already following pandemic devastation

By Craig Coogan 0 Comments Jun 7, 2021

BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, arts nonprofits in Boston were a potent driver of the local economy, supporting at least 45,889 full time jobs, generating over $1.3 billion in spending, and bringing in $34.9 million in local tax revenue annually. But over the last year, they’ve sustained devastating economic losses. A survey of 314 arts organizations in(...)

Senate proposal pares back film tax credit

Backs more spending in Mass., lower subsidies for stars

By Bruce Mohl Arts and Culture, Film tax credit 0 Comments May 11, 2021

THE SENATE BUDGET committee is proposing major changes to the film tax credit, setting the stage for a major clash with the House over the lucrative incentives the state offers to film and television production companies to shoot in Massachusetts. The House voted 160-0 in April to keep the existing film tax credit in place(...)

Arts programming in Boston schools linked to attendance, engagement gains

Study finding follows decade-long effort to boost arts in district

By Michael Jonas 0 Comments May 10, 2021

A NEW STUDY says an effort to increase arts programming in the Boston Public Schools has helped boost student attendance and promote student and parent engagement with schools, outcomes that arts supporters say provide added rationale for maintaining or enhancing the role of arts in the schools. For students receiving arts programming, the study found(...)

Stark differences make many Mass. communities neighbors in name only

Municipal boundaries often separate cities and towns with wide demographic differences

By Garrett Dash Nelson 0 Comments May 1, 2021

IN 1847, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ordered that a line be drawn from the mouth of the Shawsheen River, down along its eastern bank, and “thence in a straight line westerly, to a marked stone in the wall … by Jacob Barnard’s house.” This formed the first two legs of the boundary of the new(...)

House follows Mariano’s lead on film tax credit

Budget amendment does away with sunset provision

By Bruce Mohl Film tax credit, Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Apr 26, 2021

THE HOUSE, getting in line behind a high priority of Speaker Ron Mariano, unanimously passed a budget amendment on Monday that would do away with the planned sunset of the film tax credit program at the end of next year. The vote was 160-0, with no one in the chamber dissenting despite a recent report(...)

Maverick Square, which honors state’s first slave owner, should be renamed

Diverse Boston crossroads should not carry the stain of ignominious history

By Annamarie Hoey 0 Comments Apr 17, 2021

SHE CAME TO the window around 9 a.m., singing in a loud, high-pitched voice. Her words were foreign, but they communicated a sense of sorrow so powerful that John Josselyn was left shaken. “Going out to her,” Josselyn later recounted in his journal, he was met with “a great deal of respect” from a striking(...)

Tax breaks not on House budget chief’s radar

Michlewitz served on tax expenditure commission

By Bruce Mohl Massachusetts Legislature 0 Comments Apr 14, 2021

THE HOUSE’S TOP budget official said his spending plan for fiscal 2022 doesn’t address outdated or ineffective tax breaks highlighted in a recent commission report and he doesn’t plan to push for separate legislation to deal with them. Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, served on the(...)