What is Cultural Life & the Arts?
The Cultural Life & the Arts sector reflect a community’s cultural vibrancy –it includes all of its diverse ethnic traditions and festivals, opportunities for art and music making and enjoyment, venues for the performing and visual arts, architectural heritage, museums and public art. Enhanced by the creative expression of community members, the sector also includes a broad range of “creative” jobs in commercial and industrial design, architecture, writing and publishing, historic sites and tours, museums and related tourism.
THE CULTURAL LIFE & THE ARTS SECTOR IN BOSTON
Boston is home to a range of cultural organizations and schools of music and art, film festivals, a lively literary community, heritage sites and public art placed over almost four centuries. These resources are fundamentally based in Boston’s ever evolving array of unique cultural experiences – food, music, dance, landscape and urban design –that draw on and express Boston’s exceptional degree of cultural diversity and countless settings and opportunities for varied levels of engagement and participation.
The Bay State’s cultural resources are linked by a new advocacy organization, MASSCreative, which “empowers creative organizations and the public with a powerful voice that brings the attention and resources necessary to build vibrant, creative communities.”
Boston’s cultural wealth includes significant institutions as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Museum of African American History, Company ONE, Huntington Theater, OrigiNation Cultural Center, Boston Center for the Arts, José Mateo Ballet Theatre, the Actor’s Shakespeare Project and the Boston Ballet. It also includes renowned schools of art education, from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the Museum School, the New England Conservatory, Berklee School of Music and a robust K-12 arts education programs in the Boston Public Schools and numerous arts-oriented after-school programs.
Boston is also enriched by its many innovative dance and theater companies, nonprofit theaters and performance venues in clubs, film festivals, restaurants and community venues such as Strand Theater in Dorchester, Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in the South End, Spontaneous Celebrations in Jamaica Plan and youth-serving and pre-professional programs such as DotArt in Dorchester, Zumix in East Boston and Artists for Humanity in South Boston.
Boston’s holiday spectacles First Night and the 4th of July and frequent “art in the park” performances attract audiences from near and far. These include such celebrations as the Chinese New Year, North End Italian saints’ festivals and feasts, celebration of the Three King’s Day in Villa Victoria, Chinatown’s August Moon Festival, the annual African Festival on City Hall Plaza, Puerto Rican Parade and Festival and Caribbean Carnival, the Diwali festival of lights and Dorchester’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
The Asian American Film Festival, Boston Latino International Film Festival, Roxbury Film Festivals and special offerings at the Museum of Fine Art also express the city and region’s evolving cultural vibrancy.
More than 16,000 registered artists live in Greater Boston – some in specially designated developments – along with design professionals such as architects and graphic designers.
Boston’s vibrant landscape contributes significantly to making Boston a destination for creative-class workers, families, conventioneers and tourists from across the world.