Boston Launches Cultural Planning Process

Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration is preparing the canvas for an 18-month citywide “cultural planning process” to put the arts at the heart of the city’s future for at least the next decade, for artists, residents, and visitors alike. Under incoming Boston chief of arts and culture Julie Burros, the process can consider anything from festivals to public art, and from easier permitting for neighborhood arts events to affordable housing for artists who might otherwise move somewhere else to work. Everything is on the table.

“Some people won’t quite understand at first, but as they start to see public art show up on the street, as they see movement in different avenues, they’ll be, ‘Wow, this is incredible,’” said Walsh, who made the arts a centerpiece of his campaign. “They might not realize it at first, but we’ll tie it all in as time goes on.”

The Barr Foundation and the Klarman Family Foundation, both Boston-based and already teaming up on arts funding, will fund the process, estimated to cost somewhere between $250,000-$600,000.

“I think this process is going to be really fundamental to the way Boston looks and feels for the next 10 years,” says steering committee member Eve Ewing, a writer and poet from Roxbury.

Organizers expect to reach out widely to artists, arts leaders, patrons, audiences, and the public at large.