Chicago Official Named Boston’s New Arts Chief

After an eye-opening campaign pledge followed by a six-month national search, Mayor Martin J. Walsh has chosen the city’s new Chief of Arts and Culture. In the new cabinet-level post, Julie Burros will be charged with enacting Walsh’s plan to put the creative sector front and center in Boston’s future. Burros, 49, who will be sworn in to the $125,000-a-year post in December, will tackle everything from creating a broad cultural plan to the nuts and bolts of making the city an easier place for artists to live and work.

The idea behind the appointment is that a strong arts sector yields cultural, economic, and quality-of-life benefits that touch everyone in the city. “It’s going to be huge,” said Walsh, who made appointing the city’s first cabinet-level arts chief in years a key campaign promise. “This is one area that crosses over almost every single department of city government and every single piece of city life.”

Burros will have a complex set of tasks, Walsh said. “I think the biggest pieces she’s going to do, one is to develop a Boston cultural master plan, that’s probably the most important, and then a separate piece is creating an innovative financial plan,” the mayor said. “This is something I want her to be successful at in the first couple of years. I want this position to be self-sustainable by the end of my first term.”

Walsh promised she’ll have the resources she needs here, but said foundation and other outside funding will be integral to long-term success.

The new Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture will start with a staff of nine and an annual budget of $1.3 million, most going to salaries, officials said. Burros will also oversee the Fund for Boston Neighborhoods, at about $1.1 million, funded largely by contributions from organizations and individuals and used for events such as First Night.